LG CNS Concludes Mathematical Optimization Competition with Participants from 55 Countries

Competition on Shipyard Block Placement
958 Teams from 55 Countries Participate

LG CNS announced on September 20 that it has concluded the domestic mathematical optimization competition, the ‘Optimization Grand Challenge 2026,’ which attracted participation from over 1,400 people representing 55 countries worldwide.

Winners and officials of the competition posing for a commemorative photo after the awards ceremony of the 'Optimization Grand Challenge 2026' hosted by LG CNS. LG CNS.

Mathematical optimization is a technology that determines the most efficient solution by evaluating all possible cases within given resources and conditions. It is recognized as a core foundational technology underpinning next-generation industries such as AI, quantum computing, and robotics. To broaden the base of this field, LG CNS has been hosting the competition annually since 2024 in collaboration with The Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers.

This year, the number of participating teams increased about 2.8 times, rising from 343 teams last year to 958 teams, while the number of participants grew from 676 to 1,448.

Participants included representatives from both domestic and international universities and companies, such as Carnegie Mellon University, Imperial College London, Stanford University, the University of Tokyo, Seoul National University, KAIST, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Accenture, IBM, Samsung Electronics, and Hyundai Motor Company, spanning the United States, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Germany, and India.

This year’s challenge focused on ‘block placement optimization’ within shipyards. Participating teams were tasked with developing algorithms that could arrange hundreds of shipbuilding blocks within a confined workspace to meet project deadlines.

The grand prize was awarded to a team from Japan. LG CNS provided a total of 200 million won in prize money to 20 teams, including the grand prize winner. The algorithm code submitted by the top 10 teams will be released as open source.

Sangkyun Park, Executive Vice President and head of the EnTrue Division at LG CNS, stated, “Maximizing efficiency with limited resources is complicated and challenging, but mathematical optimization enables us to solve such problems. We intend to expand the scale of the competition and work with global talent to broaden the horizons of optimization technology.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.