SEOUL -- South Korea's biggest telecom service operator KT has partnered with Seoul Robotics High School to nurture young scientists who specialize in artificial intelligence and robotics. The telecom service provider will deploy AI developers as teachers so that students can learn their know-how.
South Korea with a robot industry that stood at five trillion won ($3.8 billion) in 2020 is growing at an average annual growth rate of 3.6 percent. In South Korea, robots are widely used in many sectors including restaurant services, elderly care, and surveillance. The most popular sector for robots is the services sector with more than three thousand waiter robots that carry food and drinks from a restaurant kitchen to customers' tables.
KT said that the company partnered with the polytechnic high school located in the southern district of Gangnam to kick-start the "AI Certificate for Everyone" (AICE) program, which is basically out-of-the-classroom regular courses for students. Through the nurturing program, KT will offer classes for 40 high school second-grade students. AICE will also offer standardized tests to measure students' abilities in robotics and AI development.
"It is vital for students to acquire the knowledge of the fundamentals and applications of AI to become masters of robotics. Through cooperation with KT, we hope that our students become experts who specialize in both robotics and AI technology by beefing up their AI capabilities," Seoul Robotics High School principal Kang Sang-wook said in a statement on February 22.