For Dae Hee Lee, the difference between his Korean and American educations is defined by service. Lee, 35, earned a bachelor's degree in English language and literature from Soongsil University in Seoul, Korea. Since coming to the United States, he's earned two master's degrees -- in linguistics and computer science - and soon will earn his doctorate in linguistics, all from MSU.
Lee's experience at Soongsil was quite different from what he encountered at MSU. "The education itself is the same, with very similar programs," said Lee. The difference, he said, boils down to the services provided by American universities that Korean educational institutions do not provide.
"The common services - guides, reading novels - are available through the community in Korea," said Lee. "But the specialized readings - academic books and journals - were not easily accessible... I had to contact people personally to get help - it was a personal relationship, not an official service," he said.
One of the main reasons Lee chose MSU for graduate study was its commitment to serving disabled students. "I used information such as the reading service to make my choice," Lee said, adding, "of course, I didn't ignore the quality of the (linguistics) department."
Lee has utilized many services provided by MSU and its surrounding communities, including taped books, individual readers, technology and the Capital Area Transportation Authority's Spec-Tran services. "My defense (for the computer science master's degree) was done in the Tech Room at OPHS," Lee said.
Lee has also focused on learning adaptive technologies available at the university. He began with screen-reading programs for DOS-based machines, then Braille embossers and finally OCR scanners and recognition systems. "I used character recognition systems very heavily to scan books and articles, which I later translated into Braille to read," he said.
Reading those volumes in Braille was possible at first through printing out Braille-embossed pages. However, Lee designed a device that would allow him to save the translated text onto a disk or his computer's hard drive. The Braille Lite 40, a device manufactured by Blazie Engineering, has 4 MB RAM and allows Lee to archive and retrieve translated documents to read line by line in Braille without cumbersome printouts. Lee began working for Blazie, a Maryland-based company, five years ago while working on his master's degree. It is but one step toward his eventual goal of creating adaptive technologies that will benefit people worldwide.
"I looked at the software (at MSU) and thought of Korea," said Lee. "Blind individuals didn't have such programs in Korea, so we couldn't use computers."
So Lee developed a DOS-based bilingual screen reading program. He introduced it in a May 1991 adaptive technology conference in Korea. It was at this conference where Lee met officials from Blazie Engineering who expressed an interest in his program. Lee began working for Blazie as a full-time employee in 1991, effecting a delicate balancing act among work, school and family.
Lee is married with three boys. His oldest, Jae-young, 13, was born in Korea. Jae-gook, 5, and Jae-sung, 3, were both born in the United States. Lee credits his wife, Gem-hee, with helping him maintain this balance. "Without her I could not achieve my work in academe," he said.
Lee and his family enjoy spending time together playing games and attending church. Religion is very important to Lee and his wife, who met in a Seoul church. As for the future, Lee is not excluding any possibilities.
"I'd like to work for Blazie, but I'm also interested in working in an academic field as a professor of linguistics," he said. Uncertain of whether he and his family will return to Korea or stay in the States, Lee is certain of his commitment to creating adaptive technology. "I want to make contributions to Korean society," he said, "including blind individuals and other handicappers."