On December 9, 2021, Won Hyun-Jin, a Freshman at the Department of Energy Engineering at Hanyang University(HYU), and his team “Two Laps Around the Neighborhood” won the Grand Prize in the 2021 Smart Campus Challenge with their “Hyperlocal Map for Young Single-person Households” idea. The competition was held by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport of South Korea aimed to increase industrial-academia linkage(IAL) through smart solutions.
Q. Please briefly introduce what “Hyperlocal Map for Young Single-person Households” is.
A. “Hyperlocal Map for Young Single- person Households” is a service that collects insider information from residents of smaller regional districts and makes them available to those seeking it. It was made to stand out from other web mapping platforms such as NAVER Map and Kakaomap by providing minuscule but meaningful information based on regional characteristics that the average person would not have access to. An example would be an introduction of a trail course or collection of things to do around the neighborhood that only locals would have known. It will also be a place for proud residents to show off the charms of their neighborhood.
Q. It has come to our attention that the members in “Two Laps Around the Neighborhood” are not all from HYU, how did you come across your members?
A. I was browsing through Everytime, a university-based social platform, when I came across a study group for people living in Seongdong District who were interested in or planning to begin a startup. During our numerous conversations, the topic of the 2021 Smart Campus Challenge came up several times. As it seemed to fit in with the purpose of our study group, we decided to participate.
Q. Why did your team choose single- person households to be the target audience for your idea?
A. As our group had met up regularly near HYU, it naturally came to us that we should choose single-person households to be our target audience which most university students are a part of. We thought it would be a great way for students to get connected with the region and enjoy their campus life.
Q. We heard that you and your team are planning on launching an official service based on your web mapping idea. Please share what audiences should expect from it.
A. We are currently creating a contact-tracing based social media platform available through a newly developed mobile application. We will first collect regional information based in HYU and expand it to other campuses accordingly. We are looking forward to the participation of HYU students who we are sure will have lots of fun and interesting information to share.