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| Participants take part in the 2020 Samsung Junior Software Cup, which was held online, at Samsung Electronics' Seoul R&D Campus, Saturday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics |
By Baek Byung-yeul
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| Logo for Samsung Electronics |
The tech giant held an award ceremony for awardees of the Samsung Junior Software Cup at its R&D Campus in Seoul, Saturday. Due to the virus pandemic, the ceremony was held online, inviting around 80 participants.
The Samsung Junior Software Cup is one of the most representative corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of Samsung Electronics. It is a software competition for students from elementary, middle and high schools nationwide.
This year's competition featured 1,747 teams, or a total of 4,604 students, and 11 teams were chosen as winners.
"For this year's competition, we adopted design thinking education, a method for problem solving by putting oneself in the user's shoes, to enhance problem-solving abilities of participating students," Samsung Electronics said.
Samsung said the "Ordinary Girls" team, comprised of two fifth-grade elementary school students ― Yoon Chae-yeon and Kim Do-yeon ― won the grand prize of this year's competition.
They submitted a "speaking mask" to the competition, a face mask equipped with a display. The two students said they decided to develop the speaking mask as they found their friend with hearing difficulties having trouble communicating because of everyone wearing face masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"When a person wearing the mask speaks, the display shows text messages on it, helping the user communicate. The panel members have recognized their creative idea," Samsung said.
"It is important to have talented people who can solve problems with creative and logical thinking in the Fourth Industrial Revolution age," Samsung President Choi Yoon-ho said. "Samsung Electronics will continue to support children so that they can grow into talented personnel in the future."
Since 2015, Samsung Electronics has been working on nurturing young software developers through the Samsung Junior Software Cup. It said about 31,000 elementary, middle and high school students have joined the competitions.
Under the tech giant's corporate social responsibility vision of "Go Together for the Future! Enabling People!" Samsung Electronics has been expanding various CSR programs such as Samsung Software Academy, Samsung Dream Class and Samsung Smart School to improve education for children and young adults.
