Yonsei University announced that the '2025 Asia Impact Hackathon,' co-hosted with the Korea Association for Public Administration (KAPS) and sponsored by Google, successfully concluded on the 9th at Yonsei University's Sinchon campus.
According to Yonsei University on the 19th, this event was organized to discover creative ideas from young people in Asia who aim to solve social issues using artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology. It also has an educational effect that helps young people think more deeply about public issues and turn those thoughts into actions.
This event was first held last year as the 'Yonsei–KAPS Hackathon for Social Good' for domestic university students. This year, it expanded internationally with over 300 teams from 12 Asian countries participating, evolving into the 'Asia Impact Hackathon.'
Participants went through two months of regional preliminaries and finals, with a total of 6 teams advancing to the final round, including 2 teams from Korea, 2 teams from Vietnam, 1 team from Singapore, and 1 team from Malaysia. The finals were conducted in a hybrid format that combined online and offline participation.
Participants proposed solutions to public issues using technology based on various topics, including AI translation, cyber fraud prevention, waste management, and fake news detection.
This event was co-organized by the Department of Public Administration and the BK21 educational research team of the Department of Computational Science and Engineering at Yonsei University. It showed a differentiated competitive edge through a convergence evaluation system combining the humanities and social sciences with the natural sciences.
The opening ceremony of the final round was presided over by Director General Hong Soon-man of the BK21 educational research team at Yonsei University. It began with a welcoming speech by Park Hyung-jun, president of the Korea Association for Public Administration, and remarks by Lee Ji-seop, head of external cooperation for the platform and device sector at Google Korea.
Shin Won-yong, a professor in the Department of Computational Science and Engineering at Yonsei University and head of the judging panel, conducted the evaluation focusing on the direction of contributing to society through technology. Lee Yo-han, executive director of external cooperation for the platform and device sector at Google Asia-Pacific, conveyed positive feedback on the participants' high execution ability and creativity.
The grand prize of this event was awarded to the team 'Global Times' from Seokyeong University representing Korea. Comprised of students Kim On-yu (Department of Computer Engineering), Kim Joo-young, Park Seong-yeon (Department of Software), and Song Soo-jin (Global Business and Language Department & Department of Software), this team developed an AI-based news summary and understanding platform that helps overcome language barriers and allows anyone to easily access news and real-time trends from various global perspectives, receiving high evaluations.
Director General Hong Soon-man noted, "It was a meaningful gathering where Asian students from diverse backgrounds contemplated social issues together and shared solutions," and added, "The creativity, execution ability of the participants, and their serious attitude towards public issues were very impressive."