Korea Water Resources Corporation and Gachon University to Foster Climate Tech AI Startup Talent with 'AI for Climate Tech'

Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water) is joining hands with Gachon University to nurture aspiring entrepreneurs in the climate tech sector.
K-water said on the 26th that it held the opening ceremony for 'AI for Climate Tech' at its headquarters in Daejeon Metropolitan City with Gachon University. The program is an industry-academia initiative to support prospective startups.
The program follows a memorandum of understanding signed by the two institutions in November last year to promote AI transformation in the water sector and build an innovation startup ecosystem. Through the initiative, K-water plans to identify innovative solutions for climate change response and help create a youth startup ecosystem in the climate tech field.
Gachon University has opened the program as a regular course for the second semester of the 2026 academic year and selected 24 students. The students have been divided into six teams and will spend the next three months planning and developing AI algorithms and applications to solve water and climate-related problems in K-water's pilot environment, called 'Search Space.'
Search Space will operate with two designated tasks and one open-ended task. The designated tasks are 'Developing an algal bloom detection algorithm based on unmanned drone footage' and 'Developing an AI model to detect urban flooding and river overflow based on CCTV video analysis.' The necessary data will also be provided.
The open-ended task is 'Developing a technology to forecast solar power generation using weather data and deep learning.' Students will receive only minimal basic data and must independently search for and combine the data they need to develop forecasting algorithms.
To support the projects, K-water will assign working-level staff as domain mentors and data analysis experts as AI mentors, providing field-oriented training. It also plans to offer education on the use of generative AI to strengthen students' ability to define problems and derive solutions.
At the end of the semester, the company plans to evaluate the results, select outstanding ideas and outputs, and reward them. It will also provide follow-up support through internal and external startup assistance programs and links to startup competitions so the ideas can lead to actual businesses.
Han Seong-yong, head of the Green Infrastructure Division at K-water, said, "We will actively provide a pilot-based Search Space so that students can define problems from the user's perspective and verify solutions," adding, "We will spare no effort in field-oriented education and support so that creative ideas can lead to climate tech startups."
[email protected] Choi Ga-young Reporter