Sogang Honored at the 5th World ESG Forum

X205 — a student startup team from Sogang University's Department of Art & Technology — received an excellence award at the 5th World ESG Forum University Startup Competition, organized by the Korean ESG Association. The four-member team, comprising Jong-ho Park, Yoon-seo Choi, Ji-yoon Kim, and Dong-jun Lim, shared the honor with one other team and was recognized for an entry that combined educational technology with local economic engagement.

Their concept, "Heoripizza," is an AI-assisted local board game designed to develop spatial reasoning in children and adolescents while incorporating content drawn from local businesses and communities. The premise — that a game can simultaneously serve as a learning tool and a platform for regional collaboration — drew positive attention from judges for its potential as both an edtech product and a model for community-linked content development.

The team's background reflects Sogang's broader approach to interdisciplinary education. The Department of Art & Technology sits at the intersection of creative practice and technological application, and the X205 project illustrates how that combination can translate into socially oriented entrepreneurship. The team credited Sogang's entrepreneurship support infrastructure — including mentoring and development resources provided through the University's startup programs — as a foundation for turning their concept into a competition-ready venture.

That infrastructure is part of a wider institutional commitment. Through initiatives such as the Campus Town Project and Open Innovation Center 2.0, Sogang has built a startup ecosystem that connects student ideas with commercialization pathways, industry collaboration, and community engagement. The University's approach to entrepreneurship explicitly prioritizes social and environmental value alongside economic outcomes — an alignment that made the ESG competition a natural fit.

Kwanwoo Shin, Director of the Startup Support Division, noted that the award reflects growing student capacity to develop creativity-driven, ESG-aligned ventures: "We will continue linking campus innovation programs to ensure strong support for youth entrepreneurship and practice-centered education."

The team has indicated plans to expand beyond a single game product toward a broader platform for bringing participatory play culture to underserved communities.