Pukyong National University

Why 'sorry, I'm a liberal arts major'? Unique start-up ideas from liberal arts majors

- action plan contest for PKNU college of humanities and social sciences attracts attention

△ Contest winners posing for a commemorative photo.

Pukyong National University (President Jang Young-Soo) is attracting attention by holding a start-up contest exclusively for students in the college of humanities and social sciences.

The college of humanities and social sciences (dean Lee Hee-Young) held the 'contest on startup action plan for PKNU powerful leap forward' for three months from October last year to this month, and recently selected and awarded excellent works.

This contest was designed to discover the unique potential of students in the college of humanities and social sciences, including developing their spirit for founding business challenges and problem-solving skills for start-up.

As the participants are students at the college of humanities and social sciences, the winning works also have a feel for humanity. The start-up item of student Kim Seo-Hyeon (majoring in Japanese studies), who received the grand prize, was 'dentissue', an oral cleaning tissue made from corn by-products.

This item is a disposable oral cleaning tissue containing corn extract. It uses the friction of corn husks to physically remove food and tartar, and uses xylitol and ingredients contained in corncobs to inhibit the growth of cavity-causing bacteria and prevent oral inflammation.

Kim Seo-Hyeon said, "While I was volunteering to support meals at a senior welfare center, I was wondering if there is a way for the elderly to care for their teeth with less effort, and that led me to develop dentissue."

She, who has already been engaged in various education and activities at the start-up club, is not only developing items, but also completing patent applications, and is also preparing for foundation in earnest, including directly negotiating with corn farms to provide raw materials.

In addition, the student team of Choi Min-Seok and Kim Seung-Joon majoring in public administration, received the excellence award in this contest for 'LOCUS', a one-stop reservation, payment, and travel itinerary planning solution using an online travel review database.

They have already developed a business model and registered as a business since last year through collaboration with current developers, designers and are attracting attention by being selected not only as a preliminary tourism venture by the Korea tourism organization but also as a representative tourism company in Busan.

Another excellence award winner, the team of social welfare majors Yoon Seok-Hwan and Jeong Jin-Hoon, received positive reviews for their proposal of 'SAW', a platform for purchasing and renting art works from art majors. Ideas such as a foreigner-only restaurant application (Kim Se-Woong, Lee Ho-Joon), a foreigner homestay matching platform (Park Ki-Yeol, Baek Seo-Rin, Jeong Yeon-Bin), and a distribution business to food rescue imperfect products (Park Yoo-Shin) received participation awards. <Pukyong Today>