Students from Kookmin University's (President Jeong Seung Ryul) College of Automotive Engineering and Graduate School of Automobile and Mobility won the Grand Prize (Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Award) in both the Social Acceptability and Spatial Information categories at the 2025 National University Student UAM Olympiad, hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Transportation Safety Authority on Wednesday, 29 October. Students from Kookmin University's College of Automotive Convergence and Graduate School of Automotive Mobility formed teams (KOOBIL, ASAP) to participate in this competition.

The 2025 National University Student UAM Olympiad is an annual nationwide competition held to discover creative and outstanding ideas from university and graduate students related to UAM (Urban Air Mobility), foster next-generation talent, and broaden the technological base. Kookmin University students competed in three of the six categories: Aircraft Design, Spatial Information, and Social Acceptance. They achieved the outstanding result of advancing to the finals in all three categories.

The “KOOBIL” team participated in the Social Acceptance category, organised by KOTI (Korea Transport Institute). Their proposal centred on implementing an integrated MaaS platform for UAM in the metropolitan area, based on improvements in noise, weather, and child detection. They presented solutions to address potential public concerns about UAM from the general public's perspective. Furthermore, they proposed a social acceptance roadmap to drive this forward, receiving favourable evaluations from the judges. Team leader Hong Seung Eun (Department of Future Mobility, Class of 2022) stated, ‘I felt that continuous efforts regarding social acceptability are necessary for UAM commercialisation,’ adding, ‘I will actively contribute to the future development of UAM technology and enhancing its social acceptability.’

Additionally, the “ASAP” team participated in the spatial sector category organised by LX Korea National Land Information Corporation. They presented a novel site selection methodology utilising machine learning for UAM vertiport locations. Furthermore, by proposing optimal take-off and landing routes and flight paths considering aeronautical characteristics, they demonstrated their competitiveness as future mobility talent. Team leader Jeong Seung Hyeop (Automotive Engineering, 20) remarked, ‘I am delighted that our team's efforts have yielded such positive results. I aspire to grow into a talent who drives tangible change within the future mobility sector.’

Professor Song Gyo Won from Kookmin University's Department of Future Mobility, the supervising professor, commented on the award: ‘I am immensely proud that the students demonstrated teamwork and creativity to achieve tangible research results. I hope they will continue their active research in the future mobility field.’