Incheon National University Songdo Campus

- 451 teams nationwide participate… Award from the Head of the National Data Agency and KRW 1.5 million in prize money

- Analysis of consumption patterns and perceived inflation burden by income group offers data-driven policy applications

Incheon National University (INU), led by President Injae Lee, announced that Seo Jeong-min, a student in the Department of Mathematics and a member of DIVE (Data Insights & Value Exploration), a data analytics research group advised by Professor Kim Kyung-won of the Department of Global Trade & Service (GTS), received an Excellence Award in the Data Analysis Poster category at the 2026 National Data Utilization Competition, hosted by the National Data Agency. Seo received an award from the Head of the National Data Agency along with KRW 1.5 million in prize money.

Held under the theme “UnBox the Data! Unlock the Hidden Value of Data,” the competition attracted a total of 451 teams, including participants from universities, research institutions, public agencies, and the general public. Of these, 178 teams submitted data analysis reports and posters. Following expert review and public evaluations conducted through the government platforms SOTONG24 and People’s Idea Box, 13 teams were selected as award winners.

Seo conducted a study titled “A Distributional Analysis of Changes in Consumption Patterns and Perceived Inflation Burden by Income Group,” analyzing differences in consumption patterns and the burden of perceived inflation across income groups and proposing ways to apply the findings to public policy.

The study linked household consumption and price-related data to examine consumption structures and perceived inflation burdens across different income groups. In particular, it focused on disparities in inflation burdens that are difficult to capture through average indicators alone and proposed a data-driven approach to identify changes in the burden on vulnerable groups at an early stage and support timely policy responses.

The achievement is also significant as an interdisciplinary data analytics project conducted by Seo, a mathematics major, through DIVE under the guidance of Professor Kim. DIVE is a research group in which students from diverse academic backgrounds work together to solve real-world problems and conduct data analytics projects using actual datasets.

Professor Kim said, “This achievement is the result of Seo Jeong-min’s persistent effort in analyzing a vast amount of data and pursuing the research question to the end.” He added, “By combining the GTS Department’s perspective on global business and public policy with the mathematical and statistical analytical capabilities of the Department of Mathematics, the study was able to propose meaningful policy applications. I am particularly proud of Seo’s research capabilities in independently defining the research problem and developing the analysis based on data from approximately 190,000 households.”