HanKook & Company Group Co-hosts AI Competition with KAIST

Hankook & Company Group (Chairman Cho Hyun-bum) has launched an AI competition jointly with KAIST Graduate School of Data Science (hereinafter “KAIST GSDS”) to solve real-world business challenges using data.

Hankook & Company Group announced that it held the “2nd Hankook & Company Group-KAIST AI Competition” jointly with KAIST GSDS, and hosted the final evaluation and awards ceremony on the 23rd at “Hankook Technodome,” a high-tech research institute located in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon.

This competition was a project-based industry-academia collaboration program combining the on-site expertise of Hankook & Company Group employees with the data science capabilities of KAIST GSDS. Employees and KAIST GSDS graduate students formed teams to solve data challenges identified in industrial fields such as manufacturing, R&D, quality, and supply chain management (SCM) using artificial intelligence algorithms.

Out of a total of 43 employee teams that applied, 16 teams advanced to the finals through document screening and a matching process with KAIST GSDS graduate students. Each team carried out data-based projects from real business operations over approximately six weeks to derive solutions, with participating KAIST GSDS faculty providing regular consultations to support project execution.

As a result of the evaluation, a total of 8 teams were selected as winners: 1 Grand Prize team, 2 First Prize teams, 2 Excellence Prize teams, and 3 Encouragement Prize teams.

The Grand Prize went to the project “Building a Battery Performance Prediction Model Using Cell Data” by the team of Joo Eun-seo and Byun Hye-min from the ES) Next-Generation Battery Development Division.

The team enhanced the accuracy and stability of battery state of charge (SOC) estimation using AI models and data augmentation techniques based on battery cell data. In particular, they received high praise for building an integrated pipeline that goes beyond model development to consider mass production application in actual battery management systems (BMS), demonstrating practical applicability and scalability to various battery lineups in the future.

Other award-winning projects included reducing testing time, building a self-optimizing vision inspection system, advancing TMS wear estimation technology, detecting internal defects in green tires, predicting field quality issues, predicting braking performance, and building an AI agent specialized in supply chain management (SCM).

Hankook & Company Group is accelerating group-wide digital transformation (DX) and AI transformation (AX) based on Chairman Cho Hyun-bum’s “Data·AI Driven” strategy. The group operates the in-house generative AI service “ChatHK” and translation service “CommHK” to integrate AI into daily work, while expanding AI applications across all areas including marketing, sales, logistics, production, and quality management, realizing its digital transformation vision of “AI In Motion.”

The group has maintained industry-academia collaboration with KAIST since 2019, starting with the operation of the “Digital Future Innovation Center,” and last year expanded and reorganized it into the “AI Future Innovation Center” to strengthen AI and data-centered cooperation. Going forward, the group plans to enhance employees’ AI literacy and expertise based on continued collaboration with KAIST.