Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Professor Yeom Jong-min’s research team (Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences; G-Lamp Institute for Basic Materials and Energy Science), participating in the JBNU G-Lamp Project Group, demonstrated integrated capabilities by winning both the Grand Prize and an Encouragement Award at the "2026 Meteorology and Climate Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hackathon Competition," combining meteorological and climate data with artificial intelligence (AI).

The competition, organized by the Meteorological and Climate Talent Development Institute under the Korea Meteorological Administration, was established to discover creative educational content using meteorological and climate data and AI technology and to cultivate future talent in related fields. A total of 206 teams from across the country participated. After review of development proposals, 15 teams advanced to the finals. They then underwent pre-training, content development, expert mentoring, an on-site hackathon, and final presentations, after which six teams were selected as award winners.

Among them, the JBNU G-Lamp participating research teams "Malangyi Research Lab" and "J4_208" won the Grand Prize and the Encouragement Award, respectively. It is particularly meaningful that two of the six final award-winning teams were research teams participating in the G-Lamp Project.

The Grand Prize-winning team "Malangyi Research Lab" (Song Yu-dam, Kim Yun-ji, Kim Do-won, Kim Kang-min) developed "AI Weather Education Game with Malangbot," in which elementary students directly adjust weather elements to learn the principles of weather formation. Learners combine six weather elements to create various "weather Malangyi" characters and learn the relationships among weather elements through AI explanations and hints. The project was highly evaluated for enabling users to understand complex meteorological and climate information easily and engagingly through direct manipulation and hands-on experience.

The Encouragement Award-winning team "J4_208" (Song Si-eun, Kim Su-hwan, Lee Ye-jin, Han Do-hee) developed "Haneul’s Paldo Weather Exploration," which uses Korea Meteorological Administration surface observation data (ASOS) and AI. The experience-based educational content allows users to explore regional weather nationwide and directly adjust temperature, humidity, wind, and precipitation conditions to learn the relationship between weather and meteorological disasters such as wildfires.

This award is significant as it shows that the basic science research capacity accumulated through the JBNU G-Lamp Project is expanding into AI- and data-based convergence fields. It is also meaningful that research outcomes were not limited to academic papers or funded projects but were connected to educational and science-culture content that the public can experience firsthand.

Professor Yeom Jong-min said, "This research was conducted based on the research infrastructure and academic environment of the G-Lamp (LAMP) Project Group supported by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea," and added, "We will continue to support students so that their creative ideas can be applied in actual educational settings."

Project Director Lee Jeong-hwan also said, "This award demonstrates that basic science research capacity, when combined with AI, can create new research possibilities and social value," and added, "Based on the G-Lamp Project’s mission to foster basic science, we will expand convergence with advanced technologies such as AI and data to broaden research boundaries and actively support the creation of research outcomes that can lead future science."