On September 25, at the 'Deep Tech Big Data Startup Contest for Forestry' held at the Seoul Creative Economy Innovation Center in Yongsan, Korea, the 'Sokbudsim Team (Kim Woojung and Kim Jeekyung, both 23rd year students) won the grand prize (1st place), and the 'Forest Birds Team (Lee Minseo, 23rd year, Kim Minseok, 21st year, Kim Yubin, Moon Heewon, Yang Chaeyoon) and 'Yoo Sehyun Team (Kang Yura, 19th year, Choi Hyunseok, 20th year, Lee Seeun, 20th year) won the second prize.

The contest was organized by the Korea Forest Service, Korea Forestry Promotion Agency, Korea Arboretum and Garden Management Institute, Korea Forest Welfare Foundation, and Korea Mountaineering Trekking Support Center to discover and support new business models and startup ideas using public and big data in the forest sector to drive data-driven innovative growth and create jobs.

The grand prize winner, 'Soksulim Team', proposed an idea for an application that uses interactive artificial intelligence (AI) technology to provide psychological counseling with pet plants and recommend customized forest programs. The judges praised the team's creative approach, saying that it will make a great contribution to improving people's health in a modern society where the number of depression patients is increasing.

The 'Forest Birds Team' won the second prize for their mountain tour booking app called 'Green for Elder'. The app provides four services for the elderly, including accommodation, healing, pickup, and food, based on excellent mountain eco-villages nationwide. The judges noted that the convergence of forest and environmental services tailored to the aging society is in line with the trend and demand of the times, and noted it as an important app service.

Team Yoo Se-hyun won the Excellence Award for their forest-themed board game. The board game is designed for various purposes, including entertainment, therapy, and education, with the main goal of raising awareness of environmental issues. While many board games have recently gained popularity online, Yoo's team caught the judges' attention by demonstrating the potential to develop the game into an online app using public data.

“As a university student, it was a valuable experience to present an idea based on my interest in forestry and receive objective feedback on it,” said Woojung Kim, who won the grand prize. “By combining the forest field and mental health, I was able to envision realistic forest healing and healing, and through this, I was able to grow further.” ‘I am grateful to my teammates who have been with me until the end, and I hope to become an indispensable talent in the forest field with various ideas and drive,’ she added.

The winning student teams' ideas were developed through the Department of Forest and Environmental Systems' unique innovation education programs, the Eureka Project and the Forest and Environmental Capstone Design. The selection of the three first- and second-place winners in the government competition, which is also open to the general public, is significant. “The Eureka Project and Forest Environment Capstone Design are project-based courses in which undergraduate students search for ideas in the forest, which are the core of entrepreneurship, and plan and present them,” said Professor Park Ji-hyun, a professor in charge of the Eureka Project in the Department of Forest and Environmental Systems. ”We are helping students to internalize challenges and planning skills through the process of refining and upgrading ideas.”

The Department of Forest and Environmental Systems has won first place in the contest for five consecutive years since 2020, and has made an unprecedented achievement of representing the forestry sector at the Wangjung Wangjeon, an integrated contest of government departments, for five consecutive years.