GIST Hosts AI·IoT Hackathon Startup Competition

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) announced on the 21st that it held the ‘Artificial Intelligence & Internet of Things Hackathon,’ a general public startup program leading the 4th Industrial Revolution, online from the 14th to the 19th.

This competition was an idea prototype production contest applying artificial intelligence and Internet of Things technologies, the next-generation nurturing education themes at GIST, in response to the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The event was hosted by the GIST Startup Promotion Center and co-organized by Open Lab Co., Ltd. and Gwangju University Startup Support Group.

The final evaluation of this hackathon (HACK + Marathon) style competition was held on the 19th.

As a result of the evaluation, the Grand Prize was awarded to the Eokkaedongmu Team (Chonnam National University, a video recognition service for the visually impaired (app - Garasani)), the Excellence Award to the Samkimtek Team (Hansung University, production of a neighborhood intersection guardian), and the Merit Award to the Hwitturumatturu Team (Chosun University, smart wild boar detector).

The Grand Prize team received the GIST Director of Science and Technology Application Research Group Award and a prize of 1 million KRW, while the Excellence and Merit Award teams were awarded the GIST Startup Promotion Center Director Award and prizes of 500,000 KRW and 300,000 KRW, respectively.

The Eokkaedongmu Team’s prototype involved developing an application for the visually impaired that provides product names through video recognition and guides product locations via voice recognition. They differentiated themselves from existing similar applications by offering users product choice through the app, enabling use without others’ assistance, and ensuring privacy protection by not transmitting videos to servers, which earned them high scores.

Jo Byung-kwan, Director of the GIST Startup Promotion Center, said, “This competition was an opportunity to quickly derive creative and innovative startup ideas and verify them through prototype production.” He added, “GIST will continuously nurture the artificial intelligence (AI) field and actively support the excellent startup items of the teams awarded in the recently held Makethon competition and this hackathon to be connected to startups.”