Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology Hosts 'Startup Idea Competition'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (President Kim Gi-seon·GIST) announced on the 4th that it held the ‘2020 Startup Idea Competition’.

The Startup Idea Competition is a startup program that has been recruiting student startup teams through a business announcement every early year since 2013 to lead the 4th Industrial Revolution, discover excellent startup items, and spread startup culture.

It is a program like a festival to foster the university’s startup culture, designed so that freshmen entering GIST can easily propose and validate their ideas without burden.

This year’s GIST Startup Idea Competition was conducted through online non-face-to-face presentation judging due to the impact of COVID-19.

In March, startup ideas in all fields that can be commercialized were publicly recruited targeting GIST undergraduate and graduate students.

By the 15th of last month, a total of 35 teams’ startup ideas were received. After document screening, 17 business items were selected, and on the 3rd, the final 4 teams were selected and presentation judging was conducted.

The grand prize was awarded to the chemistry student team of Jang Hyeong-jun and Lee Ho-yeon, who submitted the idea of a ‘sensor for detecting sugar and uric acid that does not require measuring equipment’.

The excellence award went to mechanical engineering student Lee Jae-jun for ‘Comprehensive Electric Motor Solution,’ the first encouragement award to mechanical engineering student Jo Min-jae for ‘Development of FMCW 4D LiDAR with high transmittance in harsh environments,’ and the second encouragement award to Convergence Technology Institute student Jeong Hyun-seung for ‘High-performance electrode for high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells,’ respectively.

Starting with this competition, GIST plans to provide opportunities to produce and validate startup ideas in the form of initial prototypes by linking various programs that can advance startup ideas, such as the mock startup program (GIST Sprint for Startup) and the Innopolis Campus project.

In addition, among the startup ideas proposed in the competition, those related to artificial intelligence (AI) will be linked with startup programs conducted by Gwangju Metropolitan City and the GIST Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and a separate startup camp will be operated for students who want additional consultation and mentoring.

Jo Byeong-gwan, head of the Startup Promotion Center, said, “This event aims to foster a healthy student startup culture and actively recruit innovative startup ideas to support creating strong items through additional business linkage,” adding, “In the future, GIST will take the lead in discovering challenging startup teams through operating distinctive startup programs leading the 4th industrial field.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.