Seoul National University College of Engineering, won the prizes in the international competitions successively
-Particularly in the field of cutting-edge technologies such as robotics and deep-learning


▲ A research team led by Professor Byoung-Tak Zhang of Department of Computer Sciences and Engineering, who won the 2017 International RoboCup Champhionship


▲ The research team of SNU Department of Computer Science and Engineering that won ‘’ ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest” for the first time in Korea

Recently, Seoul National University College of Engineering (Dean Kookheon Char) participated and won awards in international competitions. From last year, they won best awards in the International RoboCup contest, super high resolution image restoration challenge and breakdown prediction and safety management international competition.  

The fields of competitions where SNU engineering research teams participated are diverse, such as robot, artificial intelligence and navigation system. In particular, SNU engineering research teams have shown their great talents in the field of computer science such as robot, deep learning and IoT platform.

First, research team led by Professor Soonhoi Ha of Department of Computer Sciences and Engineering won the CVPR 2017 Low Power Image Recognition Challenge World Championship and won the ACM SIGDA University Demonstration at DAC. The research team was able to get the best scores as they developed a deep-learning-based object recognition technology that reduces battery consumption, and a IoT platform that can serve as a personal assistant. 

A research team led by Professor Byoung-Tak Zhang of Department of Computer Sciences and Engineering won the 2017 International RoboCup Champhionship. The team developed social home robot AUPAIR, which performs various activities from service tasks such as finding people, ordering in restaurants and high-level errands to deep-learning based visual communication.

Last year, research team led by Professor Kyujin Cho of School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering won the first RoboSoft Grand Challenge World Championship and made remarkable achievements in the new field of soft robotics. The team has successfully completed the task of avoiding obstacles, climbing stairs, and picking objects by introducing the wheeled robot ‘Snumax’.

Through these international championships, the achievements of the SNU engineering research teams have been highly evaluated in terms of the fact that they are the fundamental researches that advance the technologies necessary for our lives.

A research team led by Professor KyoungMu Lee of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering won the international high resolution image restoration championship with advanced deep learning based algorithms. The ultrahigh-resolution image restoration technology is a core technology of the next generation image processing, and can greatly improve the performance of recognizing objects and people. It can also be utilized in analyzing high-dimensional images in the fields of autonomous vehicles, intelligent robots, surveillance cameras, satellite and medical images.

Most recently, a research team led by Professor ByeongDong Youn of the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering took the first and second place in the international PHM Diagnostic and Data Challenge Competition. The research team introduced prognostic technologies for thermal power plant breakdowns and provided an important turning point for newly recognizing the maintenance culture of domestic power plants. As a result, the team dominated the championship in succession from 2014 to 2015 and boasted world-class prediction skills. 

A research team led by Professor Chankook Park of School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering participated the Indoor Positioning Competition 2017 that was hosted by Microsoft. Although the research team won the second prize in the competition, where participants recognize real-time locations, the team introduced great achievement that is comparable to that of the winner team’s achievement. The team developed a real-time gait navigation system using only gyros and acceleration sensors attached to shoes and calves, and recorded a position accuracy of 2.415 meters.

SNU College of Engineering has achieved in great records not only in the international competitions, but also in the domestic competitions. Furthermore, undergraduate students have also actively participated in the competitions. 

The SNU students, who were undergraduates, won the top five awards in the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) category of the 23rd Human Tech papers. They won the gold medal in the competition (ICPC). This is the first time that a Korean team has won a gold medal in this competition. Ph.D. course students of Seoul National University Department of Computer Sciences and Engineering participated the 23th CSE (Computer Science and Engineering) and won top 5 awards. Furthermore, a team consisted of SNU undergraduate students participated the ACM-ICPC(ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest) and won the gold prize (the third prize) for the first time in Korea. 

A research team led by Professor Jaejim Lee of Department of Computer Science and Engineering participated 2017 National Supercomputing Contest hosted by Korea Institue of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) and won the first, second and third prizes. The National Supercomputing Contest is a competition that requires participants to solve given problems using a high-performance computer in a fixed time. 

A research team led by Professor Ilkyeong Moon of Department of Industrial Engineering won the first prize at the 9^th Korean University Students SCM competition held on June 2^nd by Korea SCM Society. They studied ways to reduce waiting time of the patients through physician relocation and through the introduction of new severity classes without additional human resources in the emergency room.

The Dean of the College of Engineering Kookheon Char, who was newly appointed as the dean, said, “The SNU Engineering research teams have revealed great achievement successively from international competitions. They will show the best technologies in the world.”