Sunchon National University Successfully Concludes 'Green Smart Farm Youth Idea Competition'

"Agriculture and Rural Issues Solved... Support for Youth Rural Settlement"

Suncheon National University (President Lee Byung-woon) announced on the 11th that it held the ‘2024 Creative Idea Competition for Attracting Young Farmers into Green Smart Farms’ to overcome the crisis of rural community extinction, solve the issue of young people settling in rural areas, and present a successful model for rural society.

The competition, which started on the 4th of last month, received ideas from a total of 21 teams and 57 students. After evaluating idea proposals, videos, and presentations, 7 teams were finally selected.

Sunchon National University held the "2024 Green Smart Farm Creative Idea Competition for Attracting Young Farmers" to overcome the crisis of rural community extinction, address the issue of young people settling in rural areas, and present a successful model for rural society. After written and presentation evaluations, seven teams were selected as finalists. Provided by Sunchon National University

The judging panel consisted of 5 expert judges and 25 student and faculty judges from the Green Smart Farm field, forming an audience evaluation group that comprehensively assessed creativity, concreteness, feasibility, and social impact. As a result, the Idea Factory team from the Department of Horticulture (Woo Han-seung, Eom Hyun-soo, Cha Se-young) won the grand prize (Jeollanam-do Governor’s Award) with their idea titled ‘Youth Start-up and Urban Regeneration Model Using Smart Plant Factories.’

Additionally, ▲ the Excellence Award (Suncheon National University President’s Award, 1 team) was awarded to the ‘Pampar’ team (Department of Agricultural Economics: Jo Kyung-jun, Han Kyung-soo, Park Sung-chan; Demeter: Goddess of Grain and Harvest) ▲ the Merit Award (Goheung County Mayor’s Award, 2 teams) went to the ‘Green Link’ team (Department of Convergence Bio-System Mechanical Engineering: Kim Ga-eun, Park Na-hyun; a used agricultural machinery platform providing agricultural solutions through algorithms) and the ‘Nonggyeong Saessak’ team (Department of Agricultural Economics: Kang Han-byeol, Seo Yoon-ha, Kim Eun-hye; Agricultural Campus Bridge) ▲ the Encouragement Award (Green Smart Farm Goheung Campus Director’s Award, 3 teams) was given to the ‘Nongji Wison’ team (Department of Agricultural Economics: Hwang Geum-young, Seo Ji-eun; Department of Agricultural Life Sciences: Ji Yoon-jung), the ‘Unongmi: Our Agriculture is the Future’ team (Department of Agricultural Life Sciences: Heo Geun-nyeong, Park Jun-cheol, Park Min-gyu; Cultivating rural areas together, planting the dreams of youth), and the ‘Agrivision’ team (Department of Agricultural Economics: Kang Seo-yeon, Kim Min-joo, Lee Da-kyung; AI Rural Advisor), respectively.

Student Eom Hyun-soo from the Department of Horticulture, who won the grand prize, said, “Industry-academia cooperation is about providing a blueprint for the future of our agriculture through school education and supporting startup models such as urban regeneration to encourage stable settlement of young people in rural areas.” He added, “I hope Suncheon National University, which has embraced innovation as a glocal university, will become a leading model in driving changes in agriculture and rural areas.”

Moon Seung-tae, Vice President of External Cooperation, stated, “The ideas presented by the students are very timely topics aimed at solving the real problems of agriculture and rural areas facing the crisis of population extinction, and will contribute to securing sustainability in agriculture and rural development.” He added, “To ensure the sustainability of the project, we will reflect business plans such as supporting youth startups using plant factories in next year’s budget so that the students’ ideas can be realized.”