Douzone Bizon said on Oct. 13 it held a makerthon for civil servants nationwide with the National Information Society Agency (NIA) and global web-based coding platform company Replit.

The event, held on Oct. 12 at Douzone Eulji Tower in Jung-gu, Seoul, was organised as part of an AI champion training programme overseen by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and operated by NIA.

The event consisted of training on using Replit and a presentation of topics, followed by a three-hour development competition. Participants carried out the full process, from calling public data APIs to screen design and service deployment. Judging was based on criteria including creativity, functionality, technical merit and usability in the public sector. After a first round selected the top five projects, all participants took part in a QR vote to decide the final rankings.

The grand prize went to "Segumsulsul," developed by Daejeon Metropolitan City official Yun-ji Kim (김윤지). Segumsulsul is a service that provides local tax information using public data and AI. It received high marks for its potential to reduce repetitive tax-related complaints and improve convenience for taxpayers.

The top excellence award went to Gimhae City, South Gyeongsang Province official Hyeong-ju Park (박형주), who developed the app "Gimhae Rainwater Guardian," which allows citizens to report and share flood risk information. The excellence award went to Public Procurement Service official Hee-su Jeong (정희수) for "Vaccination guidance through analysis of national vaccination and infectious disease incidence rates." Encouragement awards went to Ministry of Personnel Management official Seung-won Kim (김승원) for a "platform to search, compare, store and analyse similar contracts for public projects" and to Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency police officer Bu-gyeom Lee (이부겸) for "Alley Boss-startup location analysis."

Yong-gu Ji (지용구), co-chief executive at Douzone Bizon, said the company would continue to share technology and experience so the public sector can naturally embed AI into the way it works.

Hyeong-cheol Kim (김형철), head of NIA, said it would keep working with the private sector to strengthen civil servants' ability to use AI and expand AI-based administrative innovation.