'Smart Pole' Selected as the Best Innovation Policy for the Seoul Creative Award

'2021 Seoul Creative Awards' Selects 39 Entries... 7 Citizen Proposals, 32 Public Official Proposals and Projects Awarded
'Vaccine QR Code Display on Smartphone Lock Screen' and 'Installation of Sediment Micro Filter' Among Public Official Proposals and Projects Selected

Smart Pole (S-Pole)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 17th, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced the selection of 39 projects awarded the ‘2021 Seoul Creative Award,’ given to those who contributed to the development of city administration through creative proposals and project execution.

In the innovation policy category, the ‘Smart Pole (S-Pole)’ project led by Team Leader Lee Woo-jong and Officer Lee Sang-beom of the Seoul Smart City Policy Office was highly evaluated for creativity, effectiveness, and scalability, and was selected as the grand prize winner.

The Smart Pole is a new urban infrastructure that integrates various road facilities such as traffic lights and street lamps, which are complexly installed throughout the roads, and adds smart technologies like public Wi-Fi and intelligent CCTV. It solves problems caused by individually installed road facilities, such as inefficient management, deterioration of urban aesthetics, and inconvenience to citizens’ passage.

In the ‘Creative Proposal’ civil servant category, the grand prize was awarded to Fire and Disaster Headquarters Fire Officers Lee Hoe-young and Bae Jae-cheol for their joint proposal to display vaccination information patterns (QR codes) on smartphone lock screens. This proposal aims to prevent cases where patients with fever or other symptoms fail to be transported to hospitals promptly due to concerns about COVID-19 infection. By displaying a QR code on the smartphone lock screen to verify vaccination status, medical personnel can quickly determine the appropriate hospital for emergency patients regardless of their consciousness.

In the ‘Creative Proposal’ citizen category, the grand prize was awarded to citizen Park Young-shin (24) for the proposal to improve the ‘Kkum Namu Card’ affiliated store inquiry method. The ‘Kkum Namu Card,’ mainly used by children at risk of food insecurity, previously allowed users to check affiliated store lists through the Shinhan Card website, but the address and phone number information was inaccurate and listed in a way that made it difficult to locate stores. Park proposed improving this by displaying affiliated stores on a map and creating a dedicated application (app) to find affiliated stores. This proposal was immediately reflected on the Shinhan Card website, improving the ability to easily find affiliated stores by district and neighborhood through the map, and the dedicated app ‘Seoul Kkum Namu Card’ was developed and is currently in operation.

In the ‘Proposal Implementation’ category, the grand prize was awarded to Waterworks Headquarters Officers Lee Geum-jae and Jang Hyun-soon for the ‘Installation of Fine Mesh Screens at Sedimentation Basin Outflow Points.’ To find the optimal installation locations, pilot installations were conducted to select sedimentation basin outflow points where fine biological pre-removal and mesh screen maintenance are easy. The fine mesh screens remove 100% of fine (small) organisms, allowing the water treatment process to be eased, which is expected to save about 258 million KRW annually in chemical and power costs.

Lee Won-mok, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Citizen Cooperation Bureau, said, “If citizens and public officials solve inconveniences they encounter in daily life through creative methods, Seoul can develop into a better city than it is now,” adding, “We will ensure that the Seoul Creative Award continues to serve as a bridge to encourage citizens’ proposals and public officials’ work innovations.”

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