Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung Ryul) announced that its Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, in collaboration with Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT, President Bakhtiyor Makamov) in Uzbekistan, held the ‘2026 Industry Matching Day’ in Tashkent, Uzbekistan on Wednesday, January 21.

This event was organized as part of the ‘Business IT Education Capacity Building Project for Employment and Entrepreneurship Linkage at Tashkent University of Information Technologies, Uzbekistan,’ supported by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). It served as an industry-academia cooperation program to directly introduce the outcomes of student projects, conducted since last year using the Living Lab approach, to local companies. The program aimed to enhance commercialization potential through feedback from corporate mentors on technical and business viability perspectives.

Throughout the program, TUIT students conducted Living Lab projects focused on solving problems facing Uzbek society. They followed the core stages of Design Thinking: Empathize, Define, Ideate, and Prototype. Professor Kim Hyeung Gyun from the School of Computer Science at Kookmin University served as the overall project mentor. Local instructors including Akmalbek Daminov, Nurbek Nuraliev, Tukhtajon Kozokova, and Mastura Tursunova.

The event featured presentations of three projects: ▲ ‘GuideMe’ (WINX Team), a smart travel companion supporting safe and comfortable travel for tourists; ▲ ‘DocShare’ (SI Team), a smartwatch-based system for automatic daily health status evaluation and tracking; and ▲ ‘UDMS’ (Digitora Team), a universal AI-based driver monitoring system. These projects achieved successful matching with three local IT companies.

Park Seol Ri, Deputy Director of the KOICA Uzbekistan Office, stated, “This Industry Matching Day was a highly meaningful occasion that went beyond a simple student project presentation, confirming the process by which university education connects with the actual industrial field.” She added, “We hope today's matchings will lead to future joint development, entrepreneurship, and employment, ultimately expanding tangible opportunities for Uzbekistan's youth.”

Kim Byoung Joon, Director of the Global Development Cooperation Institute at Kookmin University, who oversaw the project, explained, “The core of the Industry Matching Day lies in having industry professionals directly participate in the curriculum to foster field-based problem-solving capabilities through mentoring.” He emphasized, “We will continue to actively support the establishment of a practical IT talent development system locally, based on Korea's industry-academia collaboration education model.”

Meanwhile, attendees at the event included Park Seol Ri, Deputy Director of the KOICA Uzbekistan Office; Sadulla Ibragimov, Local Coordinator; Djamshid Sultanov, Vice President of TUIT; Kim Byoung Joon, Director of the Global Development Cooperation Institute at Kookmin University (Professor of Public Administration); Professor Choi Dae Heon from the School of Business Administration at Kookmin University, Professor Park Do Hyung from the Graduate School of Business IT, Professor Kim Hyeung Gyun from the School of Computer Science, Vadim Slabchenko, Senior Researcher at the Seoul National University Asia Institute, and Seo Jun Kyung, Director of the Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation at Kookmin University. Over 50 participants, including representatives from Korean and Uzbek industry, academia, and research institutions, as well as students, attended to discuss future cooperation directions.