SKT Supports University AI Talent Development, Sharing AI Development Know-How with Hope Universities

Jung Young-bae, Head of Capability Innovation Team at SK Telecom, is introducing the 'SKT AI Curriculum' to over 100 university professors during an online briefing held on the afternoon of the 13th.

[Asia Economy Reporter Joesulgina] SK Telecom is helping nurture AI talent among university students by providing video lectures containing AI technology theory and practical know-how to domestic universities.

On the 14th, SK Telecom announced that it supports the ‘SKT AI Curriculum,’ which links lectures containing the practical experience of its AI experts with university courses, to universities that wish to participate.

The day before, SK Telecom held an online briefing session introducing the SKT AI Curriculum to more than 20 universities nationwide and explaining the lecture content available for use starting this fall semester. The briefing, hosted by Jung Young-bae, head of SK Telecom’s Capability Innovation Team, attracted over 100 professors from across the country, showing high interest.

During the briefing, a variety of questions poured in, ranging from the programming level covered in the curriculum to ways to link the SKT AI Curriculum with regular courses. SK Telecom presented 81 video contents across 11 areas to allow universities to utilize the curriculum in diverse ways.

The SKT AI Curriculum focuses on voice-based AI technologies such as speech recognition, natural language understanding, and speech synthesis, and covers various fields including knowledge technology, recommendation technology, conversational language models, and computer vision. AI experts working at SK Telecom conduct lectures introducing everything from basic technical theories to the latest algorithms and actual AI service development cases.

After the briefing, SK Telecom plans to continue consultations and applications through a dedicated website until the end of August for schools wishing to participate in the SKT AI Curriculum. This process is expected to play a significant role in strengthening AI capabilities of universities and young talents as an effective industry-academia linkage program in the contactless era.

Now in its fifth year, the SKT AI Curriculum is rapidly expanding its base amid strong interest from science and engineering departments of domestic universities. Starting in 2017 with 100 students from Seoul National University and Korea University, it has grown into a popular program with about 2,000 students enrolled across 18 universities nationwide as of last year.

SK Telecom expects even more schools to participate this fall semester as the curriculum content continues to improve both quantitatively and qualitatively. Students who link regular courses with the curriculum can receive academic credits upon completion, and outstanding students are also rewarded.

Shin Sang-gyu, head of SK Telecom’s Corporate Culture Center, stated, "We will continue our efforts to contribute to strengthening university students’ development capabilities with a sense of responsibility that nurturing AI talent is a joint task of schools and companies.”

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