On 28^th, SNU College of Engineering (Dean Cha Kook-Heon) announced that Chairman & CEO Kim Keun Bae of HI AIR KOREA has donated 300M Korean Won to College of Engineering as development fund.
 
CEO Kim, as class of 1968 alumnus of SNU Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, has donated 200M Korean Won as College of Engineering development fund (specifically for Yi Sun-sin Challenge Project and construction fund for Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering) and 100M Korean Won as SNU development fund (under the title of Department of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering HI AIR KOREA Scholarship).
 
The fund donation ceremony was held at College of Engineering at 5PM of June 27^th. President Lee Chunsung of HI AIR KOREA attended the ceremony instead of Chairman Kim who is indisposed.
 
The SNU College of Engineering’s “Yi Sun-sin Challenge Project” that Chairman Kim has donated to is a catch-up research project. Although it may seem similar to the MIT Solve Challenge, DARPA Grand Challenge, and National Research Foundation of Korea’s X Challenge, it has a completely different aim, motive, and operation method. The Yi Sun-sin Challenge sets a specific “demo” target to which participants submit corresponding challenge that he or she will conduct intensive research without additional support.
 
This target is tuned to a moderate level of difficulty that 1 to 3 years of intensive research may overcome the limit that current technologies fail to surpass. The participants are restricted to Korean researchers who are under SNU College of Engineering professors’ supervision.
 
The mission of this challenge project is to introduce and demonstrate surprising new technologies to people and promote SNU College of Engineering’s cutting-edge technology. Some challenges that have already been deducted from our daily lives include: △ A system that automatically checks attendance with a single picture of the lecture room, △ An AI system that evaluates patent drafts for clashes with existing patents, △ A robot that travels roundtrip from SNU Building No.302 to peak of Gwanak Mountain and back within 5 hours, and △ A rapid diagnosis of sepsis that reduces mortality rate to 50%.”
 
If the participant succeeds in overcoming the challenge, he or she may earn 100M to 1B Korean Won worth of prize for independent research.
 
Dean Cha Kook-Heon of the College of Engineering states, “Chairman Kim’s development fund donation will allow this challenge to stretch out for new genres beyond the current boundaries. SNU College of Engineering awaits support and patronage of the Yi Sun-sin Challenge Project.”