Researcher develops education chatbot for students in developing countries

By Jun Ji-hye

An Mi-jin has developed a computer programming education chatbot for students in developing countries in the hope of offering a helpful education platform to those living in areas with limited IT access.

An, who is completing her Ph.D. in the software platform department at Sungkyunkwan University, said she wanted to develop the education service for students in developing countries after learning most of them cannot afford to buy PCs or laptops due to underprivileged surroundings even if they are interested in computer programming.

“Data charges in developing countries are too expensive as well, thus it is difficult for students there to learn things through YouTube and other video streaming platforms,” An said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

She developed the service, dubbed Code Canary, during Facebook's F8 Hackathon, which took place for three days from April 28 in San Jose, during which time she teamed up with seven others from Kenya, Denmark, Lebanon, Germany, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Bolivia.

The Hackathon event requires teams to work together to finish a project in a set time.

The Code Canary service runs on Facebook Messenger, she said, noting that students can use it by topping up their mobile data bundles, which are much cheaper.

“Generally, computers are necessary in programming education, and most education courses require students to get access to certain websites where training videos are shared,” she said. “In contrast, a user can use the Code Canary service with a mobile phone, and is able to interact with a chatbot to learn computer programming.”

This would lower the entry barrier for computer programming education and contribute to some extent to resolving education inequality, she said.

“I'd had few chances to learn in detail about the situations in developing countries, but was able to listen to details from my team members from African countries,” she said. “This helped me better give shape to my idea.”

She said her goal as a researcher is to help people gain equal access to education and improve their quality of life.

“I want to deal not only with the minor inconveniences that occur in people's daily lives, but also with bigger issues such as education inequality,” she said.