Government to hold national contest for ‘Smart Device’

The Ministry of Science and ICT will hold '2022 Digital Open Innovation’, the Information and Communication Technology Smart Device National Contest, for the general public to find and commercialize innovative devices of information and communication technology.

The contest is to support innovative product development by discovering unique and creative ideas in information and communication fields such as smart devices and software services and anyone can apply.

Smart devices are intelligent devices that provide convenience to humans by integrating with new technologies such as AI, intelligent detectors (sensors), metaverse (XRs), and 5G, beyond existing terminals such as computers and smartphones.

Applications will be divided into general division (middle and high school students, undergraduate & graduate students, etc.) and corporate division (small and venture companies, start-ups, etc.) through the Digital Open Lab website from May 20 to June 30.

Through the regional preliminary contest for applicants who have applied to six organizations nationwide, a total of 30 teams will be selected. The semifinal contest will be held in July and 14 teams will be chosen, including 6 teams who will go to the final contest.

Digital Open Lab and ICT Device Lab have been established in five regions and six institutions nationwide to support ICT start-ups, education for pre-founders, commercialization of ideas, and business setup.

The final 14 selected teams will receive a total of 40 million won in prize money. The two grand prize teams will receive the Minister of Science and ICT Award and the prize money (12 million won for the company, 8 million won for the general), the 4 runner-up teams will get the Gyeonggi Provincial Economic Science Promotion Agency Award and the prize money (3 million won for the company, 2 million won for the general), and the 8 teams will receive the heads of each region award and prize money (1.5 million won for the company, 1 million won for the general).
 

The teams for the semifinal contest will be given additional points when it is selected for the all-season commercialization support (voucher) and opportunities to participate in domestic and overseas information and communication technology exhibitions such as the International Mobile World Congress (MWC), to support practical commercialization networking and overseas expansion.

Meanwhile, the annual competition, which started in 2014, has unearthed more than 2,500 ideas, of which 80 have been established startups, getting an investment worth 50 billion won.

“We will not spare any active support for young people to develop devices with creative ideas and connect them to start-ups and overseas expansion,” said Song Sang-hoon, director-general of the Electronics and IT Industries.

Reported by Smart City Today