Software (SW) and artificial intelligence (AI) coding education–focused Ulsan SW Future Talent Cultivation (Ulsan SW Miraechaeum) project disclosed this year’s achievements through the “2025 Ulsan SW Miraechaeum Performance Presentation.” In addition to 80 or so professional instructors educating 14,000 local students, the project drew attention for notable results such as being selected as an excellent case for the introduction of a long-term SW education program for vocational high school job seekers and narrowing the digital divide. The event also gained significance by awarding students who achieved outstanding results in national SW·AI-related competitions.


The awards ceremony for the 2025 Ulsan SW Miraechaeum Performance Presentation was held on the morning of December 6 on the 3rd floor of the Jongha Innovation Center in Nam-gu, Ulsan. The Challenge awards ceremony was attended by Jeong Hoe-geol, Head of the Talent Education Center at the Digital Convergence Division of the Ulsan Information Industry Promotion Agency, award-winning students and their families, and about 60 Ulsan SW Miraechaeum instructors.

In his congratulatory remarks, Center Head Jeong stated, “The Ulsan Information Industry Promotion Agency has been promoting the SW Miraechaeum project for six years. This year alone, we educated approximately 14,000 students in the Ulsan region and received a high level of satisfaction. In particular, we achieved several meaningful results in national competitions, including the ‘2025 SW Miraechaeum SW·AI High School Challenge’.” He added, “We will continue to provide education so that Ulsan’s future talents can keep growing through SW Miraechaeum, and we will steadily explore ways to further advance the program.”

First, three students who received the Challenging Talent Award in the “2025 SW Miraechaeum Coding Project Challenge” for elementary, middle, and high school students were called: Lee Ji-woo (Duwang Elementary School), Jeon Seong-bin (Jungsan Elementary School), and Yoon Song-hyeon (Wolbong Elementary School). They competed as Team IDEACODE and won an award in the Challenge. Student Lee Ji-woo said, “At first, coding was difficult, but as I learned step by step, it became easier.” Student Yoon Song-hyeon remarked, “I felt frustrated when I could not solve problems while coding, but with the help of the instructor, I was able to resolve them well. Receiving an award made it even better.”


Ulsan SW Miraechaeum instructor Park Soo-bin, who was in charge of this Challenge, stated, “The two-month Challenge project did not proceed smoothly all the time. It was a continuous process in which students did not get discouraged by failure but instead found solutions and learned on their own. Thanks to the students, we were able to finish successfully with an award. I am grateful to them all and very proud.”

The ceremony continued with awards for two teams that received the Director’s Prize through the “2025 SW Miraechaeum SW·AI High School Challenge.” These were the AIdea team from Ulsan High School (Kwon Min-seok, Kim Hyo-chan, Ahn Soo-hyun) and the JJJ team from Ulsan Girls’ High School (Gong Min-ji, Kim Min-ju, Kim Ji-yeon). The AIdea team stated with one voice, “If we get another opportunity, we want to challenge ourselves again and achieve even better results.”

For this Challenge, out of more than 530 applicants nationwide, 40 teams from 11 of the 13 SW Miraechaeum centers advanced to the finals. The final round was held over three days and two nights from August 1 to 3, and only 14 teams earned the honor of winning awards. The mission at the time was to create a region-specific AI-based disaster response platform, and since teams personally carried out all stages from ideation and planning to implementation and presentation, the results were all the more valuable. AIdea presented a system for rapid response to fires in chemical complexes, while JJJ unveiled a system for responding to ship oil spills. As disaster response platforms tailored to the Ulsan area, they received particular attention.


Commenting on the awards in this Challenge, Park Hyun-jeong, Chief Instructor at Ulsan SW Miraechaeum, said, “These are truly remarkable achievements in a competition that was even more intense than in previous years,” emphasizing, “It made me feel that Ulsan’s future is bright.” She continued, “Although there were overlapping ideas due to standardized teaching aids and themes, the Ulsan teams stood out. The atmosphere on-site was highly enthusiastic every time an Ulsan team finished its presentation, so I anticipated that they would win awards,” adding, “Four teams from Ulsan advanced to the finals, but only two teams received awards. I want to commend all of them, because they all did their very best.”

