The Ministry of Science and ICT held the ‘ICT Challenge 2026’ awards ceremony on August 26 at the KT Gwanghwamun Building in Seoul, where master’s and doctoral students in the information and communications technology (ICT) field competed with their research ideas. The ministry named POSTECH’s InteractX team, which developed a wearable text-input technology that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze and correct each user’s distinct finger movements, as the grand winner. The winning team earns the opportunity to attend the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2027), to be held early next year in Las Vegas, USA.
 [코리안투데이] ‘ICT Challenge 2026’ awards ceremony and commemorative photo with the winning teams © 장형임 기자 |
The Ministry of Science and ICT (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Bae Kyung-hoon) announced that it held the ‘ICT Challenge 2026’ together with the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (President Hong Jin-bae) and the Council of University Information and Communications Research Centers (ITRC Council), and carried out the awards ceremony and a dialogue session with the award-winning students on August 26.
Now in its eighth year, the competition brings together teams of three master’s and doctoral students taking part in the University ICT Research Center (ITRC), the Regional Intelligence Innovation Talent Development, and the ICT Premier Talent Development programs supported by the ministry. Each team draws on the members’ respective majors to present and demonstrate research ideas, competing on technical merit, marketability, and commercialization potential. The University ICT Research Center program has fostered talent through challenging research in promising ICT technology fields since 2000; the Regional Intelligence Innovation Talent Development program (since 2015) has handled industry-academia research linked to regional industries; and the ICT Premier Talent Development program (since 2010) has taken charge of research on new technologies to solve future social problems.
Held under the theme ‘From lab ideas to innovation for all,’ this year’s competition drew a total of 206 teams and 618 participants from 84 centers at 39 universities nationwide. Ideas were presented across a wide range of fields, including AI and software (SW), as well as wearable devices, autonomous driving, 6G, bio-health, cybersecurity, semiconductors, and agricultural AI. Teams were recruited from June 17 to July 12, and 32 teams advanced to the finals after a preliminary review. The selected teams refined their ideas over about three weeks through mentoring by employees of the sponsoring companies KT and AWS Korea, and after the final review on August 20, 16 teams were confirmed as award recipients.
The top honor, the award of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT, went to five teams: InteractX (POSTECH), Inha EYE (Inha University), CVML (Ajou University), Seonje Tonggam (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), and BiNeAI (Korea University Sejong). The winning team, InteractX, was highly praised for implementing a wearable typing technology that uses AI to analyze and correct each user’s distinct finger movements, enabling natural text input even in virtual and augmented reality (VR·AR) environments. The teams receiving the minister’s award are offered the chance to attend CES 2027.
The five teams that received the award of the President of the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation are given the opportunity to attend the China Hi-Tech Fair (CHTF 2026), to be held late this year, and the six teams that received special awards were each granted a prize of 1.5 million won. In addition, two employee mentors from the sponsoring companies who actively participated in refining the finalists’ research ideas were selected as outstanding mentors and jointly awarded the minister’s award, the president’s award, and prize money.
The ‘AI·ICT Youth Talent Dialogue Session,’ held after the awards ceremony, was attended by Nam Cheol-gi, Director-General for Software Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, who listened to the award-winning students’ experiences in the competition and their research achievements and exchanged views on the difficulties faced in research settings and directions for supporting the growth of young researchers.
Director-General Nam Cheol-gi said, ‘The ICT Challenge is an arena of innovation and challenge where young researchers’ fresh, on-the-ground research ideas develop, through expert mentoring, into research achievements with real market impact,’ adding, ‘We will continue to expand the foundation for growth so that young researchers can build up their research capabilities.’ By showing the process through which early ideas born in university labs are refined into actual technologies with the help of industry mentoring, this competition is expected to serve as a practical stepping stone for the growth of young researchers.
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