Ajou News

NEW 2020 AJOU Valley Festa: ONtact held

  • 2021-01-26
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2020 Ajou Valley Festa: ONtact, an event celebrating the achievements of Ajou’s industrial-academic cooperation projects, was held amid much interest and success. The event, held this year in the Ajou Valley Festa Online Pavilion December 7 through 11 due to the pandemic, drew more than 3,000 participants.


2020 Ajou Valley Festa, co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea and organized by Ajou’s LINC+ Project Group, Start-up Support Foundation, and Center for University Education Innovation, advertised and celebrated the outstanding achievements of the university’s industrial-academic cooperation projects over the past year.


The event featured a wide variety of activities and programs for the participation and enjoyment of students and faculty members, partner businesses, and the local community, including: an exhibition of award-winning and lauded products of industrial-academic cooperation; an exhibition of the works of the Industrial Cooperation Centers (ICCs) and Regional Cooperation Centers (RCCs); free legal counseling, policy advice, and patent and management support for affiliated businesses; seminars on the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on businesses and local communities; meditation sessions and humanities lectures encouraging reflection amid COVID-19; and online votes on products on exhibitions. All activities and programs were in an online to promote contactless participation.


The event ended on the afternoon of December 11 with the 2020 Ajou Valley Awards: Connecting Stars Ceremony, which involved handing out awards to organizations, businesses, faculty and staff that have been active in industrial-academic training, cooperation projects, and community engagement this year. There were also awards for the University’s departments that have facilitated industrial-academic cooperation by taking active measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.


The Industrial-Academic Cooperation Awards for Students was also held to commend the achievements of students who have excelled in field practice, capstone design projects, entrepreneurial training, and industrial-academic cooperation training. Both the demonstrations of award-winning works and awards ceremonies were live-streamed online, with the audience attending the ceremonies via a video-conference platform.


The awards ceremony for students also featured the 2020 Cross Plus Review Contest, hosted by Cross Plus, a council of the seven universities participating in the Leaders in Industry-University Cooperation (LINC) Plus Project (Ajou University, Gangneung-Wonju National University, Keimyung University, University of Ulsan, Jeju National University, Korea National University of Transportation, and Honam University). The grand prize for the best review went to Yeom Seong-woo, a management major at Ajou. Yeom took part in a long-term field training program run by the human resources department at a company he had been interested in, and used his experience to land a job in the human resources division of another IT company.


Park Hyung-ju, Ajou University president, commented in his welcoming address: “Industrial-academic cooperation, which simultaneously produces, transfers, and utilizes new knowledge, is now among the three central missions of universities.” He added: “Ajou has a proven record of facilitating the use of knowledge so created, particularly in the form of technology transfers and entrepreneurship.”


“On behalf of Ajou,” Park went on, “Rest assured that we will do our best to build upon and enhance the University’s capabilities for industrial-academic cooperation, which is on full display throughout this year’s festa, all toward impacting society at large for good.”


Park Hyung-ju, Ajou president (left) / Oh Yeong-tae, Exec. VP of Industry-Academia Cooperation (right)


Connecting Star Awards for exemplary affiliated businesses (from left to right): IDP; Cell & Bio; Ajou President Park Hyung-ju; Gyeonggi Business and Science Accelerator (Bio-Center); SJ Global; and IPG Automotive Korea Limited.



In his opening message, Ajou’s Vice President for Industry-Academia Cooperation, Oh Yeong-tae, characterized 2020 as “a year in which we made a variety of attempts across all areas of industrial-academic cooperation to overcome COVID-19.” He added: “It is my hope that this year’s festa will recognize and disseminate the achievements of our cooperation, and re-inspire all members of the Ajou Valley with hopes for a better future and continued cooperation.”


The online exhibitions for the festa will remain open to the public, so that viewers can help spread word of the achievements of Ajou’s industrial-academic cooperation projects.


List of honorees


Connecting Star Ajou Valley Awards

[Exemplary Partners of Industrial-Academic Cooperation]

Hope and Nest Cooperative Federation (Mun Sang-cheol, chair) / Edu-M (Namgung Yeon-su, CEO) / Kickstart Investment (Lee Jeong-hee, CEO)


[Exemplary Affiliated Businesses]

Novelty Nobility (Park Sang-gyu, CEO) / Suprema (Mun Yeong-su, CEO) / Cell & Bio (Lee Yong-woon, CEO) / IPG Automotive Korea Limited (Nam Chang-hun, CEO) / IDP (Ahn Mi-suk, CEO) / SJ Global (Jeon Hyang-hee, CEO) / Gyeonggi Business and Science Accelerator Biotechnology Center (Kim Pan-su, director)


[Exemplary Faculty Contributors]

Kim Byeong-ju (School of Business) / Kim Su-dong (Chief Professor of Bio and Healthcare ICC/ Graduate School of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutics) / Lee Joo-yeong (Chief Professor of Smart Energy ICC/Dept. of Industrial Engineering / Kim Yong-seong (Chief Professor of Chem-Bio Medicine ICC/Dept. of Applied Chemistry and Biological Engineering)


[Exemplary Staff Contributor]

Lee Eun-ho (Cooperative Center for Research Facilities)


[Contactless Industrial-Academic Cooperation Contributors]

Accounting Team (Office of General Affairs), for managing the Infectious Diseases Control Committee and helping to meet the indicators of industrial-academic cooperation / Academic Affairs Team (Office of Academic Affairs), for organizing emergency response to student affairs and on-campus industrial-academic cooperation training and helping to meet the indicators of industrial-academic cooperation.


