2025 Global Immersive Media Hackathon at AIU

From April 26-27, Konkuk University, one of AIU’s partner universities in Korea, hosted a student hackathon at Akita International University with teams competing to develop immersive media and metaverse-based approaches to preserving and promoting Akita’s cultural heritage.

Fifteen AIU students, led by the Northeast Asia Student Roundtable (SRT) club, worked in teams with 18 undergraduate and graduate students from Konkuk University’s Immersive Media undergraduate program and Graduate School of Metaverse Convergence in an intense two-day competition that showed the potential for international and interdisciplinary collaboration to address real-world issues in Akita outside of the classroom. AIU’s Northeast Asia Student Round Table (SRT) actively engages with student groups from other universities in the region to plan and execute international conferences and, for this event, they coordinated the event while opening it up to other participants from the AIU community.

Event Program

Students gathered on AIU’s campus early Saturday morning under late-blooming cherry blossoms and kicked off the event with a welcome from President Monte Cassim and an introductory presentation about Akita Cultural Heritage from Associate Professor Kaeko Chiba of AIU’s Global Connectivity Program. After a brief first meeting with their hackathon teams, they then boarded a bus for cultural heritage fieldwork destinations on Oga Peninsula.

Their task, in a little over 24 hours from boarding the bus, was to develop a proposal for an app that would promote awareness and understanding of Akita’s cultural heritage in an appealing and engaging way, leveraging immersive media and the metaverse—no small feat for groups that had just met and for which most members were making their first visit to the fieldwork sites!

Saki TSUKADA, Sophomore (Akita International University) : This project was more about exploring how to connect things we already know rather than learning something entirely new. If we consider the knowledge that we possess as students from different fields to be locations, then what we created this time was a road connecting them. It may have been a rough and underdeveloped road for now, but it is a road that gives us the courage to take a step forward as we—with our different countries, cultures, and languages—walk together in the future. I am grateful to have been part of creating that road, and I want to take this experience and build on it to create something even better in the future.

*Original comments were submitted in Japanese, but have been translated here for the purpose of the article.

Fieldwork

Students conducted fieldwork at three sites that are central to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Namahage, a type of year-god that plays an important role in Oga Peninsula’s culture: The Akagami Shrine Goshado, at the top of 999 steps, the Shinzan Shrine, host to the annual Sedo Matsuri featuring namahage, and the Namahage Museum, where they experienced a demonstration of the traditional namahage New Year’s visit. Based on the information collected at each of these sites, the groups set to work, making use of the bus ride back, huddled conversations at a welcome dinner at the AIU cafeteria, and, for some, discussions and debates into the middle of the night.

Day 2

On the second and final day of hackathon, students again gathered early at AIU’s Alumni Hall for a brief guidance session and pep talk from Konkuk University’s Professor Hyung Seok Kim then broke into their team rooms. With only a brief break for an interim progress report and lunch, they worked through to the 3:00 pm deadline to clarify their ideas, draft presentations, and create media examples to demonstrate their concepts.

Finally, the five groups gathered in Alumni Hall to present their proposals in front of the other teams and a panel of judges from Konkuk University and AIU. Students also voted for their favorite proposal and, in the end, reached the same conclusion as the judges, selecting one Gold prize, one Silver, two Bronze, and a special award for the most popular proposal. The Gold prize team received a special prize and both universities provided commemorative souvenirs for all participants for their participation in this unique collaborative program.

Taiyo SAIKI, Sophomore (Akita International University) : I participated in this project as a member of SRT. SRT typically focuses on social issues and cultural understanding in East Asia, so participating in a hackathon—a technical field challenge—was a first for both our organization and myself and I feel it was a highly rewarding two days. Discussions with students from different countries and different academic fields are always stimulating and a source of many insights. In this hackathon specifically, the students from Konkuk University, which is known for its technical field education, had extensive knowledge of advanced technologies like AI and the metaverse, and their knowledge and ideas provided fresh insights in a variety of situations. While these advanced technological topics are fields I had never encountered in my student life before, it is precisely because of AIU’s interdisciplinary learning environment of AIU that I want to actively pursue exploration into such new areas.

*Original comments were submitted in Japanese, but have been translated here for the purpose of the article.

Proposals

Gold Prize: Group 4, “Akiku”, presented a metaverse daily habit-building and task-tracking app that both makes use of and educates users on the origin/meaning of the Namahage culture.

Moonsu JANG, Jaeyoung KIM, Chaehee LEE, Minkyung CHAE(Konkuk University), Group 4 : During our visit, Akita’s cherry blossoms were in full bloom, allowing us to enjoy the beautiful campus scenery. In the first meeting between Korean and Japanese students, Korean K-Pop and Japanese animation culture quickly melted the frozen atmosphere. While preparing for the hackathon, we realized that if the purpose is clear, nationality and language barriers are not big problems. Our group 4, ‘Akiku’, team planned the Namafy app for 1020MF, which allows them to frequently access Namahage culture. We set a clear goal of approaching the younger generation as a daily app and having them remember traditional culture for a long time. Therefore, when planning additional functions for various apps, we were able to faithfully carry out our respective roles while keeping this goal in mind. In addition, during this hackathon experience, we were able to not only have academic exchanges with Korean and Japanese students, but also see Akita’s Kanto culture prepared by AIU students, which was a great honor. Next time, we would like to visit Akita for tourism and enjoy the summer festival.

