Konkuk and Singapore Management University students team up for two-day ideathon
Konkuk University's student-run KUVC and Singapore Management University's Start-up Society ran a joint ideathon on July 29-30 in which 50 students formed mixed nationality teams to solve a corporate procurement challenge.
Konkuk University’s student venture club KUVC and the Start-up Society of Singapore Management University jointly held the 2026 KU-SMU Joint Ideathon on July 29 and 30 at the Makerspace and X-Space on Konkuk’s Seoul campus, according to a press release from Konkuk University.
About 50 students took part in eight teams, comprising 35 Konkuk students and 18 SMU students, the university said. Participants formed combined teams across nationalities and majors and worked through the two days — without an overnight stay — from idea generation to business model design and final presentations.
The corporate partner, Brand Boost, set the challenge and judged the results, asking teams to address waste in company maintenance, repair and operations purchasing using data and artificial intelligence. Proposals included demand forecasting models and AI-based automated quotation and matching services, according to the release.
KUVC is a student-led organization that plans and runs entrepreneurship education programs itself, and the event was supported by the university’s startup support center together with the international exchange and cooperation team, the innovation project group and the immersive media innovation convergence university project group. Roh Min, KUVC’s student president, and Bae Sung-jun, head of the startup support headquarters, delivered remarks.
Konkuk said it ranked first nationwide in both the number of student entrepreneurs and the number of student startup companies in the 2025 and 2026 university information disclosures, and that it plans to expand support for student startup accelerator activities.