Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) held a smartphone app development contest to discover talented app developers and to proactively respond to the smart era. The ZEST team, composed of Heo Gwang-yeol, Park Kwang-su and Yoon Hyeong-do from the Department of Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, won the top prize.

JBNU held the award ceremony for the smartphone app development contest at 2:00 PM on January 20 in the Conference Room on the 3rd floor of the Information and Computing Center.

The contest, aimed at students and the general public interested in smartphone app development, was held from November 15 of last year to January 13 of this year. The competition focused on developing outstanding apps related to JBNU.

The ZEST team, winner of the top prize, received praise for the Android-based application '전대인 모두 모여!' for creating a platform where university members can share needed information via a mobile campus. The app was commended for its high practical utility, as it not only makes essential campus-life information easy to find but also provides a marketplace for buying and selling used textbooks each semester.

It was also praised for its originality in incorporating social networking trends that allow communication among members, going beyond simply providing university information.

The Excellence Award was presented to Park Kwang-su (Master's program, Department of Computer Engineering) for 'Life at JBNU', an app designed to facilitate easy sharing of information within departments, and to 'JBNU Mobile', created by Ko Chang-il (Department of Computer Engineering) and two others.

The Creative Award (third prize) was awarded to three entrants, including Lee Seung-hyun (Department of Computer Science) of Dankook University for the app 'JBNU Spot the Difference' and JBNU's Kim Ji-cho (Division of Electronic Engineering) for the app 'JBNU Club Talk'.

Park Sun-cheol, Director of the Information and Computing Center, said, "This contest was held to proactively respond to the smart era and to enhance students' competitiveness by improving their smartphone app development skills. We will use this opportunity to encourage students to continue developing apps that provide useful information about the university and to support their growth into outstanding professionals in app-related fields."

Meanwhile, the top prize winner received the JBNU President's Award and a cash prize of 2,000,000 won. Recipients of the Excellence Award received 1,000,000 won each, and winners of the Creative Award received 500,000 won each.