Silver Prize: Group 3, “KONIKITA”, proposed a AR Service ENMUSUBI QUEST where users complete missions in specific locations of Akagami Shrine, and get a lucky charm as a reward.

Jihyun EOM, Undergraduate Student of Immersive Media (Konkuk University), Group 3 : Thank you very much for providing me the opportunity to interact with Japanese students and work on projects at school. Although it was a short period of preparation and hackathon, it was not easy to communicate and collaborate with friends who spoke different languages ??and had different cultures during that period, but I was able to learn more about the important attitudes and positions in collaboration. Also, I felt that if I prepared for hackathon in advance, I would be able to get better results in terms of performance. I would like to recommend that future participants finish the meeting in advance and participate in the competition, even if they are busy.

Most Popular Prize : Group 5, “Five Plus One”, proposed a VR room escape game that engages users with the cultural and mythical origins of the Namahage through an immersive experience.

Jinseong KIM, Graduate Student of Metaverse Convergence (Konkuk University), Group 5: I had always vaguely thought that revitalizing immersive media would require a variety of new approaches, but through this hackathon, I was able to truly experience how diverse ideas and perspectives from different cultures can come together and create something new. In particular, during the planning of an escape room service designed to make Akagami Shrine more engaging for younger generations, we didn’t just explain the myth, but we reimagined and reshaped the story through creative thinking and collaborative storytelling. This experience showed me that when different cultures and ideas meet, the resulting content can become much richer and more meaningful. Although the time was short, I really enjoyed every part of the process working closely and discussing ideas with the team and I hope to see more opportunities for global collaboration with universities around the world to further promote immersive media.

Bronze Prizes:

Group 1, “KIMCHINABE”, presented a metaverse-based cultural heritage game where users build 999 steps and finish the last one with divine aid based on the Akagami Shrine’s legend.

Group 2, “Kuki Crew”, proposed a AR Namahage behavioral reflection app for parenting to take advantage of the characteristics of Namahage such as strict but caring mentor.

Jaewon CHOE, Graduate Student of Metaverse Convergence (Konkuk University), Group 2 : I was truly grateful for the opportunity to participate in this international event held in Akita. It was a rare and valuable experience to collaborate with Japanese students, something that is not easily encountered in school life. Through this program, I had the chance to work on a project with peers from a different cultural and languages, which gave me a deeper appreciation for the importance of communication and mutual respect in teamwork. Although the preparation time was short, the process of sharing ideas, dividing roles, and creating something together made the experience even more meaningful. I realized that with proper preparation and open communication among team members, even a short-term project can produce outstanding results. I sincerely thank everyone involved for organizing such a meaningful opportunity. For future participants, I highly recommend having pre-event meetings with your team to ensure smoother collaboration and better outcomes.

Instructor Reflections

Professor Norihito MIZUNO, Director, Global Studies Program, Akita International University : This event marked a first for our university in two key respects: direct collaboration with Konkuk University in South Korea outside of our student exchange program and the adoption of a hackathon-style format. Students and organizers had to overcome a series of challenges that could have threatened the event’s success, from limited preparation time and a demanding schedule that required teams to complete and present their results within just two days, to unexpected cold and rainy conditions during the day one fieldwork conducted on the Oga Peninsula that made us worry if students could keep up their health and stamina for the next day’s activities. Despite these difficulties, the students from both Konkuk University and AIU brought their ideas and energy together, ultimately delivering presentations of a far higher caliber than we had anticipated. It was truly impressive to witness such close collaboration among students who had just met, coming from different cultural backgrounds, languages, and academic fields. We are confident that this valuable experience will serve as a foundation for future endeavors, and we hope to continue offering opportunities for similarly international and hands-on collaborative projects, which will undoubtedly enrich the educational experience at our university.

Professor Heungwoo YI, Konkuk University : I am very pleased to have successfully concluded the meaningful hackathon project in the beautiful and historically rich Akita Prefecture and Akita International University. I would like to express my gratitude to President Monte Cassim, Professor Norihito Mizuno, Associate Professor Kaeko CHIBA, Professor Ki Deuk Hyun and Associate Professor Kevin HOCKMUTH from Akita International University for their hearty hospitality. All the students from Akita International University, as well as the graduate and undergraduate students from Konkuk University, worked hard and achieved excellent results. There is a saying, ‘Those who leave will return.’ I look forward to meeting again in the future. Thank you all.

Professor Hyunkook Jang, Konkuk University : First of all, I would like to thank you very much for all support and sincere preparation for this program. During our stay in Akita, I could feel how much AIU considers this hackathon event important. Our students also said that collaborating with Akita students was a very happy experience and a healing time. It was a very short hackathon which lasted only two days, but students concentrated within that period to find problems, discuss ideas for solutions, and create ideas into actual services or application results. I would like to tell our students that they did a great job.