- 10 finalist teams from approximately 150 total teams engaged in keen competition
- Joint team from Kwangwoon/Sungshin Women's/Hansung University wins grand prize with "Smart Insole Using Motion Recognition and Route Guidance" project

TI Korea (CEO Kent Chon, www.ti.com/ww/kr) October 21, 2014 – TI (CEO Kent Chon) announced that it successfully concluded the final judging and awards ceremony for the 5th "Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge (TIIC): Korean BoosterPack Design Contest 2014" held on the 20th at the COEX Conference Center.

The contest, which accepted entries over approximately two months from April 1 to June 8, drew a total of 150-plus participating teams. Among these, 10 teams from universities nationwide that passed the first round of screening engaged in final competition through thesis presentations and demonstrations. With key TI Korea executives in attendance, the judging panel, composed of professional engineers from TI Korea, evaluated entries focusing on TI MCU utilization, design creativity, completeness, difficulty level, and practicality.

In this contest, the grand prize (Chairman's Award) was won by the joint team from Kwangwoon/Sungshin Women's/Hansung University, which presented "Smart Insole Using Motion Recognition and Route Guidance." The winning team received a prize of 3 million won, and two runner-up teams, three excellence award teams, and four encouragement award teams were selected, receiving prizes of 1.5 million won, 1 million won, and 500,000 won respectively.

At the awards ceremony, TI Korea Director Yong-Sik Jung stated, "This year's contest proceeded as a BoosterPack Design Contest, and more students participated than in previous years, engaging in spirited competition. I would like to express my gratitude to all undergraduate and graduate students who took great interest in the contest. Furthermore, the ideas presented not only by the 10 teams that advanced to the finals but also by all participating teams were innovative and fresh. TI Korea will continue to spare no effort in providing ongoing support for future talent."

TIIC has been conducted annually since 2010 with the aim of actively supporting the expansion of the foundation for domestic electronic product development and nurturing future talent who will lead the global semiconductor market. The TIIC, which was conducted under the name "MCU Design Contest" until last year, was changed to "BoosterPack Design Contest," which provides the user-friendly TI LaunchPad to encourage greater student participation and induces students to develop BoosterPacks. Whereas the existing MCU design contest was a project requiring lengthy development time and high difficulty, the BoosterPack development project allows for simpler and more straightforward development.

Additionally, TI Korea operates university programs to support the installation of MCU, DSP, MPU, and Analog Labs in universities nationwide and provides educational materials. This university program provides support to university professors, researchers, and students to integrate TI technology into university curricula, research, and development projects. Furthermore, through a new graduate hiring program, TI Korea is working to develop technical manpower in the electronics industry.

TI MCU: At the Center of Innovation
Based on leading-edge process technology, TI, equipped with its proprietary system architecture, intellectual property, and practical systems expertise, has provided the industry's broadest microcontroller portfolio for over 20 years, from the ultra-low-power MSP430™ MCU to the real-time control C2000™ MCU, Tiva™ ARM® MCU, and Hercules™ ARM MCU, continually driving innovation. Through tool environments, software, wireless connectivity solutions, and comprehensive partner products and technical support, TI helps designers accelerate time to market.