The National Institute of Chemical Safety (NICS, President Park Pong-gyun), under the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, announced that it received the Best Education and Training Solution Award* at the Auggie Awards during Augmented World Expo (AWE)　USA 2026, held in Long Beach, California, from June 15 to 18.

* Awarded to the top-ranked technology in each of 18 categories, including Art, Campaigns, User Apps, Content Creators, Education and Training Solutions, Enterprise Solutions, Games, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

AWE is an international expo focused on extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, where leading global technology companies* and industry experts gather to share innovative technologies and the latest development trends.

* Meta, Qualcomm, Google, NVIDIA, and Samsung Display

In particular, the AWE Auggie Awards* are an international awards program in which industry experts recognize outstanding technologies in the extended reality (XR) field. The NICS was selected as the winner of the Best Education and Training Solution Award from among more than 330 submissions across 18 categories.

* Auggie is a nickname derived from “Aug,” the first part of the term “Augmented Reality.”

The award recognizes the institute’s international achievement in applying extended reality technologies to the high-risk field of chemical accident and terrorism response, creating a safe and repeatable training environment that has helped enhance the capabilities of frontline responders, including military, police, and fire personnel.

The institute’s award-winning project, Chemical Incident & Terror Response in XR, is an immersive education and training program that recreates chemical accident and terrorism scenarios in an extended reality environment, allowing trainees to repeatedly practice situational assessment and response procedures.

In particular, the program was highly praised for incorporating training scenarios based on real-world response operations, including chemical spill response, hazardous area assessment, personal protective equipment use and response procedures, site control, and interagency coordination.

Building on this achievement, the NICS plans to incorporate cutting-edge technologies such as AI-based training evaluation and digital twin applications into its XR-based training programs. As a national hub for chemical safety education, it also intends to expand and distribute these programs to relevant agencies and organizations.

Park Pong-gyun, President of the NICS, said, “This award demonstrates that Korea’s XR-based chemical accident and terrorism response training system has gained global recognition for both its technological innovation and educational effectiveness.” He added, “Going forward, we will continue to develop and expand next-generation chemical safety education and training programs incorporating a wide range of advanced technologies, further strengthening our role as Korea’s leading chemical safety education hub.”

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