image: The main function of Canaria is to provide a list of items to be checked for work safety by priority. This helps create a safe and healthy workplace. view more
Credit: Puri-Medi
A student-led startup team, affiliated with UNIST is getting ready to head to Silicon Valley.
Puri-Medi, a UNIST-based student tech startup, has announced that their AI-based industrial safety management system has been selected for the TRC (Technology Revolution Together) project.
Being carried out by the Korea Innovation Center (KIC) in Silicon Valley, the TRT project aims to support SMEs to maximize opportunities for business cooperation with global conglomerates, while focusing on the 4IR Technology sectors, such as AI, Big Data, Cloud, Security, AR/VR, Digital Media, and Fintech.
Through the project, Puri-Medi will engage in various entrepreneurial activities from September 2018 to May 2019. This will include the development of customized business models, as well as providing on-site mentoring for engineers, associated with Facebook.
Puri-Medi's new AI-based software system for safety management, namely Canaria played a crucial role in the TRC project selection. Canaria collects and provides analysis of occupational injury data, offered by the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency and informs of the potential risk factors in industrial settings. The main function of Canaria is to provide a list of items to be checked for work safety by priority, according to each company's work environments and assist them in analyzing the causes when accidents occur.
"Safety has emerged as an overriding concern for our industry. But, in case of SMEs, utilizing industrial safety professionals has been difficult with the matter of costs," says Dongyong Lee, CEO of Puri-Medi. "Canaria is not as complicated as many industrial safety platforms that large conglomerates operate, yet it provides decent industrial safety management services at a reasonable price."
Puri-Medi is currently researching schemes for putting their prototype Canaria to good use in local businesses in Ulsan region. Being affiliated with the Ulsan Disaster Management Cluster, Puri-Medi has been also actively collaborating with related companies.
"The term Canaria for their product comes from the name applied to Canaries (birds) that were once regularly used in coal mining, as an early warning system," says Dongyong Lee, CEO of Puri-Medi. "We hope our software will serve as a great early warning device for use in industrial settings, thereby creating a safer workplace."
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Led by founder and CEO Dong-yong Lee, Puri-Medi is composed of seven students, including Jin Hee Mun (UNIST), Dong-Cheol Lim (UNIST), Da Bin Lee (UNIST), Jae Ho Lee (Korea University), Song Hwa Park (Sookmyung Women's University), and In Jun Choi (KonKuk University). They are making various efforts to enter into both domestic and U.S. industrial safety markets.