UP Resilience Institute Research and Creative Work Division (UPRI-RCW) Junior Project Assistant Jamie Therese Gundaya attended the 2024 Industrial LINCage Festival for Global Leaders (Global Festival 2024) in Seoul, South Korea from August 4 to 15, 2024 after receiving a program scholarship from the organizers.
Gundaya’s team was the only team to win two awards: Best Team and Best Promotional Film. The team consisted of Kim Sungjun from Sungkyungkwan University, Loo Woon Chee from Chung Ang University, Jie Yerim from Kyung Hee University, and Lee Eunbin from Hanyang University. 35 teams were assigned to 23 AI, energy, e-commerce, and content production industry partners. Participants underwent consultation and mentorship to produce project proposals to solve real-life problems.
The team emerged in the top 2 of the Manufacturing cluster, landing in the Top 8 best teams overall. The partner company was Hanju Chemical Co., Ltd., a leader in the firefighting industry committed to reducing their climate impact through environmentally friendly fire suppression agents.
The resulting project proposal was a rebranding effort to increase awareness about eco-friendly fire safety products through on-ground activations and partnerships with government agencies such as the Korea Tourism Organization and the Ministry of Education. The team’s proposal was also positively received by the sales manager and CEO of Hanju Chemical.
The Global Festival focused on building skills for developing realistic and effective initiatives towards youth innovation, human and planetary health, advanced technology, and sustainable development. Such skills include problem identification, solution design, project management, data gathering strategies, human-centered design, and design thinking.
Global Festival 2024 was hosted by Hanyang University and 10 other Seoul universities that are members of LINC3.0, a Korean government program that aims to facilitate industry-academia partnerships. The Festival culminated with a celebration of International Youth Day and the signing of the Seoul Declaration.