The Ministry of SMEs and Startups successfully launched this year’s biggest startup festival in South Korea, the COMEUP 2020, from November 19-21. The three-day event aims to connect startups and business ventures under the theme “Meet the Future – Post Pandemic.”
The second day took on quantum computing, open innovation, robotics, artificial intelligence, remote work, and the future of manufacturing.
Manufacturing: Digitalization, a Strategy for Industry Transformation
Byeng Dong Youn, the CEO of OnePredict and Professor of SNU Mechanical Engineering, communicated the advantages of industrial digitalization in manufacturing and the strategies companies could adopt for the future. The COVID-19 pandemic became a trigger for many growing startups and companies to take advantage of digitalization and expand throughout various industries.
Byeng Dong is leading the digitalized technology with services such as GuardiOne, a Digital Twin product that predicts and manages industrial facilities’ integrity. Recently, Byeng Dong has commercialized power plant turbines, substation transformers/circuit breakers, wind power generators, industrial robots/motors, and more.
He said that the convergence of Big Data and Industrial AI is the catalyst to the rapid digitalization of industries. An industrial digitalization that leverages the current industrial big data could generate a tremendous growth rate.
Industrial AI combines physical-based Domain Knowledge and artificial intelligence technology to overcome a rule-based solution’s low accuracy in diagnosis/prognosis.
Byeng Dong emphasized the importance of digitalization, especially during a pandemic crisis, to keep the economy running. However, he also mentioned that many industries had not embraced digitalization, saying that now is the time to take advantage of it in the manufacturing sector.
Since the coronavirus crisis, many technology and service companies have used the term “untact” to create products and services. This concept has increased the importance of “Digital Twin,” the recreation of a physical asset into the digital world.
He ended his presentation with three remarks on the use of digitization:
- Industrial data would open up new business models with the huge market size.
- Using industrial AI is better than purely using artificial intelligence.
- Business models should be scalable and evolutionary with the use of machine data.
AI-based Next Generation Infrastructure
Jin Soo Kim, Director of KT Investment, moderated the panel discussion tackling the possibilities of AI-based next-generation infrastructure. The panelists included Byeolteo Park (CEO of Seadronix), Daniel Lim (CEO of Energy AI Platform startup Crocus), and Jay Choi (co-founder and CEO of autonomous drone solutions firm Nearthlab).
The South Korean leaders discussed artificial intelligence’s role in their respective companies and how they could create AI-based solutions. They also talked about how AI is shaping industries and how technology helps Korea to progress exponentially.
Flow Optimization: Factories, Logistics Facilities, and People
The last panel discussion of the second day of COMEUP 2020 covered the pandemic’s challenges on the manufacturing sector. Byline Network reporter Ji Yong Um moderated the talk that focuses on flow optimizations in the manufacturing industry.
Ji Yong Um interviewed three panelists, which included Byung Soo Kim (CEO and a founder of Motion2AI), Dr. Yoon Haeng Lee (CEO/Co-Founder of AIDIN ROBOTICS), and Tae Young Jeong (CEO of PLAIF).
The biggest hurdle for the manufacturing industry is to automate processes that involve human interaction. They also discussed industrial robots, unmanned vehicles, and AI-based technology in warehousing and logistics processes.
