Students from KU School of Art & Design win a Prize at the iF Product Design Awards 2019.

‘Dentor,’ a self-diagnosis platform for dental health, designed by students from the KU School of Art & Design, received an award at the iF Product Design Awards 2019. The platform was developed as one of the Capstone Design projects conducted in collaboration with Samsung Electronics, a leading electronics company in Korea.

The iF Product Design Award from Germany is one of the top 3 design awards in the world along with the Red Dot Design Award from the same country and IDEA from the United States. This year, a total of 6,400 product designs were submitted and evaluated by a panel of professional jurors.

The designers of the award-winning product were Professor Seung-min Park and two art majors, Nam-ju Kim and Se-hyun Won from the School of Art & Design at Korea University. The design materialized thanks to the university-industry cooperation project, called ‘Capstone,’ between Korea University and the NBNL Group (led by Director Ha-yul Cheong) affiliated to the Wireless Business Unit of Samsung Electronics.

▲(From left) Professor Seung-min Park, Nam-ju Kim, 

and Se-hyun Won from the School of Art & Design 

‘Dentor’ is a self-diagnosis platform for dental health, through which users can check their dental health and find the most appropriate dental care options. The design idea was born from the fact that one of the biggest reasons people suffer from dental illness is because they do not have an exact idea about their dental health. The jurors at the design award evaluated it as a new concept for healthcare product design, service, and business model in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era.

Dentor users can check their dental problems using a device, called ‘Checker,’ connected to their smart phones. The results are then sent to the phone and recorded/analyzed by the associated application. Based on the analysis, users are provided with their own ‘Care Kit’ which includes a toothbrush, toothpaste, and dental floss appropriate for their dental condition. The device and associated application enable users to care for their teeth using the suggested care tools and recommended care methods.

▲The Checker, the dental health checking device for ‘Dentor,’ connected to a smart phone 

The self-diagnosis platform has been already recognized in Korea by winning the New Business Ideas Competition hosted by Samsung Electronics, part of the university-industry cooperation project last June. It also received a grand prize at the Capstone Design Competition held at Korea University last February.

Professor Park, member of the award-winning team, said, “I am thrilled to receive a global design award thanks to the Capstone Design project supported by Samsung Electronics. I hope to see more innovative designs developed as part of other university-industry cooperation projects in the future.”

Nam-ju Kim said, “The design idea was based on my everyday concern about dental care. I am glad that what I cared about most and intended were perfectly reflected in the design.”

The KU School of Art & Design has demonstrated excellence on the global stage, winning prizes at the iF Product Design Awards, Red Dot Design Awards, and IDEA for 4 consecutive years.