Industry ministry to host 21st International Standards Olympiad in Goyang

The industry ministry said Wednesday it will host the 21st International Standards Olympiad in Goyang, bringing together 35 middle and high school teams from 11 countries to develop proposed international standards for advanced technologies.

The ministry's National Agency for Technology and Standards, which oversees industrial-standardization and quality-management policy, is hosting the event with the Korean Standards Association. ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission are sponsoring it.

The Olympiad is an international competition where Korean and overseas students experience methods for developing international standards and the activities of international standardization organizations.

The event runs from Aug. 12 to 14 at the Dongyang Human Resources Development Institute in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. Competitors from South Korea, China, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Ecuador and Peru were selected through national preliminary rounds. About 200 people, including students and teachers, will take part.

The contest has two stages. In the document assessment, teams will discuss assigned advanced-technology challenges and draft proposed international standards. In the presentation assessment, they will explain the content and rationale of their standard documents. A panel including ISO and IEC experts will select winning teams based on form, content and feasibility.

"The Olympiad will raise young people's awareness of standards that determine the competitiveness of advanced industries, and we will develop it into a forum for exchange and cooperation where young people around the world, the future leaders of international standardization, learn about standards and grow through fair competition," Park Jong-seop, director of the agency's Standards Policy Bureau, said.

A mock standardization meeting, introduced for the first time this year, will have students revise award-winning international-standard proposals from last year. They will work through differing views and produce a final consensus proposal.