SEOUL, South Korea – Yonsei University and the Korean Association for Policy Studies (KAPS), with sponsorship from Google, successfully concluded the 2025 Asia Impact Hackathon on May 9 at Yonsei University.

The hackathon was launched as an educational initiative to foster student-led innovation in addressing public challenges through artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies. It aimed to deepen university students’ engagement with societal issues and encourage proactive problem-solving across Asia.

Following the success of its inaugural event in 2024 — the Yonsei–KAPS Hackathon for Social Good, which focused on Korean university students — the 2025 edition expanded regionally. The 2025 Asia Impact Hackathon welcomed over 300 student teams from 12 Asia-Pacific countries.

After two months of regional preliminaries, six teams advanced to the grand final: two from Korea, two from Vietnam, and one each from Singapore and Malaysia. Final presentations, delivered in a hybrid format, addressed a wide range of issues — from real-time scam detection and inclusive sign language translation to AI-powered waste management and multilingual news summarization.

The event was co-organized by Yonsei’s BK21 education-research programs: the Department of Public Policy & Management and the Department of Computational Science and Engineering. Its interdisciplinary evaluation model — combining perspectives from the humanities and engineering — set it apart from conventional tech competitions.

“This hackathon offered a unique educational platform for students across Asia to reflect on regional challenges, share ideas, and collaborate,” said Professor Sounman Hong, Director of the BK21 Program in Public Policy & Management at Yonsei. “I was deeply impressed by their creativity and commitment to advancing public value. We also sincerely thank Google for their invaluable support, through both generous contributions and active engagement.”

Finalist projects included:

– A community waste management platform (Vietnam)

– A real-time scam detection tool (Singapore)

– An AI-powered sign language translator (Malaysia)

– A multilingual news summarization service (Korea)

Each solution was praised for its creativity, inclusiveness, and real-world relevance. The event also fostered collaboration across cultures, disciplines, and borders. Participants came from fields ranging from computer science to public administration and the humanities, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary problem-solving in the digital era.

Yonsei University’s Department of Public Policy & Management, which led the initiative, recently ranked 6th globally in the 2025 QS World University Rankings by Subject, underscoring its leadership in education and research.

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Country: South Korea
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