Sogang Trend Science Center,
Changing the Paradigm of Trends
Sogang Trend Science Center (STSC) was officially established on July 27, 2021 through the Steering Committee of the Media Convergence Research Institute and the Research Committee of the Office of Research Promotion of Sogang University Research & Business Development Foundation (SUR&BF). With Professor Yoon Kak of the School of Media, Arts, and Science as the Director of the Center, Professor Yoo Hyun-jae, head of Communications, and Professor Cho Jae-hee, head of Media & Entertainment, will participate as advisory professors. A number of researchers in the master's and doctorate programs will also participate, including senior researchers such as Dr. Min Byung-woon (BA ‘02, Ph.D. ‘18) and Ph.D Candidate Jung Hwi-kwan (Master ‘12, Ph.D. ’19). In the future, the Center will also include undergraduate researchers to further raise the level of expertise.
The opening ceremony was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s severity. Nevertheless, Director Yoon Kak of the Center stated that its establishment carries several meanings. First, it introduced the concept of “trend science”. Derived from “data science”, which interprets big data to discover hidden meanings, trend science was named as such because it analyzes trends based on big data and interprets the hidden meanings behind these trends. Professor Yoon said, “Of course, analyzing trends based on big data is not new. However, we are the first to conceptualize the field and coin it as “trend science”.” He also expressed hope that the members of STSC will be recognized as “trend scientists” in the future.
Professor Yoon went on to add, “Recently, trend-related terms have been used indiscriminately, which has the huge side effect of deceiving the market and consumers. Through our Center's research and results, we have laid the foundation to change the paradigm of trends. In other words, we aim to shift the paradigm to trends that can inform long-term perspectives rather than trends biased only toward short-term outlooks. To this end, STSC plans to carry out robust activities focused on “sustainable trends”, “reverse trends”, and “data-driven trends”.
STSC plans to share the insights of trend-related experts by holding regular trend seminars, as well as by reporting on sustainable trends and publishing books and papers on reverse trends. In addition, it plans to form an on- and off-campus expert pool in line with the Center’s goals to enable networking, provide mentoring opportunities to current students, and actively develop corporate projects and industry-university cooperation.
Meanwhile, STSC plans to recruit undergraduate and graduate researchers every semester. Various up-to-date news related to the Center can be found on the website (http://stsc.sogang.ac.kr).
