215 youth teams nationwide and 524 participants
Final 6 teams AI prototype development and demonstration
Seoul National University and POSCO DX experts mentoring
Following support for patent applications for excellent ideas
ėŽė§ íë Participants are taking a group photo together after the award at the POSCO DX National Youth AI Creative Competition on the 25th. POSCO DX
“We can analyze the movement of water fleas with artificial intelligence (AI) to check water pollution in real time.”
At the “2026 AI Youth Challenge” held at POSCO DX Pangyo headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province on the 25th, AI technologies made by teenagers appeared one after another. From a system that turns math lectures into braille data for the visually impaired to a technology that detects water pollution by analyzing the movement of water fleas, the idea of solving problems in life and industrial sites with AI was implemented as a prototype.
POSCO DX announced on the 26th that it has held its seventh AI Youth Challenge finals this year. It is a youth AI competition hosted by POSCO DX and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the Korea Artificial Intelligence and Software Industry Association.
524 people from 215 teams participated in this year’s competition under the theme of “AI solutions to improve daily life and inconvenience in industrial sites,” and six teams advanced to the finals after two screenings. During the summer vacation, the students completed the prototype through data analysis, AI model implementation, and service design with the help of engineers at POSCO DX AX Convergence Research Institute and mentors at Seoul National University’s AI Research Institute.
The grand prize for the Minister of Education was won by the “VtoB” team consisting of students from Sejong Institute for Science and Arts. They developed a system that automatically converts math lectures containing equations and graphs into braille learning materials for the visually impaired using voice recognition and vision AI.
The POSCO DX presidential award was won by the “Twinkle” team, which analyzes the mobility of water fleas with AI to determine the degree of water pollution in real time. The head of the Korea Artificial Intelligence and Software Industry Association returned to the “Leave a Screw” team, which developed a system for precisely dropping relief supplies in the air based on reinforcement learning.
POSCO DX is also providing follow-up support so that the competition does not stop at suggesting ideas. Among last year’s winning works, it supported patent applications for ideas with high technical differentiation and commercialization potential, and completed patent applications for three teams, including the “Intelligent Lighting Robot Arm System for Precision Work.”
Hwang Soo-jung, an AI researcher at POSCO DX, said, “I was surprised to see teenagers quickly understand difficult AI concepts and implement them directly in their own language. It was rewarding to pass on experience and know-how accumulated in the field to participating youths to help them grow.”