"Let's open a society without discrimination on the disabled through design."
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- Writer 커뮤니케이션팀
- 보도일자 2015-02-09
These students were one of the 18 teams that were selected at the 'First C-Lab Venture Competition', which was held at the end of the last year. The selected teams are to become the residents at the C-Lab for as long as 6 months, which is an excellent talent development space operated by Daegu Center for Creative Economy & Innovation and sponsored by Samsung Group and Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. It boasts exceptional benefits as the initial funding is already 20 million won and additional funding of 480 million won is given through middle evaluation and final showcase. Therefore, the competition rate was 207 to 1 and most of the accepted teams were veteran entrepreneurs in their 40s. Because of this, the students who were the only college team stood out even more. Student Ju Sang-hi said, "It was true that I felt out of place and intimidated when I only saw people who had on suits and professional atmosphere about them during the competition's presentations...but I soon thought that such worries were meaningless at the time, so I just moved forward by staying confident."
The competition was progressed across 7 areas such as Internet of Things, software, 3D printer, wearable devices, fashion, smart cars, games and videos. Students Park Young-eun and Ju Sang-hi presented their wearable device item called bowel movement detector for paraplegic patients. Student Ju Sang-hi said, "Because my grandmother is not well, I always had an interest in the inconveniences experienced by people with disabilities. Then, my attention turned toward paraplegic disability. Many other disabilities are congenital, but the main cause of paraplegia is industrial accidents. Because the disability is acquired through an accident, the patients naturally have a greater difficulty in adapting. When I did some research, I found out that dealing with their bowel movement is the most difficult challenge rather than moving around. This is the reason why I designed this item." The judges showed great interest in this idea of helping vulnerable social groups in our society by utilizing state-of-the-art technology.
The students agreed the courses they had taken in their major was a big help in coming up with the idea. Student Park Young-eun said, "The universal design that I am learning in the Department of Visual & Media Design is a design that makes products, construction, environment, services, etc., more convenient and safe for all people regardless of their age or whether they have disabilities or not" and "I was able to again realize the importance of a design that considers the society when I was learning about the basic concepts of universal design from my professors."
The students were able to apply for the competition because they had participated in the Sookmyung Venture Competition that was held on campus in November. At the time, the students had received the best prize with a rice bowl design for infants, and this gave them the courage to challenge on a bigger stage. With the help from professors in the Department of Visual & Media Design and personnel from Business Incubation Center, the students were able to make preparations for the item as well as develop their ideas into a specific idea for commercialization. This means they were able to produce good results by filling in each other's gaps and effectively dividing the roles between them.
The two students will join the Pit-in Camp, which is a personnel innovation support program of Samsung Electronics' in-house Creative Development Center, for two weeks and receive various mentoring classes. In addition, their ideas are planned to be developed, adapted with technology, manufactured and commercialized at the C-Lab for 6 months. Samsung experts will implement 1:1 mentoring and help with prototyping and testing. Depending on the performance at the time of graduation from C-Lab, a long-term partnership opportunity with Samsung is also a possibility. This will be the first successful step as women entrepreneurs.
The two students emphasized the 'importance of something trivial' to their junior students who are also dreaming of the same future. ”There's a saying that answers to all problems are closer than we think. Don't search for something so far away, but get into the habit of catching trivial issues in your daily lives and around you; and when you are struck with an idea, write it down. I want to tell them not to give up early by thinking 'This isn't going to work.' but to challenge unconditionally and not be afraid of failure."