POSCO DX hosts youth AI competition, drawing 215 teams

POSCO DX held a competition challenging young students to turn their AI ideas into working prototypes.

The company hosted the 2026 AI Youth Challenge at its Pangyo office on Tuesday.

Now in its seventh year, the AI Youth Challenge is organized by POSCO DX and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Korea AI Software Industry Association.

This year's competition drew 215 teams and 524 participants under the theme of "AI solutions that improve inconveniences in daily life and industrial settings." Participants proposed ideas for using AI to address problems across a range of fields, including the environment, safety, education and industry.

A defining feature of the competition is that students are not simply asked to pitch ideas — they are guided through expert mentoring to produce actual working prototypes.

Entries went through two rounds of judging before six teams advanced to the final. The finalists received intensive mentoring over the summer break from a team of engineers at POSCO DX's AX Convergence Research Institute and researchers from Seoul National University's AI institute.

Through the mentoring process, students refined their data analysis techniques, built out their AI models and fleshed out their service concepts to raise the quality of their prototypes. The finished projects were presented and demonstrated at the POSCO DX office on Tuesday for final judging.

The judging panel included faculty from Seoul National University, KAIST, Postech and Sogang University, Shin Dong-ju, chief executive of AI semiconductor startup Mobilint, and POSCO DX executives and staff.

The grand prize — the Minister of Education Award — went to Shin Jae-yun and Oh Eun of team VtoB, who developed a system that generates Braille study aids for mathematics lessons.

The POSCO DX President's Award went to Song Ye-seo and Oh Ji-su of team Ttobyeorok, who built a system that monitors water quality by analyzing the movement of water fleas.

The team's system uses AI to detect the movement of water fleas, which are highly sensitive to changes in water quality, then analyzes their speed and activity levels to assess water quality in real time.

The Korea AI Software Industry Association Chairman's Award went to Byeon Seung-ju, Kim Tae-hwan and Yu Ji-ung of team Nasaga Namneunde, who developed a precision aerial aid-drop system based on reinforcement learning.

Shin Jae-yun, who received the Minister of Education Award, said the experience deepened his enthusiasm for AI. "Going through the process of bringing my own idea to life and learning along the way made me even more interested in and confident about AI," he said. "Interacting with mentors who are active in the industry made my dream of becoming an AI developer feel much more real."

Hwang Su-jeong, a POSCO DX AI researcher who served as a mentor, said she was impressed by how quickly the students grasped difficult AI concepts and put them into practice in their own way. "I feel a great sense of fulfillment knowing that I was able to share some of the experience and know-how I have built up in the field and contribute, even in a small way, to their growth," she said.

Meanwhile, POSCO DX is also providing follow-up support to help students develop their ideas into actual intellectual property. Among last year's winning teams, the company supported patent applications for ideas with strong technical differentiation and commercialization potential, completing filings for three teams — including one for an intelligent robotic arm lighting system for precision work.