A South Korean student has placed first in an international robot design contest for students.

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said Thursday that industrial design student Gwak So-na took the top prize in a contest organized by the Ro-man 2006 workshop at Britain's University of Hertfordshire.

Gwak designed an intelligent robot, Hamie, which uses sight, hearing and touch to express intimacy while interacting with humans and fellow robots. The contest judges commented that Gwak’s robot complemented well this year’s theme of “Getting to Know Socially Intelligent Robots.” Contestants were evaluated on both concepts and designs.

The 28-year old robot designer said she had stressed a lot about the designer’s role in robotics but the prize boosted her confidence.