The research team of Professor Koo Myoung-wan of Sogang University's Department of Computer Science & Engineering — together with Cheon Jae-yoon of the Department of Art & Technology (with an interdepartmental major in Convergence Software), Kim Hyun-jung of European Culture (with a double major in Computer Science & Engineering) and researcher Lee Jung-pil (a graduate of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering) — entered the 2020 Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenge and took second place in the speech recognition category (Track 2) of the second-stage contest (7–18 December), receiving the President's Award of the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation along with 667 million won in research funding for 2021 (http://www.ai-challenge.kr/sub03/view/id/557). In the first-stage contest held in July, the team had taken first place in speech recognition and secured 200 million won in research funding.

The Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenge is a challenge-and-competition style research and development (R&D) contest in which participants compete with algorithms they have developed to solve set problems.

Held under the theme 'Solve a Range of Regional Problems Using Artificial Intelligence Technology', the 2020 Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenge runs in four stages over three years to 2022 across four tracks — emergency situations (behaviour recognition), violent situations (speech recognition), household waste sorting (object recognition), and reducing power consumption through AI optimization and lightweighting — with the aim of creating a convenient and safe living environment through AI technology.

The second-stage contest set tasks of greater difficulty than the first. It too was conducted online, with three teams selected per track for best solving the given objectives; Sogang University's ISDS team will receive 667 million won in follow-on research funding for 2021 to prepare for the third-stage contest scheduled for November 2021.