Industrial-Academic Cooperatioin Awards for Students

[2020 Industrial-Academic Cooperation Review Awards]

First place: Kim Ui-yeong / Second place: Lee Seul-gi and Baek Jong-seong / Third place: Park Min-ho and Choi Jeong-min


[Field Training Review Contest]

Grand Prize: Yeom Seong-woo / First place: Kim Tae-woo and Kim Hyeon-jin / Second place: Woo Su-min, Kim Hye-seon, and Park Gyu-ri / Third place: Kang Min-jeong, Lee So-hee, Park Ju-hyeon, Bae Ji-hun, Kim Yeong-hun, and Seo Je-hun


[Cross Plus Field Training Review Contest] (for seven universities)

Grand Prize: Yeom Seong-woo / Third place: Kim Hyeon-jin


[Capstone Design Contest]

Grand Prize: Ongjudeul (Park Sae-byeol, Kim Na-yeong, Kim Joo-hee, and Yu Ha-eun)

First place: A2B2 (Jeong Jae-uk, Choi Jin-yeong, Ju Jae-rin, and Han Ji-eun)

Second place: real kk (Choi Seong-woo, Kim Tae-yun, Seo Ji-yong, and Kim Do-hyeon) / Tto? Tto! (Yu Gyeong-dong, Yun Do-gyeong, and Kim Seo-jeong) / undefined (Lee Dong-geon, Han Dong-min, Park Sang-hyeok, Kim Yeon-gyo, and Kim Yong-min)

Third place: Homekeepa (Mo Hyeon-min, Lee Eun-chang, Lee Si-eun, Kim Jae-hak, and Park Hyeon-min) / ROSCA (Choi Yeong-ho, Baek Seung-hun, Lee Ji-seon, Kim Min-ji, and Bae Min) / Seonghwang (Hwang Ye-dam and Heo Seong-beom) / board (Park Jun-su, Yun Hong-jun, and Lee Jin-yeong)


[LINC+ Entrepreneurial Idea Contest – Curricular Category]

Grand Prize: High Mill (Kim Hye-seon, Park Seo-yeon, and Lim Chan-ho)

First place: Hygiene Innovation (Lee Do-hun) / Blooming (Kim Min-ju, Kang Ji-won, and Lee Jae-min)

Second place: YESS (Lee Gyu-hyeong) / always (Yun Eun-jin, Kim Sang-hee, Park Do-yeong, Lee Su-hyeon, and Jang Se-bin) / Limit Function (Ahn Seung-yeon, Kim Sang-min, Park Hyeon-dong, Choi Min-yeong, and Choi Jun-yeong) 

Third place: SCTV (Baek Jong-seong, Kim Gyu-yeob, Kim Seong-min, Kim Yeong-su, and Kim Yeong-min) / Daesangbatja (Hong Seo-hyeon, Kim Hyeon-ah, Kim Tae-ho, Yu Hye-bin, and Lee Ga-yeong) / Anti-Disposable (Kang Da-hyeon)


[LINC+ Entrepreneurial Idea Contest – Extracurricular Category]

First place: Ajou Bb (Nam Chang-hyeon, Kim Su-ah, Kwon Ji-han, and Song Yeong-beom)

Second place: Gureumunhyojo (Jeong Seon-hyo, Heo Ji-eon, and Park Si-woo) / Mirroring (Jeong Gwang-myeong, Lee Ga-yeon, Yu Yeong-jun, and Lee Seon-hong) / Gochujang (Yuk Se-hyeon and Yun Hyeon-jun)


Visit online exhibitions ☞ lincplusfesta.ajou.ac.kr

 Watch demonstrations and awards ceremonies ☞https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6jVHPqk2OY



Awards for Exemplary Partners of Industrial-Academic Cooperation (from left to right): Hope and Nest Cooperative Federation, Ajou President Park Hyung-ju, Kickstart Investment, Edu-M.



Industrial-Academic Cooperation Exemplary Faculty Contributors (from left to right): Prof. Kim Yong-seong, Prof. Kim Su-dong, Ajou President Park Hyung-ju, Prof. Kim Byeong-ju, Prof. Lee Joo-yeon.