AI avatars and goose research win Presidential Award at Science Exhibition

Announcement of Winners of the 71st National Science Exhibition, “The National Science Museum (Director Kwon Seok-min) completed the evaluation of entries for the 71st National Science Exhibition and announced the major winners, including the Presidential Award and the Prime Minister’s Award, on the 25th.”,
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, “The National Science Exhibition, now in its 71st year, is the oldest science inquiry competition in the country. It has established itself as a platform for nurturing creative abilities. A total of 2,836 works were submitted from 17 regions across the country for this event. Among them, 301 were selected through regional competitions to advance to the finals.”,
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, “The Presidential Award went to Team ALICEization (Student Division) and Team Goose Down (Teacher/General Division).”,
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The AI avatar and geese research received the Presidential Award at the National Science Exhibition. [Photo = Ministry of Science and ICT],
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, “The Student Division Presidential Award-winning work was ‘Research on the Development of an AI Companion – Project A.L.I.C.E.-‘ by Hong Tae-min and Chae Hyo-rim, 2nd graders at Gusan Middle School.”,
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, “Team ALICEization developed the AI avatar ‘A.L.I.C.E (Autonomous Learning Intelligent Cognitive Entity)’ to aid socially isolated elderly individuals and those experiencing emotional difficulties, such as depression patients, utilizing the ever-advancing AI technology.”,
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, “Unlike existing information-focused AI services, this work emphasizes emotional exchange, implementing technologies that enable interaction similar to humans, such as a hierarchized memory system (hot, warm, cold memory), emotion-based conversations (intonation, etc.), and real-time emotional expressions (gestures, facial expressions).”,
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, “To address privacy concerns, it was built on a local server (On-Premise), and it received high praise for combining AI technology with societal needs to implement emotionally interactive AI.”,
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, “The Teacher/General Division Presidential Award-winning work ‘Development of Inquiry Learning Materials Focusing on Population Increase and Behavioral Characteristics of Geese in Gohungman (Anser fabalis)’ was accomplished by teachers Kim Yoon-ha (Yeosu Elementary), Ahn Ho-jeong (Shindae Elementary), and Choi Sung-hee (Suncheon Dosa Elementary). After observing a rapid increase in the population of the bean goose (an endangered wildlife level II species) near Gohungman, they realized the need for ecological environment analysis to accurately measure the population and determine the causes of growth.”,
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, “The work devised a large-scale bird counting method and analyzed Gohungman’s ecological environment and bird characteristics through ecology behavior-based observation.”,
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, “Additionally, the Prime Minister’s Award went to Team Doppler (Student Division) and Teacher Ryu Jae-hwan (Teacher/General Division). Team Doppler (3rd graders at Chungbuk High School, Lee Hyun-soo, and Yoo Seung-jun) tackled the issue of noise pollution, a major societal problem, by improving the existing noise-canceling technology that fails to effectively reduce the noise of moving sound sources.”,
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, “Teacher Ryu Jae-hwan, through his study, developed an immersive astronomy learning space using recycled materials by employing a spherical mirror reflection-type projector to create a low-cost (about 600,000 won) planetarium applicable in school settings.”,
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, “Director Kwon Seok-min of the National Science Museum commented, ‘Since its inception in 1949, the National Science Exhibition has served as a gateway for nurturing scientific talent in our country and as a cradle for spreading scientific culture. This year’s event highlighted the students’ efforts to creatively solve various problems in their surroundings, based on their scientific inquiry spirit.'”,
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