'IBWA Project IT Mentoring' Presentation, 'Grand Prize'
App for rehabilitative treatment to enhance child learning, to prevent Alzheimer's, and to improve cognitive abilities
[November 16, 2014]

Female students in the YU College of Engineering won the grand prize in the presentation for the 'IBWA Project IT Mentoring'

The winning team was 'G23' (Advisor Ahn Byeong-cheol) made up of seniors in the Department of Computer Engineering, Nam Min-ji (24), Bae Jeong-eun (22), Joo Mi-ri (22), Kang Min-jeong (21) and Yoon Hyo-shim (21). In the 'EBWA Project IT Mentoring' project that has been held for the past seven years since 2008, IT companies and female engineering students make up teams as mentors and mentees to carry out joint development projects. Through this, female students are given the opportunity to receive practical experience through direct interaction with IT company workers, while fostering professional female IT experts who will lead the next-generation IT industry.

This year, it was sponsored by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (Minister Choi Yang-hee) and hosted by the IT Business Women's Association (Chairperson Kim Hyun-joo, IBWA) and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (Director Park Soo-yong). A total of over 300 people in 45 teams in various fields such as robots, smart phone applications, and computer program development participated in the contest. The project started with a seminar for college IT departments and IT companies in March and through mentor and advisor training and mentor-mentee agreements, the teams worked on their projects for approximately five months from June.

The YU 'G23' Team had Seok Chun-hee, VP of Jiju Soft, a company specializing in educational software, participate as their mentor who provided on and offline mentoring activities for five months. Team leader of 'G23' Kang Min-jeong said, "Our project concept was 'cognitive ability development' software, but we faced many difficulties when coming up with the detailed contents." She added, "The objective advice from our highly experienced mentor and the educational software used in the mentor's company helped us greatly in coming up with app contents."

After completing the five month project, presentations were held for two days from October 31 to November 1 at the Resom Spa Castle (Yesan, Chungnam). After two project presentations, the YU 'G23 Team' won the coveted grand prize.

The project name of the 'G23' team was 'Young Brain'. It is a mobile app for seniors and children to help improve cognitive abilities. 'Young Brain' can be used for learning by children, preventing Alzheimer's for seniors, and to improve cognitive abilities. It is a game-type mobile application that can improve instant memory, cognitive abilities, judgment, reaction, and concentration.

In order to procure expertise and usefulness of the functions, they visited the YU Medical Center Psychiatry Department to receive advice from experts. In order to solve issues on character design copyrights and unity, they cooperated with students majoring in industrial design, and worked diligently to complete the project. Team member Yoon Hyo-shim said, "We visited nearby elementary schools and kindergartens for testing." and added, "It is a simple game-type that can be easily controlled by the elderly and children, and I think we received high scores for the high business potential."

Team leader Kang Min-jeong said, "We had many difficulties because it was the first app development for all of us, but with this award, we gained a lot of confidence." She added, "There are still many improvements needed for 'Young Brain' such as Alzheimer's diagnosis program and network connection. I hope we can search for ways to make this into a feasible business through cooperation with our mentor company."

The awards ceremony for the winners of the 'IBWA Project IT Mentoring' presentation will be held on the 20th at the L Tower in Yangjae-dong in Seoul. All members of the G23 team who won the grand prize will be awarded the Minister of Science, ICT and Future Planning Award and be given the opportunity for short-term training in Shanghai, China.