K-water Conducts 2022 Public Contest for ‘K-testbed’ Project

An image view of a poster to publicize the “K-testbed” project, designed to produce diverse private sector infrastructure owed by public and private institutions. (Photos: K-water)

K-water is conducting a public contest for the second half of this year to implement the “K-testbed” project, which is designed to produce diverse private sector infrastructure owed by public and private institutions.

K-water said on Sept. 29 that the K-testbed is a national integrated platform supporting the exploration of markets by opening to SME and venture company infrastructure owned by public and private institutions, and adding the verification of ideas and technologies, owned by companies.

Starting with contracts signed by participating entities, the K-testbed project, organized by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, launched a pilot project in August 2021.

Under the project, 286 demand cases have so far been explored, 197 of which have been selected for supporting verification and proving their R&D.

Ahn Jung-ho, director with K-water’s Green Infra Division, said, “K-water, an institution in charge of the operation of the K-testbed project, will fully carry out government policies to back up SMEs.”

Venture companies can develop and commercialize innovative technologies and products, he said.

Meanwhile, K-water, an institution responsible for the overall operation of the K-testbed project,” is charged with integrating and supplying infrastructure information from 61 participating institutions, supporting working-level officials’ education and helping excellent products explore public markets.

The 20222 public contest for the K-testbed will be made from Sept. 30 until Oct. 31.

About 100 SME and water industry-related officials attend “Water Industry Innovation Technology Development and Technology Transfer Explanation Session” at ICC Convention in Daejeon on Oct. 5.

K-water President Park Credited for Building Data Platform and Digital Work Innovation

K-water, led by President Park Jae-hyeon, won the Statistics Korea administrator’s prize in the business category of the 9th Korea Big Data Award, hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT).

K-water is a public entity under the umbrella of the Ministry of Environment, established in 1967, and is responsible for leading the developing of national industries through comprehensive use and development of national water resources and contributing to improving public life and public welfare.

K-water, headquartered in Daedeok-gu, Daejeon, is charged with supplying water people can trust and drink through ESG management.

K-water has been credited with building the “Data Portal” for securing the systematic management and quality of all data and “Data Studio” for using, analyzing and sharing data with staff members to complete the “Data Governance” system the corporation has implemented since 2016.

Data Portal is designed to provide functions, such as standard dictionary, structure, meta, flow management and analysis of impact for the systematic management corresponding to the whole cycle of data and tools for quality diagnosis and correcting errors for securing high-quality data.

Data Studio offers virtualization-based data search, fabrication, visualization and AI analysis so that K-water staff can utilize quality data to develop high-performance analysis models, to share data, and visualization outcomes, which any staffer can access via the Data Portal.

Park Se-hoon, head of K-water’s Digital Innovation Division, said, “We’ll endeavor to create a data-based work environment based on staffers’ rising concern over the data platform and data analysis and utilization.”