Altair Korea Optimization Contest 2025 Winner Announced
 
Hongik University wins grand prize with robot-assisted mixing process optimization


SEOUL, South Korea, August 25, 2025 – Altair, a global leader in computational intelligence, announced that Hongik University is the winner of the 2025 Altair Optimization Contest (AOC). The winning team proposed an idea to optimize the mixing process using a six-axis robot, achieving more effective mixing than conventional methods. Since its inception in 2008, the AOC has grown into the largest software contest in Korea, aimed at enhancing university students’ software skills and identifying outstanding talent.

The Hongik University team, which won the grand prize, focused on the issue that conventional industrial mixers with only simple rotational motion were unable to evenly mix particles. To address this, the team proposed an optimized solution that increased the degrees of freedom of mixing actions using a six-axis robot and validated the reliability and feasibility of the results by comparing and testing the optimized robot motion through both experiments and simulations, earning high recognition.

“We congratulate and thank all participating students who utilized innovative approaches to create outstanding design proposals,” said Doha Kim, country manager of Altair Korea. “As Altair continues to foster the growth of the next generation of talent, we believe this competition helps students develop the technical capabilities to become real-world ready.”

“Altair’s solutions allowed us to integrate data and perform connected analyses more efficiently than other software,” said the Hongik University team. “With an intuitive user environment and consistency across products, we could easily handle multiple tools, and this experience enabled us to apply theoretical concepts to practice and explore better optimization.”

This year, 94 participants – comprising 69 teams – from 39 universities across the country took part in the competition, with five teams advancing to the finals after intense competition. Altair evaluated the finalists’ entries based on factors such as rationality, practicality, originality, applicability, and the achievement of optimized results. A total of 3.9 million KRW in prizes and certificates were awarded to the five finalist teams, including:

• Grand Prize: Jung-hyun Byun, Han-jin Lee (Hongik University)
• Gold Prize: Jung-hwan Yoon (Konkuk University)
• Silver Prize: Chan-hyuk Jang (Korea Polytechnic University)
• Bronze Prize: Ye-eun Kim, Yun-sung Je (Korea Aerospace University)
• Bronze Prize: Kyu-bin Ahn, Yeo-eun Lim (Seoul National University of Science and Technology)

To learn more about the contest, click https://web.altair.com/aoc2025.