The 1st Astronomical Space AI Competition 1st Place Goes to Sangmyung University Team

Detecting Solar Activity with Artificial Intelligence

The team from Sangmyung University took first place in the 1st Astronomy and Space AI Competition jointly hosted by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and the KAIST Software Education Center.

A total of 176 teams and 287 participants, composed of undergraduate and graduate students, took part in this competition held as part of efforts to expand the use of artificial intelligence technology in the field of space science and technology. Among the 30 teams that advanced to the finals, the top 5 teams were honored with awards. The first-place team received the Director’s Award from the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and a prize of 3 million won, while the second-place KAIST team was awarded the KAIST Software Education Center Director’s Award, among others.

Preliminary participants watched online educational content covering general knowledge of astronomy and space as well as artificial intelligence, then completed related quizzes and performed labeling using solar images observed by satellites. For the finals, participants submitted AI models that detect and classify solar activities such as sunspots, coronal holes, and solar flares. Rankings were determined based on the accuracy scores of the AI models in classifying solar activities.

Choi Seonghwan, Principal Researcher and Chair of the SpaceAI Program at the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, who co-hosted the AI competition, said, “We hope that through this AI competition, university students will analyze space data in creative and innovative ways and grow as future scientists.” He added, “We will continue to develop AI education programs utilizing various astronomy and space data, and the SpaceAI program will strive to nurture talent to open Korea’s space era.”