Hwaseong Special City Wins Excellence Award at 'AI Champion Hackathon'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-sung] Hwaseong Special City won the Excellence Award at the 'AI Champion Hackathon,' a core program of the '2026 Public AI Expo (KPAIX 2026).'

The expo, hosted by the Ministry of Interior and Safety and organized by the National Information Society Agency (NIA), is a public sector artificial intelligence (AI) innovation event designed to share exemplary cases of AI transformation (AX) by the central government, local governments, and public institutions, and to explore the future direction of administrative services.

In particular, the 'AI Champion Hackathon' competition is a core program of the expo and a representative competition for public AX (AI transformation), where talented individuals from central ministries, local governments, and public institutions across the country compete in citizen-focused service models through Vibe Coding.

In this competition, Shin Hwan-chul, head of the Big Data Team at Hwaseong City's AI Smart Strategy Office, formed a team with officials from the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and competed in the 'non-coder' division, which focuses on planning-oriented talent without development experience.

The theme was 'Vibe Coding Project to Overcome Regional Depopulation Crisis,' and the team proposed an administrative service model that analyzes and addresses regional depopulation issues using AI technology.

The team competed with 200 participating teams, was selected among the 24 finalist teams, and advanced to the final 8 teams.

In the subsequent finals, the team received comprehensive evaluations on △technological capability, △applicability, and △policy implementation feasibility.

As a result of on-site judge verification, the team received high marks for the planning capability and implementation feasibility of AI-based administrative service models closely related to citizens' lives, ultimately ranking 4th nationwide.

Meanwhile, thanks to this achievement, the 'AI Civil Services Center' implemented by Hwaseong City is drawing concentrated attention at the public AI expo.

On the opening day of the public AI expo on the 23rd, Hwaseong City made an exclusive presentation at the 'AI Champion Network Workshop' titled 'Korean-style Palantir System Implemented in Hwaseong,' drawing focused attention from the Ministry of Interior and Safety and other local governments.

The model presented by Lee Dong-jae, a civil servant at the AI Smart Strategy Office, is the 'AI Civil Services Center,' which applies global big data company Palantir's data analysis techniques to public administration.

The initiative was promoted as part of the 'Problem-solving Urban Data Platform Construction for Civil Complaint Analysis and Prediction System Implementation at Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements,' a project selected through a Ministry of Interior and Safety public recruitment initiative.

The core of the AI Civil Services Center is to connect and integrate administrative and daily-life data dispersed across internal departments and external sources within the city based on 'urban data ontology.'

It analyzes relationships between data and detects abnormal signs and citizen discomfort signals in real time.

Through this, an intelligent civil complaint response system has been established that identifies the root causes of recurring and complex complaints and presents proactive solutions.

This represents a breakthrough approach departing from the existing administrative method of responding after receiving complaints.

It is a predictive AI administrative model that discovers signs of citizen inconvenience in advance based on data accumulated throughout the city and supports relevant departments in responding swiftly.

The presentation on that day received high evaluations from attendees.

In fact, one local government official who attended the workshop stated, "Most local governments focus on increasing the speed of handling after civil complaints are filed, but it was impressive that Hwaseong Special City detects signs through data at the stage before complaints are even generated."

Lee Dong-jae, who gave the presentation, said, "The 'AI Civil Services Center' project is important for referencing Palantir's success cases and implementing anomaly detection and civil complaint analysis and prediction functions through urban data ontology modeling, but we also want to implement a key function that allows civil servants to receive complaints in refined forms free of abusive language and profanity, and process civil complaint matters according to their authority."

The achievement was made possible due to Hwaseong Special City's thorough and proactive AI administrative infrastructure.

In 2024, the city established a dedicated AI department as the first among Korea's basic local governments and has led the construction of a public AI ecosystem.

Similarly, the city successfully hosted 'MARS 2025,' a global AI expo and conference, for the first time among local governments.

Subsequently, by hosting 'MARS 2026 Investment Attraction & Conference' for the second consecutive year as the first local government to do so, the city has solidified its position as Korea's representative AI-leading city.

Hwaseong City's proven AI capabilities from the competition will now extend to citizens' daily lives.

With the launch of the 9th civilian-led administration, the city plans to introduce AI civil servant 'Coribot,' which can respond to civil complaints 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, into actual operations.

Simultaneously, efforts to strengthen AX (AI transformation) capabilities within the civil service are being pushed forward at an accelerated pace.

The city is launching the 'Hwaseong City Civil Servant AI Champion Education and Application Program' at the 'AI Lab' established in City Hall to develop AI talent.

The program is divided into two courses: △the first session from June 30 to July 2, and △the second session from July 14 to 16.

The plan is to cultivate a large number of practical 'AI Champion' civil servants who can actively respond to citizens' administrative needs through this program.

Mayor Jung Myung-geun said, "It is a very meaningful achievement that Hwaseong Special City had its AI capabilities recognized at the public AI expo where civil servants from central ministries and across the nation participated," and added, "It is a result created through the accumulated AI application capabilities and efforts of civil servants based on the dedicated AI department we constructed as the first in the nation."

Mayor Jung also stated, "In the 9th civilian-led administration, we will further develop citizen-centered AI administration by introducing AI civil servant 'Coribot,' and we will create Korea's No. 1 AI city where even the smallest inconvenience to citizens is discovered and resolved through AI."