[Thailand Inventors Day]

Student Jaewoong BANG is the winner of various international invention contests in Thailand, Iran, and Romania. He is also an engineer full of curiosity and the CEO of UCON. His career is remarkable considering that he is still an undergraduate student.

◈ Automatic charging system for electric vehicle

He thought of the idea of automatic charging system when he was preparing for the 2018 Pangyo smart-city idea contest. He wanted to think of something that will simplify people’s daily life rather than something grandiose. Currently, people have to go through the inconvenient process of searching and moving to the charging station. BANG thought of installing “Wall-C” on the walls of parking lot to solve this problem. The Wall-C will recognize the license plate and analyze the owner, model and other necessary information and calculate the location of the charging outlet by checking how the car has been parked. It uses the robotic arm to plug-in to the outlet and move on to the next car when it is fully charged. Wall-C will repeat this process until all of the electric car in the parking lot is fully charged.

His team conducted the planning, market research, and development all by themselves. They joined many international contests and received valuable comments from experts to perfect their project.

“It was difficult realizing the idea in the level of undergraduate studies. I signed up for courses that I found necessary. I took course on “system dynamics” and “control engineering” and also “practical patent law” to apply for patent. I couldn’t learn all the necessary skills to realize the technology but it was significant that I had a chance to communicate with experts in the field.”

He received support from many different people when he was developing the Wall-C. He met a mentor through the S-hero. He learned about the market of electric vehicle and the actual work site. He was also coached through the SPARK program managed by the college of software. His professor invited an expert and taught him by disassembling a motor. BANG joined a forum to listen to a lecture if he found it necessary. He searched for every support that possibly could.

◈ Invention starts from small things

BANG first thought that inventing is difficult. He wanted to give some advices for inventing. He said that inventing does not start from something great but from trying to solve small things that we easily encounter in our daily lives. If you find a solution to a problem, you must refine that method and develop a core technology to realize the solution. His advice is to fall deeply into the issue and study it.

◈ UCON (Youth Conglomerate)

The team name “UCON” stands for Youth Conglomerate. Team members are preparing for business to become young conglomerates. They have been selected and supported by various institutions such as the Ministry of Science and ICT, I-Corps (National Research Foundation of Korea), and SKKU’s EPT. Their objective for 2019 is to try out for the third round of S-hero and exhibit a better Wall-C.

“Personally, I feel that there are many colleagues who fear doing extracurricular activities because they believe it is extremely difficult. Many students worry that they will just waste time but I want to tell them that there are no such thing as useless experience and that there’s nothing to lose.”

The university is currently supporting various programs. BANG advised to make use of these programs.

“Do not fear visiting, calling or sending email to professors and companies. It’s going to be tough but the experience will become your skills. I wish the success of SKKU students.”