“Buying groundbreaking ideas that will change the future of humanity in ten years.” This was the announcement made by Kolon Group in its search for revolutionary ideas to make an impact on the future. This contest is open for all KAIST students and faculty members. It is the first time for one of the top 30 large-scale national companies to make such offers to all the members of a specific educational institute.
Kolon Group is offering a total of 50 million won in prize money for the top ten selected teams. The team that places first will receive 20 million won; two runner-up teams will receive 10 million won each; the remaining selected teams will receive an honorable mention and 1 million won each.
The applications for the contest can be made individually or in groups. Each team must organize and summarize their ideas on two pieces of A4-sized paper and submit the file by 5pm on October 31. The final announcement of the results and the award ceremony will be on November 23, known as “Kolon Day.”
This contest is run by the Kolon KAIST Lifestyle Innovation Center, which was set up by KAIST and Kolon Group on September 6. The collaboration was set up with the goal of encouraging active cooperation and transfers of technologies between the two institutes. The two groups can incorporate research and development, technological advices, competitive exhibitions and workshops to find highly promising fields of industry.
Kyung Yong Kim, the executive director of Kolon Group commented that, “Ideas such as shrinking a room-sized computer to fit on the palm of a hand and the dream of everyone being able to talk anywhere anytime with anyone in the world have become reality. These dreams have changed our world. I am searching for the next such revolutionary idea from the KAIST community because KAIST has an assembly of people gifted and talented in the field of science.”
In addition, the chairman of Kolon Group Woon Yeul Lee intends to supervise the research centers established in KAIST to attempt a market entry in five to ten years’ time. Through these advancements, he is looking to develop mutual technological exchanges and hopes to establish a network of skills collaboration.