Science ministry awards 32 teams in AI and XR developer contest

The science ministry awarded 32 teams on Wednesday at its sixth annual AI and virtual convergence developer competition, capping a contest that drew 497 teams and 1,029 participants over roughly five months.

The awards ceremony was held at the Virtual Convergence Industry Hub in Pangyo, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, the Ministry of Science and ICT said. Four teams took the top prize, the minister's award: Gamut and Tucode in the developer category, and Jeongjun People and SSAMPPONG Studio in the creator category.

Gamut was recognized for an AI and 3D-based personal fashion social media service. Tucode won for Ans2Quest, a web-based science experiment and inquiry learning service. Jeongjun People submitted "Maple Guardians: Protect the Maple Tree," a title using MapleStory characters, while SSAMPPONG Studio entered "Koreapunk 2026," a third-person shooter set in Korean alleyways.

Another 28 teams received awards: four took the runner-up prize from the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, and 24 received awards from the Korea Radio Promotion Association and sponsor companies. The 32 winning teams, comprising 84 people, were selected through three rounds of document, presentation and final evaluations, beating competition of 6.4 to 1.

The contest, split into a developer category for AI and XR services and a creator category using global user-generated-content platforms such as Roblox and MapleStory Worlds, added AI development tools for participants this year and factored AI usage into its evaluations. Fourteen domestic and foreign companies, including Roblox, Nexon Korea, Upstage, Unity Technologies Korea, Overdare Korea and Hypercloud, joined as sponsors, setting assignments and providing mentoring and evaluation support.

Participants included 258 elementary, middle and high school students and 771 young people of university age or older, who completed service and content production training and one-on-one mentoring over the five-month program.

The ministry will provide follow-up support for winners' employment, startups and commercialization. Interested adult winners will be offered internships linked to sponsor companies along with startup consulting, and Gamut, the top adult team in the developer category, will also receive a chance to take part in the K-Digital Grand Championship.

"Young developers and creators showed their ability to turn creative ideas into actual services and content through this competition," said Nam Cheol-ki, the ministry's software policy director. "We will continue to strengthen cooperation with private companies to discover and nurture outstanding talent in the AI and virtual convergence fields and actively support them so their work leads to employment, startups and commercialization."

The competition has drawn 2,439 teams and 5,688 participants cumulatively since it began.