Gachon University (President Lee Gil-yeo) announced on the 10th that the real-time interactive media facade content ‘STORYSYNC’, participated in by the Department of Game and Video, has jointly won the ‘CES 2026 Best of Innovation’ award.

This year, Gachon University is the first domestic university to receive the CES Best of Innovation award. It is evaluated as a case proving that the new industry-academic cooperation ecosystem in the domestic game, video, AI, and applied technology fields has sufficient competitiveness in the global market.

‘STORYSYNC’ is a technology that analyzes visitors' SNS images with artificial intelligence (AI) and converts them into storytelling content in real-time, implementing them in the form of a media facade. It was recognized for its technical creativity by simultaneously realizing locality and artistry based on the folklore of the Jeju region. It has opened up the possibility of expansion into various convergence fields such as regional tourism content, cultural heritage education, and festival-type media installations.

This project involved Gachon University in AI-based technology development, practical talent cultivation, and industry-academic cooperation research, while Art Nova Co., Ltd. was responsible for overall development and service operation. Next Step Studio handled content direction and video production, and media art company ‘Damgara’ conducted media art production. It received evaluations for enhancing technical completeness and content quality through close collaboration between industry and academia.

At Gachon University, Kim Jeong-yoon, head of the Department of Game and Video, participated in the project, and undergraduate students Lee Ji-min and Lim Soo-yeon were responsible for content production in the company-linked practical course. The AI-based media processing engine was developed by the research team of Professor Jeong Yun-hyun from the Department of Artificial Intelligence (Research Assistants Choi Joon-seo, Kang Ji-yoon, Kim Ye-jin), and Research Assistants Lee So-jin, Yoo Jeong-eun, Ahn Ha-il, and Kim Soo-hyun participated in technology advancement through the cultural technology (CT) professional manpower training project.

This technology underwent practical verification and technological advancement with support from the university's Creative Asset Commercialization Support Project (BRIDGE 3.0), and Professors Kim Jeong-yoon and Jeong Yun-hyun transferred the technology. With the cooperation of the Chungnam Content Agency (Director Kim Gok-mi), ‘Damgara’ was attracted to a company in the Asan region, contributing to the revitalization of the regional content industry.
‘CES (Consumer Electronics Show)’ is the world's largest IT and technology exhibition held annually in January in Las Vegas, USA, where global companies and research institutions showcase the latest technologies and products.

Among them, the ‘CES Innovation Awards’ are given to select outstanding products and services in various fields such as technology, design, user experience, and sustainability. The ‘Best of Innovation’ award is the highest honor given to only a few works that receive the highest evaluation in each category.

The Game and Video Department, an early employment-type contract department at Gachon University, is strengthening education and research based on industry sites, focusing on the cultural technology (CT) professional manpower training project. The joint receipt of the CES Best of Innovation award is evaluated as a case where this industry-academic cooperation-centered education and research system has been recognized on the international stage.

Department Head Kim Jeong-yoon stated, “It is significant that the industry-academic cooperation project, in which students and researchers participated together, achieved results at a global technology exhibition,” and added, “We will continue to closely link education and research to foster professional manpower in the digital content AI and applied technology fields.”

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