Busan students shine at national AI education competition

Student teams from Busan claimed two top prizes and six excellence awards at a national AI competition in the education sector. The Busan Metropolitan Office of Education announced Wednesday that eight Busan teams placed at the 8th Education Public Data AI Utilization Contest, co-hosted by the Ministry of Education and education offices across the country.

The annual contest aims to discover creative ideas implemented through AI in the education sector and to promote a culture of data utilization.

This year's competition drew strong interest after organizers added a new category for AI-produced school promotional videos and offered AI usage credits to participants. A total of 1,399 teams from across the country entered the student division, and eight of Busan's 86 participating teams took home top or excellence awards.

In the AI-produced school promotional video category, the "Haeun" team from Haedong Elementary School won the top prize for "Alimi's Haeundae Elementary School Data Analysis Begins!!", a promotional video that used school data to effectively showcase the school's distinctive character and educational activities. The excellence awards in the same category went to Pureuniwahaebicci, Jeulgeoun Neutinamu and Nori.

In the AI idea planning category, the "Dodohan Chingudeul" team from Shindo High School took the top prize for "The Sky, the Wind, the Stars and Artificial Intelligence: Analyzing School Climate Risk Signals Using Public Data and AI," which integrated climate-related public data and AI to analyze climate risk signals at the school level and propose response measures. The excellence awards went to Xsine, Ogada and EduRadar. The Ogada team demonstrated an automated two-way school notification service for multicultural families using public data and generative AI.

The two top-prize winners — the Haedong Elementary and Shindo High teams — received their awards Tuesday at a joint ceremony held at the Government Sejong Convention Center. The excellence awards will be presented separately at the Busan Metropolitan Office of Education on Friday. Superintendent Kim Seok-jun said the office would "do its utmost to nurture future-ready talent equipped with the thinking skills and problem-solving capabilities to harness data and AI."