‘AI to Handle Academic Inquiries and Review Excused Absences’ ... Soongsil University’s AI Competition Concludes

[Financial News] Soongsil University announced on the 12th that it had successfully concluded the Soongsil AI Competition, in which university members used generative artificial intelligence (AI) to identify problems in education, research and administration and propose solutions.
The competition was organized as part of Soongsil University’s ‘AI Native Soongsil’ vision. Its primary goals were to strengthen the AI capabilities of staff and students and to identify and promote useful applications that could be put to immediate use in the university’s operations.
The competition, which began with the development of an operating plan last May, drew 36 teams in total (15 individual teams and 21 group teams). Participants proposed ways to use AI to address issues in practical workflows across university operations, including academic affairs, student support, international affairs, admissions, personnel, the library and finance. These included improving responses to academic inquiries, providing information on graduation requirements, automating exchange student applications, verifying personal information and reviewing excused absences.
Soongsil University conducted document and presentation evaluations based on criteria including the appropriateness of problem definition, use of AI, completeness of implementation and potential for wider adoption. It selected 10 winning teams in total: five top-prize winners and five excellence-award winners, with no grand prize awarded.
The top prizes went to Kim Young-bae, team leader at the Institute for University Education Innovation, for ‘A Plan to Link and Use Education Satisfaction Survey and Course Evaluation Data Through AI’; the Do Dream Team for ‘AI System for Initial Review of Excused Absences’; the Woo Jeong-sin Team for ‘A Plan to Automate Exchange and Visiting Student Applications’; the Exception Handling Team for ‘SSU DegreeMap’; and the Supervisor Team for ‘Building an Academic Administration System to Improve Responses to Academic Inquiries and Increase Efficiency.’
The excellence awards went to projects including automating work assignments for student employees at the Central Library, AI-based management of regulations, verification of personal information processing, integrated management of employee training records and validation of thesis-writing guidelines.
NHN Cloud and Mindlogic took part in the competition as partner companies, participating in judging and contributing 6 million won toward the total prize pool of 15 million won. The awards ceremony was held at the university’s anniversary ceremony on the 8th.
Soongsil University plans to consider putting the outstanding ideas developed in the competition into practice and expanding their use. It also plans to strengthen support, including training and mentoring, and continue to promote a culture of AI use throughout the university.

[email protected] Kim Man-gi Reporter