On May 6, KAIST announced five winning works of the “Crazy Day Idea Contest”. The contest was held from March 14 to April 8 to discover challenges for the KAIST community to solve that embodies experimental and innovative spirits, such as a “Crazy, Creative, Challenge, and Caring” (4Cs) attitude. A total of 847 entries were received, and KAIST selected one top prize, one grand prize, and three excellence prize winners after three stages of internal screening. The selection criteria was based on creativity, innovation, initiative, feasibility, public consensus, and social and ethical effects of the ideas.

The top prize winner is Halla Kim from the Graduate School of Culture Technology who suggested “KCN”, which stands for “KAIST Contents Network”. Kim proposed creating a large mind map of the experimental ideas presented by KAIST. All knowledge and information, from scientific papers and research culture to quotes and memes, would be connected radially to each other in the mind map. She said, “Just as the neural network of the brain creates a pattern of thought, the results of each concept show what the organization thinks. We will produce a map of KAIST’s thoughts and visions that will lead to a big change in the world.”

The grand prize went to “Lighting Lantern of Peace” by Jihyung Lee. He suggested installing a bicycle generator on campus to display a peace message on a screen and raise awareness for global crises such as pandemics, wars, and environmental pollution. The event will be held for 10 hours where KAIST members would pedal like a relay challenge. 

The excellence prize idea, “Reverse Day” by Sungjun Ahn, introduced ideas to break stereotypes by changing roles, jobs, and positions among KAIST members. Another excellence prize winner, “Treasure Hunt in KAIST” by Daeho Kim, proposed solving science quizzes to find hidden treasures on campus. The last excellence prize was awarded to “Win Against Jang Yeong-sil! KAIST Imperial Examination” by Hongmoo Lee. It introduced KAIST imperial examination to solve quirky curiosity with a creative convergence approach.

The co-organizers of the Crazy Day Idea Contest, Hoon Sohn (Director of KAIST Global Strategy Institute),  Byungha Shin (Associate Vice President of Student Life), and Sujin Lee (Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Policy), stated, “We would like to express our sincere gratitude to people who suggested interesting and novel ideas. We are looking forward to how KAIST's mind map will be drawn through KCN. We will continue to make efforts to make these activities a source of inspiration that leads to another new idea.” KAIST plans to implement the top prize-winning work “KCN” on campus for one day in June.