First Place Award in 13th Altair Optimization Contest

▲(From the Left) Yu Gyeong-hyeon, Lee Seung-won(Mechanical Engineering 15)

On August 31, two students from the 2015 Class of Sogang's Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yu Gyeong-hyeon and Lee Seung-won (under Supervisor Prof. Lee Cheol Soo), were awarded the First Place Prize in the 13th Altair Optimization Contest, hosted by the global IT company Altair Engineering.

Since 2008, the Altair Optimization Contest has been held annually as a venue for proposing innovative optimal designs using Altair engineering software for topics and issues occurring in everyday life. With this prize amounting to a total value of about KRW 10 million, awarded in cash and other forms, the contest is growing as the largest such contest in the industry.

This 13th edition of the contest started with a written test in August, held among 124 applicants from 30 universities across the country. Following the written test, nine teams were chosen to compete in the final competition. The final competition was conducted via an online video conferencing system for real-time presentations and Q&A sessions.

The Sogang team developed 'firefighting wearable robots' designed to support firefighters by enabling them to carry more weight in their rescue activities. The project was implemented to generate supposed situations that may arise when the robots are in use, and it operated the Altair program to interpret and optimize them, with the results bringing the design of a final model at half the weight of the original and offering equal performance. The team won high praise from the judging committee for the high-level perfection demonstrated in the optimized results by directly filming the squat form for kinematical analyses.

Team member Yu Gyeong-hyeon said, "My URECA practice in the research lab during every vacation was greatly helpful, and the accumulated knowhow in mechanical design under Professor Lee Cheol Soo's guidance was critical in acquiring experimental data for this contest."

Fellow member Lee Seung-won said, "I am even more pleased with the award because all my preparations for this test were done by myself, based on no existing knowledge on how to use the tools or specific strategies for the contest. I would like to continue taking on challenges and achievements in my life to grow into an excellent engineer who never stops learning and challenging."