Donggurami Foundation (formerly Ahn Cheol-soo Foundation, Chairman Kwon Chi-jung) held the ‘2022 Offrise Contest’ Demo Day and announced the winners on the 9th at D.CAMP in Gangnam, Seoul (space sponsored by the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs).
The prestigious Grand Prize was awarded to △ITDA (Itda). ITDA is a group of young people with hearing disabilities who presented a solution idea for an indoor sound and voice AI recognition alert system for the hearing impaired, receiving the highest score from the judges. The grand prize winner was awarded a prize of 20 million KRW.
Additionally, the Excellence Award went to △For the Planet with a prize of 10 million KRW, and the Merit Awards were given to three teams: △Prism, △Wenure, and △Seoul Emergency Exit Guidance Light, each receiving 5 million KRW.
Hosted by Donggurami Foundation and organized by Technovation Partners, the '2022 Offrise Contest' carried the slogan Good Mobility, No more Disability and publicly solicited idea solutions for about a month starting in August.
A total of 250 teams participated in the contest under the themes of ‘Good Mobility,’ aimed at improving the quality of life for neighbors with mobility difficulties, and a free theme for solving social problems. Through the first round of judging, 10 teams were selected to receive golden tickets to the finals. These teams refined and advanced their ideas through an ‘Idea Solution Coaching Workshop’ and presented them at the Demo Day, where the final winners were chosen.
The final judging at the Demo Day was attended by a panel of seven expert judges from various fields including mobility for the disabled and social issues: Professor Lee Geun-min from Daegu University’s Department of Rehabilitation Engineering, a leader in rehabilitation engineering; Partner Yoon Doo-won from K-Ground Ventures, a VC specializing in IP and technology commercialization investment; and Center Director Kim Pil-sung from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, among others. The judging panel evaluated the final submitted idea proposals and Demo Day presentations based on impact, urgency, innovation, and feasibility to select the winning teams.
ITDA, the Grand Prize winner, said, “As a person with a hearing disability myself, I really wanted to participate in this contest,” and added, “I hope to create a beautiful world where many people with disabilities can utilize the technologies they devise.”
Ahn Cheol-soo, a contributor to Donggurami Foundation, emphasized the importance of ideas guaranteeing freedom of movement in his congratulatory speech, stating, “Donggurami Foundation is likely the first in Korea to adopt the prize method that supports the best results,” and “It is very important for society to guarantee freedom of movement, and I hope the ideas gathered through this year’s 2022 Offrise theme ‘Good Mobility’ will truly help society.”
At the Demo Day, a special award selected by honorary judge actress Lee So-byeol was presented to the Nelwihaeng team (which proposed the development of an assistive application to accompany visually impaired people during shopping). Actress Lee So-byeol played the role of Byeol, a hearing-impaired character, in the tvN drama ‘Our Blues’ earlier this year and is a deaf actress herself. In addition, awards were given through a national support event, and the ideas of the selected teams can be viewed on the official website.
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