SEOUL, August 06 (AJP) - Five undergraduates from Kookmin University's School of Materials Science and Engineering won the grand prize at a national standardization competition on July 24, taking the award given in the name of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources for a proposed durability test covering solar panels built into vehicle bodies.
No existing test protocol subjects such panels to light, heat and vibration at the same time, the combination a panel mounted on a moving vehicle meets in service. The team, competing as Hot Potato, submitted a draft evaluation standard that reproduces all three stresses together, and Kookmin said a judging panel drawn from industry and the standards field rated the work the strongest entry.
The technology at issue is vehicle-integrated photovoltaics, in which solar cells are fixed to the body of a car or other vehicle and generate electricity while it is being driven. Perovskite is the material widely expected to succeed silicon in solar cells, and it is more fragile under combined environmental stress, which is the problem the students set out to address.
The team consisted of Choi Jun-hyuk, Yang Seo-yun, Seo Han-i, Sung Yeon-seung and Han Seon-gu. Their proposal grew out of the department's Engineering Design course, taught by Hong Seung-hyun, who advised the team.
The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards and the Korean Standards Association co-hosted the contest at SKY31 Convention in Songpa-gu, Seoul. Ten teams from five universities entered, drawn from Gachon University, Kongju National University, Kookmin, Sejong University and Far East University. Seven of the 10 took prizes across the grand, top excellence, excellence and special categories.
Rival entries covered 3D printing construction processes and evaluation criteria for self-healing concrete. Each team was asked to take a technology from its own field of study and work through the process of turning it into a standard.
The competition sits inside a government program that trains engineering students to write technical standards rather than only build to them, part of a broader push to place Korean rules at the center of emerging industries. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources (MOTIR) funds the program, and the five universities in the field are the institutions carrying it out.
Kookmin has now won the top award at both editions of the contest. Materials science students from the university took the same ministerial grand prize at the first competition, held at the same venue on Nov. 21, 2025, along with awards from the Korean Standards Association and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology.
The Hot Potato team receives an overseas exchange program as its prize.
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AJP Takeaways
● The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources awarded its top prize at the second Advanced Industry Standardization Competition to five Kookmin University materials science undergraduates on July 24 for a draft test standard covering solar panels built into vehicle bodies.
● The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards and the Korean Standards Association drew 10 teams from five universities to the contest, with seven taking prizes. The field and the competing entries, including 3D printing construction processes and self-healing concrete criteria, were not in the university announcement.
● Kookmin has taken the ministerial grand prize at both editions of the contest, having won the first on Nov. 21, 2025.
● The Hot Potato team proposed reproducing light, heat and vibration stress at the same time, a combination no existing protocol applies to perovskite panels mounted on moving vehicles.
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