A promising technology commercialization competition was held, participated by trainees of an in-depth quantum technology commercialization course conducted jointly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).
The Seoul Metropolitan Government noted that the Seoul Quantum Campus Demo Day event was held on the 20th at the Seoul Startup Hub in Gongdeok. The Seoul Quantum Campus is a program jointly organized by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and KIST, established last October to cultivate talents in quantum science and technology and the quantum industry.
Eight universities, three government-funded research institutes, and over 20 corporations and startup incubator experts participated in five months of education on an individual or team basis. On the day of the demo day, 15 teams that completed the training course over the past five months participated. They presented promising technologies in the quantum industry reflecting recent trends, such as quantum computing, big data, and quantum magnetic sensors for about 15 minutes each.
Subsequently, seven teams were selected by combining the scores of the pre-evaluated individual business proposals (30%) and the evaluation results of the on-site investment IR presentations (70%). The Daesang was awarded to the team Qeoul from Seoul National University, which presented items such as the production and dissemination of ion trap-based quantum computer hardware. The best award went to the SDT team, which announced the establishment of a hybrid quantum computing data center.
Five teams were awarded excellence prizes, including OAQ (KAIST’s Lee Deok-Young and two others), Digital Net Set (Choi Yoon-Seok), Q-Scope (Jeon Seung-Woo from KIST and three others, including Jeong Hyun-Hoon from Seoul National University College of Medicine), Specialty (POSCO Holdings, Yonsei University, and Heo Chang-Hoon from Mobilint Co., Ltd. and three others), and Qummit (Qummit’s Jeon Seon-Gon). The awarded teams received funding for technology commercialization ranging from 2 million to 5 million won.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to closely support the commercialized projects discovered at the Seoul Quantum Campus to grow step-by-step through patent registration, startup, public-private investment attraction, and global expansion. They plan to give points for participating in various quantum technology support projects and also provide professional consulting.
The industrial specialized course at the Seoul Quantum Campus in 2025 (40 people) will undergo a selection process in July and will take place for three weeks starting in August. During the winter vacation, specialized quantum lectures will also be held for university students.
Choi Pan-Gyu, the director of the Seoul Innovation Industry Planning Office, said, “We will spare no effort in maintaining continuous interest and support so that the quantum technology accumulated in research institutions and universities can be commercialized and grow into promising companies through the Seoul Quantum Campus,” and added, “We plan to establish a hub for the convergence and utilization of quantum technology in Seoul through collaboration with KIST, universities researching quantum, and others based on Seoul's excellent deep tech startup ecosystem.”