INHA University
Published on 11 June 2026
▲ The A.I.M. team poses for a commemorative photo after winning the ‘A1 Challenge.’ From left to right: Kim Yong-jun, Moon Seung-jae, Lee Yong-ha, Park Jong-woo, and Park Seo-jin.
The A.I.M. team (Advisor: Professor Won Jong-hoon) of Inha University has won the ‘A1 Challenge’ for the second consecutive year.
The A.I.M. team secured first place in the ‘A1 Challenge,’ hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and organized by the Korea Intelligent Automotive Parts Promotion Institute. Following its victory in the 2024 University Student Autonomous Driving Competition, the team once again received the Prime Minister’s Award this year.
Unlike the rule-based autonomous driving competition held in 2024, this year’s event was a Formula racing simulation competition that applied End-to-End (E2E) AI autonomous driving technology. E2E AI autonomous driving technology directly outputs steering, acceleration, and braking commands through AI after receiving sensor data such as camera images as input.
After the preliminary round, ten teams were selected. Beginning with the inauguration ceremony in January, the final competition was recently held at the SOOP Colosseum in Sangam.
The top three winning teams will have the opportunity this November to transfer the algorithms verified through simulation into an actual Formula 3 (F3) vehicle at Everland Speedway in Yongin. They will directly validate the autonomous driving technologies they developed and conduct demonstration runs using real vehicles.
The A.I.M. team, which receives support through the Future Mobility Project Group’s club and competition support program, consists of five students: team leader Lee Yong-ha from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Park Jong-woo from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Kim Yong-jun, Park Seo-jin, and Moon Seung-jae from the Department of Smart Mobility Engineering. They served respectively as Captain, System Chief, Driving Manager, Strategist, and AI Operator.
The A.I.M. team shared its thoughts, saying, “We went through many difficult processes and numerous trials and errors, reading research papers every day, collecting data, and training AI models together. However, because we never gave up until the end, we were able to achieve this excellent result. We will continue to work hard to achieve strong results in the upcoming real-vehicle competition as well.”
Kim Hak-il, Director of the Future Mobility Project Group, stated, “Implementing E2E AI autonomous driving in a virtual environment in line with recent technological trends must have been a new challenge for the students. All the autonomous driving technologies they experienced through this competition will serve as valuable experience in establishing their future research directions.”
Meanwhile, the Advanced Fields Innovation Convergence University Project is an undergraduate education initiative supported by the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea. Since joining the Future Mobility Consortium in May 2021, the Future Mobility Project Group has been operating an interdisciplinary major and minor in Future Mobility Engineering, along with eleven micro-degree programs. Among the members of the A.I.M. team, Kim Yong-jun, Park Seo-jin, and Moon Seung-jae from the Department of Smart Mobility Engineering are enrolled in the interdisciplinary major in Future Mobility Engineering.
