The HUSS Global Coexistence Project Team at Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung-ryul) successfully ran the 2025 Design Thinking Program in Uzbekistan from June 24 to June 30 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

This program, the second of its kind following the 2024 academic year, was jointly conducted by the HUSS Global Symbiosis Consortium and Uzbekistan's TUIT (Tashkent University of Information Technologies). It was structured as a problem-solving project based on the design thinking methodology, with the theme “Solving Social Issues in Uzbekistan through AI.”

A total of 42 participants, including 30 students from Kookmin University, Gwangwoon University, Sunmoon University, and Yeungnam University, and 12 students from TUIT, formed six teams and participated in the program. The students directly carried out the entire process of empathy, definition, ideation, prototype development, and testing to derive creative solutions to local social issues.

The seven-day project proceeded in the order of team interviews and research, followed by prototype development. On the final day, a ‘Design Thinking Hackathon’ presentation of achievements was held with the participation of professors and experts from universities affiliated with the HUSS Global Symbiosis Consortium. After intense competition, the gold award was awarded to the SUV’ER NOVA team (Park Chan-woong et al., Dilnura Mutalova et al.) for proposing a “smart management app to prevent excessive water use in rural areas.” The silver award was awarded to the KUZGUARD team(Choi Ji-ho and 4 others, Bekzod Turdialiyev and 1 other), and the Bronze Prize was awarded to the MEDGUARDIANS team (Choi Seon-jae and 4 others, Abdurahimov Avbdurashid and 1 other) for their proposal titled “An app to mitigate Uzbekistan's pharmaceutical safety issues, including counterfeit drug outbreaks.”

Professor Ahn, Hyunchul of the Department of Business Information, who oversaw the program, stated, “This program went beyond a simple overseas training program, providing a valuable educational opportunity to directly experience the process of analyzing and creatively solving real-world community issues in Uzbekistan from a global perspective.” He added, “By integrating design thinking and global service learning, the program not only enhanced students' problem-solving abilities but also fostered their cross-cultural understanding and collaborative skills.”

Participating students also shared that they gained diverse learning experiences and personal growth through the program. One student remarked, “Beyond simply experiencing local culture, the process of deeply immersing myself in real-world problems and collaborating with team members to devise solutions was truly impactful. Especially, conducting interviews with local residents made me deeply appreciate the importance of empathy, and the thought that our ideas might actually be utilized in the local community gave me a great sense of fulfillment.” Another student shared, “Communicating in English and collaborating with students from diverse fields allowed me to overcome my limitations. I believe this experience will be a valuable asset no matter what I do in the future.”

Meanwhile, the HUSS Global Coexistence Consortium is being operated by several universities, including Kwangwoon University, Kookmin University, Sunmoon University, Yeungnam University, and Honam University, with a total of 9 billion won in funding from the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea over three years starting in 2024. The consortium aims to cultivate 2,500 core interdisciplinary talents equipped with sustainable resource response capabilities, sustainable industry understanding, and sustainable global society inclusivity, and has been consistently striving to contribute to global symbiosis.