"Inspired by BTS Sign Language Choreography"… Seoul Yongmun High Team Wins KAIST SW Competition

Screenshot of the online presentation screen of the _IF_O-rangji_team, which won the gold prize

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A team from Seoul Yongmun High School took first place in the high school club software competition hosted by four universities including the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

On the 6th, KAIST, along with Woosong University, Paichai University, and Chungnam National University, held the "6th National High School Club Software Competition." This competition, held annually since 2016, is designed for high school students nationwide to compete in creative problem-solving and collaboration skills through software, aiming to nurture outstanding software talents.

This year, 71 teams composed of 3 to 5 students from software clubs of general high schools, specialized high schools, autonomous high schools, and specialized high schools across the country competed in the preliminary round. Each team submitted project proposals covering all areas of software including basic and applied software, mobile apps, and embedded systems under the theme "Realizing Ideas in Daily Life through Software," and 21 teams advanced to the finals in early August.

The finalist teams developed software ideas addressing various social issues such as learning, career counseling, resume writing, parcel receipt, environmental protection, improving the lives of the hearing and visually impaired, kiosks for the elderly, and COVID-19 route prediction. After a three-month development process, the final competition, held online and non-face-to-face, featured presentations of the completed project results by each team.

Among them, the "IF_O-rangji" team (Seoul Yongmun High School), which planned the "Word-level Sign Language Subtitle Program for the Hearing Impaired," won the gold prize. This team designed a sign language subtitle program that separates recorded speech in the app into morpheme-level text and then provides accurately translated videos through a Korean sign language dictionary. The idea, functionality implementation, and completeness of the applied technology received high scores from the judging panel.

Team member Jo Jun-hwan said, "Inspired by the sign language choreography featured in BTS music videos, we planned this program with the aim of breaking down communication barriers caused by language differences," adding, "In an era where non-face-to-face online communication is emphasized, I am pleased that our idea to improve the insufficient sign language translation system has been realized into a clear and concrete outcome through this competition."

Following this, the "POTENTIAL" team (Busan Software Meister High School), which presented the "Joljima" app that helps users focus on studying, and the "Raondrug" team (Gimcheon High School, Gyeongbuk), which presented the parcel receipt management program "PAREL proj.," received silver prizes. Three teams?"Natural Fairy" (Daejeon Gwanjeo High School), "DKSHFolio" (Seoul Dankook University-affiliated Software High School), and "Delta Code" (Gimhae Girls' High School, Gyeongnam)?were awarded bronze prizes.

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