□ DGIST’s (President: Kuk Yang) researcher startup MFR and student startup TIA have been selected as Samsung Electronics C-Lab Outside Daegu.
□ Samsung Electronics selected five innovative startups in the fields of healthcare, robotics, and materials/parts based on the recommendations of Daegu Center for Creative Economy & Innovation and through expert screening. Among those five startups, DGIST’s MFR and TIA have been selected.
□ C-Lab Outside Daegu is an external startup fostering program executed by Samsung Electronics which strives to discover and foster excellent startups to vitalize the startup ecosystem and regional economy. The selected startups will receive funds up to 100 million KRW and customized consultation for each growth stage of the company from the employees of Samsung Electronics. Furthermore, these startups will have an opportunity to collaborate with Samsung Electronics and its affiliates and participate in domestic and overseas IT exhibitions including CES, while receiving support for entering national and global markets.
□ MFR is a startup launched by researcher Seungyeol Lee from the Division of Intelligent Robot in January 2021. MFR manufactures module-type professional service robots for efficient work progress and secures safety of construction sites in one of the most dangerous industries. MFR received the grand prize (Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Award) in 2021 Smart Construction Startup Idea Contest and proposed the methodology of “multi-purpose construction robot platform” for solving the current construction industry issues including unbalanced supply and demand of labor force due to a population decline and Serious Accidents Punishment Act. To date, the company has concluded a sales contract worth 2 billion KRW and attracted investments worth 2.35 billion KRW; furthermore, MFR is jointly developing various construction robots with Samsung C&T Corporation for establishing a safe construction ecosystem.
□ Seungyeol Lee, the CEO of MFR, said that “the company aims to create a safe industrial environment without major disasters based on the technology accumulated over the past 20 years through research and development of field robots for the construction industry.”
□ TIA is a student startup launched by Jinyoung Park, a PhD student in the Department of Energy Engineering, in June 2022. Currently, the company is developing a high-efficiency catalytic filter for reducing particulate matter. The company has developed a technology for removing particulate matter in exhaust gas discharged from factories without replacing a filter. The cylindrical titanium oxide manufacturing technology of TIA enables permanent use, without producing by-products, by heightening air permeability through a catalyst structure that is open on both sides. TIA has received three Minister’s awards including the Minister of Science and ICT Award in 2022 and is gaining growing recognition as a next-generation eco-friendly company.
□ Jinyoung Park, the CEO of TIA, stated that they “aim to become the first unicorn of DGIST through collaboration with Samsung Electronics as they have been selected as one of Samsung Electronics C-Lab Outside Daegu.”
