Kolon Benite announced on the 27th that it participated as a sponsor in the quantum computing hackathon "Quantum Reframing Challenge 2026 (QRC 2026)," co-hosted and organized by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) and MegaZone Cloud.
QRC 2026 is a competition that redefines industrial challenges into forms solvable with quantum computing and verifies their feasibility using actual quantum infrastructure. The event was conducted as part of a government research and development project, with the Ministry of Science and ICT as the supervising ministry and the National Research Foundation of Korea participating as a professional institutional investor.
A total of 214 participants from 73 teams, including graduate students, researchers, and industry professionals, took part in the competition. Of the 54th teams that submitted preliminary proposals, 12 advanced to the finals. Participants implemented their proposals using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, along with quantum hardware and simulators like IonQ, Quantel, and Pascal, and verified their performance.
Kolon Benite operated the "Kolon Custom Track," which addressed industry problems under consideration for quantum computing application by the Kolon Group, including manufacturing optimization, healthcare, and AI/machine learning. Kolon Industries and Kolon Benite presented industrial themes, while Kolon Benite's industry domain experts provided mentoring to participating teams.
The custom track tasks consisted of "material structure and property prediction" in the manufacturing and chemical sectors and "business value combination optimization" in new business areas. Kolon Benite selected "QAIST" and "QR2026_08" as outstanding teams for each theme and awarded them special Kolon prizes.
The winning teams will be offered opportunities for concept validation (PoC) review and joint project support. Additionally, after separate reviews and internal procedures, there is potential to expand cooperation through internships or employment.
Lee Seung-jae, head of the Future Technology Team at Kolon Benite, stated, "Through this hackathon, we aim to redefine industrial challenges facing Kolon from a quantum perspective and explore their applicability in concrete terms." He added, "We expect Kolon Benite, equipped with both industry domain expertise and IT execution capabilities, to play a meaningful role in the growth of the quantum ecosystem."
in TECH
