Hyundai Motor and Kia Win Top Prize on Inventors' Day for 'Autonomous Vehicle Map Assistance Device'

Hyundai Motor Kia, 2021 'Invention Day' Event Grand Prize Winner Photo (from left: Seong Ju-young, Senior Researcher; Oh Ji-won, Senior Researcher; Park Jung-guk, Vice President of R&D Headquarters; Lee Geun-seok, Senior Researcher; Kim Nam-gyun, Senior Researcher)

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Hyundai Motor Company and Kia announced on the 24th that they held the 'Invention Day' event to encourage creative research and development (R&D) activities among R&D talents and to reward outstanding patent developers.

Marking its 11th year, Invention Day is one of the representative R&D knowledge competitions in the domestic automotive industry. The event was held on the 20th at the Namyang Research Center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province.

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia have been selecting innovative ideas derived from new technologies in the R&D sector and the development process of mass-produced vehicles to file patents and provide awards. Various innovative technologies discovered here have contributed to enhancing the product competitiveness of Hyundai and Kia vehicles and strengthening the future competitiveness of the mobility industry.

This year, among approximately 3,100 in-house invention ideas filed as patents by Hyundai and Kia last year, a total of 19 patent proposals in future core technology fields such as autonomous driving, UAM (Urban Air Mobility), next-generation batteries, and electrified powertrains were shortlisted as first-round candidates, and among them, the top 8 were finally selected as outstanding inventions.

On the day of the event, the honor of receiving awards went to Senior Researcher Namgyun Kim, Senior Researcher Geunseok Lee (Grand Prize), Researcher Yuri Oh, Senior Researcher Minjae Lee (Excellence Award), Senior Researcher Yeonho Kim, Senior Researcher Gyeyoung Ahn, Senior Manager Seokjae Yeon, and Team Leader Juhan Kim (Encouragement Award).

Senior Researcher Namgyun Kim presented a positioning assistance device that corrects map errors for urban autonomous vehicles, and Senior Researcher Geunseok Lee showcased a UAM tilt-rotor aircraft design.

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia also operate the 'i-LAB (Intellectual Property - Innovation/Invention/Idea Laboratory),' an incubating project where in-house inventors, patent officers, and specialized patent firms collaborate to proactively build promising patent portfolios in core technology fields such as future mobility.

At this year's Invention Day event, among the approximately 130 i-LAB activities conducted last year, two were selected as outstanding i-LAB activities and awarded: next-generation battery development (Senior Researcher Jooyoung Sung) and high-performance control technology development for eco-friendly vehicles (Senior Researcher Jiwon Oh).

A company official stated, “Through various R&D knowledge competitions such as Invention Day, we actively provide opportunities for researchers to freely propose creative ideas, while continuously striving to discover core new technologies that will contribute to the development of the automotive industry including future mobility and to expand global R&D intellectual assets.”

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