Samsung Electronics Holds Award Ceremony for '2021 Samsung Junior SW Creation Contest'

2021 Samsung Junior SW Creative Contest Awards Ceremony (Photo by Samsung Electronics)

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunjin Jung] Samsung Electronics announced on the 7th that it held the awards ceremony for the '2021 Samsung Junior SW Creation Contest' and presented awards to 11 teams.

The Samsung Junior SW Creation Contest is a competition where elementary, middle, and high school students nationwide identify social issues and use software (SW) to solve these problems. Since its inception in 2015, the contest has been hosted by Samsung Electronics and supported by the Ministry of Education, the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity, and the Software-Centered University Council.

Considering the COVID-19 situation last year and this year, Samsung Electronics conducted the entire process online. This year, 3,490 participants from 1,584 teams competed, resulting in a competition rate of 144 to 1.

The awards ceremony was held simultaneously the day before at Samsung Electronics’ Seoul R&D Campus in Seocho-gu, Seoul, and online, with about 80 participants including parents, teachers, university students, and employee mentors joining the 11 finalist teams (1 Grand Prize team, 3 Excellence Award teams, 3 Merit Award teams, 3 Encouragement Award teams, and 1 Empathy Award team).

This year’s theme was "A Better Future Made with Software," and ideas emerged in various fields closely related to students’ lives, such as COVID-19 prevention and hygiene, traffic safety and school zones, support for the elderly and disabled, and online classes. For the finals, 60 teams were assigned 60 Samsung Electronics SW developers and 60 university students majoring in SW as mentors, providing one-on-one mentoring.

Professor Minseok Lee of the Department of Software at Kookmin University, chair of the judging panel and dean of the Ministry of Science and ICT Innovation Academy, said, "The participating youths have developed not only their SW skills but also their ability to define and solve problems. I hope they grow into talents capable of solving bigger and more important issues in the future." Samsung Electronics’ Chief of Management Support Office, Yoonho Choi, said, "Samsung Electronics will continue to carry out CSR activities for youth education in a substantial way."

Samsung Electronics will award a total of 150 million KRW in prize money to the winning teams and donate IT products such as laptops and tablets to the schools of the winning teams. The winning teams will also participate in the annual 'Samsung Software Developer Conference' to present their development experiences.

This contest awarded a total of 11 teams: 1 Grand Prize team, 1 Excellence Award team, 1 Merit Award team, and 1 Encouragement Award team each for elementary, middle, and high school teams, and 1 Empathy Award team chosen by online voting with the most votes.

The Grand Prize was awarded to the Datactive team, consisting of three students?Jihyun Lee, Yeyoung Yoon, and Heonjae Jung?from the second grade at Bopyeong High School in Gyeonggi-do. They belong to their school’s AI club. Datactive is an application that automatically hides parts of photos uploaded to social networking services (SNS) that may expose personal information. The app received high scores from the judges due to its high potential for use in the increasingly problematic field of personal information and its improved completeness throughout the contest.

The Datactive team said, "We developed this app to prevent personal information leaks and to solve damages such as voice phishing and identity theft," adding, "We hope society becomes a place where people can use SNS with peace of mind."

The Excellence Awards went to ▲ Sarang Park, a 6th grader at Wonmok Elementary School in Seoul, for an app that allows safe use of public restrooms in commercial areas ▲ Taehun Kim, a 2nd grader at Unjung Middle School in Gyeonggi, for an app that stops online verbal abuse and profanity ▲ Taewook Kang, a 3rd grader at Korea International School in Jeju, for a voice-guided kiosk for digitally marginalized groups.

Detailed results and introductions to the works can be found on the 'Samsung Junior SW Creation Contest' website.

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