We present the current research activities of the Center for the Exploration of the Origin of the Universe, a center established at Seoul National University with the Creative Research Initiative program. Our activities focus on observational studies of distant objects such as gamma-ray bursts, quasars, and proto-cluster of galaxies, but we also carry out other observational and theoretical studies in related topics. We also developed a new instrument, Camera for Quasars at Early Universe (CQUEAN) in collaboration with Kyunghee University group, and have secured observing facilities such as UKIRT and McDonald 2.1m observatory. Our research highlights include results such as the discovery of high redshift quasars and gamma ray bursts, the discovery of tidal disruption event at z=0.38 and peculiar gamma ray burst events, analysis of proto-clusters of galaxies, the discovery of brown dwarfs, and development of CQUEAN and its usage at the McDonald observatory.