In addition, a performance exhibition and experience space showcasing the achievements of Ulsan SW Miraechaeum attracted attention. The exhibition zone was divided into ▲Visiting Education (LEGO SPIKE Prime, PROBO, Ozobot, Hamster S), ▲Vocational High School Education (autonomous driving Altino Lite), and ▲Special School Education (Bino, GENIBOT). The experience zone was organized into ▲Metaverse (Hello Maple, Roblox, D’LiteX), ▲Physical Coding (MODI, LEGO SPIKE Prime, LEGO WeDo), and ▲AI Autonomous Driving (ARTIBO, Kamibot, Hamster AI). Professional instructors provided friendly explanations to aid understanding. The program was open to all Ulsan citizens for viewing and participation, drawing more than 200 visitors and receiving a positive response.

Instructor Song Mi-young of Ulsan SW Miraechaeum, who was in charge of the AI Clickbot, which was introduced for the first time this year, explained, “It is an AI-based modular robot coding education tool. Students can physically handle it, and the coding is designed to be easy, so their response was extremely positive. It is regarded as a representative experience model at various SW-related events in the Ulsan region.” Instructor Baek Mi-young of Ulsan SW Miraechaeum, who was responsible for Kamibot and Hamster AI in AI autonomous driving, said, “The Ulsan Center continuously researches new teaching aids and has established a strong culture of designing programs that make coding more accessible,” adding, “We provide customized instruction so that no student is left behind in coding education and everyone can learn effectively.”


Ulsan SW Miraechaeum has trained around 80 SW professional instructors who can cover everything from basic to advanced levels and is operating programs at local schools and institutions for 40 to 60 hours each month. These instructors are drawn from the local workforce. Ulsan SW Miraechaeum also takes the lead in helping unemployed youth and career-interrupted women make a fresh start. By training local talent as SW professional instructors and deploying them in SW·AI education settings for students, it is sustaining a virtuous cycle.

In particular, Ulsan SW Miraechaeum has increased student participation and accessibility by running customized education programs not only for elementary, middle, and high schools but also for special schools. The long-term SW education program, introduced this year for the first time for vocational high school students, was selected in 2025 as an excellent case by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA) and received the Director’s Prize. In addition, the project expanded its activities by providing cutting-edge content such as drones, autonomous driving robots, and AI robots to local residents at regional events including the Future Expo in Ulsan (Ulsan Industry Festival), the Ulsan World Future Industry Expo, and the Ulsan Future Education Expo. Through these efforts, it demonstrated that the SW Miraechaeum policy goal of “bridging the digital divide” is being effectively implemented in the field.

On-site feedback was also positive. Teacher Song Yeon-hwa of Wolbong Middle School, who implemented the Ulsan SW Miraechaeum program this year, said, “In schools, professional education on generative AI is not yet widespread compared to the need for such education. The Ulsan SW Miraechaeum program provided systematic instruction on practical utilization methods. Although it is free, the curriculum is very substantial and useful, so both students and teachers responded positively. The presence of professional instructors also enhanced trust. Even if it became a paid program, I would be willing to receive the training. I definitely want to run it again next year.”

Head of Division Han Seung-mi, who oversaw this year’s SW Miraechaeum education program, stated, “In 2025, Ulsan SW Miraechaeum successfully established a Ulsan-style digital virtuous cycle model that provides customized education rather than simple SW education. It is thanks to all the Ulsan SW Miraechaeum instructors who worked together,” and added, “By quickly reflecting trends in education fields and advancing the program, we hope to establish it as a project that fosters Ulsan-style SW future talent.”

Meanwhile, the SW Miraechaeum Ulsan Center, established in 2020, aims to resolve imbalances in software education in the Ulsan region and foster digital talent. To this end, it is striving to build a systematic software education environment. Ultimately, it plans to lead sustainable, region-specific educational innovation as an institution that leads the educational paradigm in the era of digital transformation.

IT Dong-a Reporter Park Gu-im (luckyim@itdonga.com)

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