The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Lee Jong-ho) held ‘2023’ from the third to the eleventh of next month to advertise problem-solving experiences using artificial intelligence (AI), comparable to directly solving issues arising within the SW industry by SW-centered university students. It was announced on the 2nd that it will hold the ‘AI Innovation Challenge’.

The competition shall be held as a team contest for every university that solves problems using real data from the sphere about AI issues occurring within the industry.

The participants are students from SW-centered universities, AI graduate schools, and AI convergence innovation graduate schools. Graduates cannot participate.

The competition consists of an undergraduate track hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and supervised by the SW Centered University Council and the Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation Institute, and a graduate track co-hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT and KT and supervised by the Artificial Intelligence Graduate Council and the Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation Institute.

Within the undergraduate track, students from 51 SW-centered universities will participate and proceed with the theme of ‘development of satellite image constructing area segmentation AI model’. Within the graduate school track, students from 10 AI Graduate Schools and 9 AI Convergence Innovation Graduate Schools will participate under the theme of ‘Super-Giant AI Trust: Proposal of Detailed Service Functions and Model Learning’.

Seven corporations, including KT, Deepnoid, STC, and Ellis Group, take part in this 12 months’s challenge. It’s meaningful that industry and academia have come together to nurture core human resources for on-site artificial intelligence.

The competition shall be held from the third to the twenty eighth, followed by the primary evaluation from the twenty eighth to August third, the second evaluation on August eleventh, and the outcomes announced on August 14th. The awards ceremony shall be held on August seventeenth.

The first prize from the Minister of Science and ICT will select one team and pay prize money (3 million won for universities and 10 million won for graduate schools). Recruitment advantages (exemption from document screening, etc.) are also provided to the winners of the competition when applying for jobs at sponsors for every track.

Oh Yong-soo, Director General of Software Policy on the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “With this 2023 AI Innovation Challenge as a possibility, we hope that students will grow into key talents who’ve practical capabilities through problem-solving experiences using AI in various industrial settings.” said.

Reporter Lim Dae-jun of AI Times ydj@aitimes.com