Epson Innovation Challenge in Korea 2024: Innovative ideas that will change the future of education, intellectual development, and K-culture are coming together!

Overview of article

The Epson Innovation Challenge, where people compete to develop solutions and business models, was held in South Korea.
The 95 participants from 30 teams proposed solutions that combine AI or user-generated content (UGC) with the Epson Connect API.
Epson Korea is committed to continuing to create solutions businesses through open innovation in Korea and globally.

Epson Korea Co., Ltd. and Likelion, a programming engineer training company, held the Epson Innovation Challenge in Korea in June 2024. This competition aimed to enhance customer value and solve problems in the areas of education, e-commerce, and K-culture. Participants competed to develop solutions and business model proposals that combined printing and scanning using Epson's cloud service, Epson Connect API^*1. Here, we report on the enthusiastic three-week event.

^*1 Epson Connect is a cloud service that connect people in remote places by the power of digital. It allows you to print and scan from anywhere on printers and multifunction devices that have an Internet connection and e-mail address.
See the following link for more information about Epson Connect:
http://www.epsonconnect.com/
See the following link for more information about the Epson Connect API:
https://openinnovation.epson.com/en/developer/

30 passionate teams, with 95 participants who represent the future of South Korea's IT industry, came together for the event!

The theme of the Innovation Challenge was "Challenge for Today, Growth of Tomorrow". Under this theme, participants were expected to propose innovative ideas that could pave the way for the future of the South Korean IT industry.

After three weeks of programming education and business model proposal mentoring, Demo Day (the final judging event) was held, on June 29, at the Lotte World Tower SKY31 Convention Center, the tallest landmark in South Korea as of 2024. Demo Day had 95 participants from the 30 teams that passed the initial document screening.

Participants came from all over South Korea, from Seoul to Busan. Many young people, especially from Generation Z, participated in this event by forming teams with friends and family or through the communication platform Discord.

Innovative ideas for solutions utilizing generative AI and UGC to revolutionize education, K-culture, and photography culture emerged

Demo Day was conducted in two rounds, morning and afternoon. In the first round, participants had the opportunity to sit around a table with the judges and receive direct feedback and mentoring. The participating teams had a valuable opportunity to enhance their proposals for the second round based on the advice they received from the panel of judges, which was composed of IT industry experts and blue-chip company executives. The 10 teams selected in the first round were given the opportunity to present their proposals in the second round in front of the judges and a total of 100 participants.

The participating teams proposed advanced ideas that combined the latest technologies, including generative AI, voice recognition, and LLM (Large Language Model), with the Epson Connect API to drive innovation in education, K-culture, and photography culture. Ideas presented in the education area included things such as AI-generated coloring book content using voice recognition, a personalized language learning content generating service, and a service for creating an album for recording a child's growth using voice recognition AI. In the K-culture area, unique ideas specific to Korea were also presented, such as AI-generated 4CutPhoto frames that place four photos on one sheet of photo paper, and services that combine K-pop with language learning.

Winner chosen based on a proposal for an innovative idea combining printing, scanning, and UGC

The winning team, "Chillin," was chosen from among many high-quality ideas with immediate business potential. They combined a voice recognition AI service with the Epson Connect API to create an educational service that allows children to easily design and print illustrated characters. The key to their victory was not only the technical completeness but also the development of a process that skillfully combined printing and scanning, enabling the digital processing and utilization of UGC.

In addition to Chillin, three other teams placed, one team winning an award for excellence and two teams winning an encouragement award. The winning team was awarded KRW 1,000 million in total prize money and a chance to partner with Epson after the maturity and suitability of the proposed solution has been evaluated. Congratulations to all four winning teams!

The Epson Innovation Challenge in Korea was attended by IT experts from industry and academia, including Junkichi Yoshida, Chief Operating Officer of Seiko Epson's Printing Solutions Division; Shigeo Fujii, CEO of Epson Korea; Sungyoung Na from Likelion; Eunkyung Park, Director of the Korea Software Industry Association; and Wonseok Lee, Professor of Computer Science at Yonsei University.

Some of the participants proposed business partnerships with Epson, impressing the judges with the quality of the presentations. Sung-Jei Park Park of Epson Korea, who presided over the competition, emphasized that even the teams that did not win awards still have business opportunities with Epson.
All participating teams presented diverse range of excellent ideas for solutions that Epson alone could not have conceived. The event was conducted as a competition, and we deeply appreciate the sincerity of the effort put forth by each participant.

"Challenge for Today, Growth of Tomorrow" - Innovation in partnership with Epson

The 2024 Epson Innovation Challenge in Korea" was a competition that embodied passion and commitment. Participants worked tirelessly from morning till night, and even those who did not advance to the second round stayed to applaud the other presenters. The judges listened attentively to all the presentations, providing honest feedback and mentoring, making it a wonderful event that opened the door to future opportunities with the participants, who were full of ideas.

Not only in Korea but around the world, Epson will continue to engage in culture-shaping open innovation and provide platforms and IoT edge devices. The future is exciting.

Article provided by Seiko Epson and Epson Korea

Note: All organization names, affiliations, titles, and interview content were correct as of the time of the event.