Ideas into Impact

Dayoung Lee
Aug 14, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Nov 26, 2025

Tech-Driven Social Innovation & Creative Solutions

I believe that true innovation begins when technology is paired with empathy. By redefining problems from new perspectives, I have designed solutions that aim to expand social inclusion and sustainability.

Projects such as “Wise Closet,” a sustainable fashion platform that transforms used clothes into environmental points, a customized tutoring model for students with disabilities, and “Convo,” a two-way sign-language translator for the hearing-impaired, were born from this mission.

These initiatives were not just prototypes but recognized platforms—earning awards in national and global competitions, and validated through intensive entrepreneurship training at KAIST Gifted IP-CEO Program. They reflect my conviction that creative teamwork can become the foundation of social innovation.

Highlights:

KAIST Gifted IP-CEO Program (560+ hours) – Elite gifted program for future entrepreneurs, run by KAIST and the Korean Intellectual Property Offi ce. Top Prize among 200participants nationwide for innovative, empathy-driven tech tools and real-world impact in inclusive design.
Bronze Medal – Genius Olympiad Korea (Sustainable Design) –Official national qualifier for the Genius Olympiad, an international competition promoting environmental and social innovation. Ranked among the top 30% of global entrepreneurship projects for originality, feasibility, and measurable impact.
Best Pitch, World Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge & WSI with Ed-Ability, an inclusive online learning platform improving access for students with disabilities
World Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge – Korea Final, Best Pitch Award for Convo, a prototype of a two-way sign-language translator for the hearing-impaired

KAIST IP CEO Gifted Entrepreneur Education program Completed 570+ hrs of intensive IP/entrepreneurship training. Co-developed AI note scanner 'Study Cap' to digitize notes foraccessibility. Inspired by my grandfather's stroke recovery, fi led three patent applications for assistive tools (adaptive drinkholders/intuitive storage aids). Learned to turn observation into purposeful, user-led invention

Business Name: StudyCap

As a student, I often encountered challenges that stemmed from my own daily experiences, such as difficulties in organizing study materials or efficiently integrating physical and digital resources. For example, using traditional paper-based study books alongside digital tools often felt disconnected and time-consuming, especially when trying to consolidate information like vocabulary lists. This inspired me to develop solutions like StudyCap, a platform that seamlessly bridges the gap between physical and digital study resources, enabling students to learn more effectively.

STUDYCAP website

Genius Olympiad

Business Name: Earthwise Wardrobe

We created Wise Wardrobe, a platform that empowers consumers and brands to build a sustainable fashion ecosystem. Through a gamified digital wardrobe, users can track their clothing usage and return unused items to partner brands, earning environment points redeemable for cash. This encourages consumer participation in reducing waste while providing brands with valuable data for sustainable production. Our mission is to eliminate unnecessary textile waste and establish a circular economy, fostering environmental responsibility and engagement across the fashion industry.

Ongoing Prototype Design	Business Plan PDF	Donate Fabric Campaign

World Series of Innovation

Business Name: Ed-Ability

We designed Ed-Ability, an educational platform that provides career consulting for disabled youth and allows non-disabled and disabled people to communicate and learn from each other. We mainly provide services to help disabled youth find their path by providing career consulting, especially for those with visual and hearing impairments. Disabled youth have a

limited range of jobs available to them compared to non-disabled youth, and there are many restrictions related to this. In this regard, we provide them with individual and realistic career consulting and provide them with opportunities to explore their career paths.

World Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge

For many of the 430,000 hearing-impaired people in Korea, everyday life is full of invisible walls. With fewer than 900 professional interpreters available nationwide, communication barriers often lead to social isolation, job discrimination, and daily frustration.

To address this gap, my team and I developed 〈Convo〉, a prototype of a wearable two-way sign-language translator that provides real-time interpretation through an integrated IoT service model. The goal was simple yet powerful: to make communication seamless, accessible, and empowering.

This innovation matters because it can: