Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) students formed the JBIG Team (Kim Dong-wan, Go Gyeong-su, Mun Woo-hyeok, Hwang San-ha) and won the Grand Prize at the '2021 Data Creator Camp' hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency (NIA).

The camp was a three-month practicum in which participants solved problems that can arise in real business environments through data analysis training and mentoring by experts. It was organized as a hackathon in which participating teams solved problems announced on the day and gave presentations.

With 323 high school and university (including graduate) students participating, the camp offered a differentiated curriculum that enabled even beginners in data analysis to learn theory and produce practical outcomes. Intensive mentoring by data analysis experts greatly increased participant satisfaction.

The JBNU team consisted of undergraduates from the Department of Sociology, the Department of Economics, and the Department of Statistics. They had been studying data-related topics together out of interest in the field.

For the landmark image classification problem provided on the day, they proposed image augmentation and an EfficientNet model architecture solution. Judges praised their collaborative work for producing strong performance in a short time.

Kim Dong-wan said, 'Performing data analysis in a short time was not easy, but based on the skills I developed through my undergraduate studies and study group, we were able to conduct the hackathon and achieve a good result. I want to continue building skills in various fields and grow as a data analyst.'

NIA Director Mun Yong-sik said, 'We will pay greater attention to and support the next-generation leaders who will lead the digital transformation era and the future data scientists who will drive digital innovation.'

Meanwhile, interviews with the final winners of the 'Data Creator Camp', held to foster creative data talent, will be shared later on the K-ICT Big Data Center YouTube channel.