SEOUL, May 27 (AJP) - A joint student team from Kookmin University and other prominent institutes won the top prize at the Bosch Future Mobility Challenge 2026, an international autonomous driving competition held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The team outperformed dozens of international competitors during the five-day event, the university said Wednesday.
The competition, which ran from May 16 to May 20, 2026, invited undergraduate and master's degree students to develop autonomous driving algorithms for 1:10-scale model cars. The vehicles were tested for their ability to navigate real-world traffic scenarios on a miniature smart-city track. A total of 57 teams from around the world participated in the event.
The winning team comprised students participating in the fourth cohort of SEA:ME, a mobility software training program jointly operated by KMU and the Volkswagen Group Woori Foundation (VGWF). The roster included Kim Ki-hoon and Oh Young-kyo from KMU, Jang Dong-min and Choi Min-hyuk from Inha University (IU), and Kang Ju-heon from Ajou University (AU), under the guidance of Professor Kim Jong-chan. The team earned high marks for developing a custom localization algorithm that maintained precise and stable driving performance even when local network and GPS signals became unstable.
The SEA:ME program operates under the Convergence and Open Sharing System (COSS) future automobile consortium to provide selected students with specialized mobility software education and training opportunities in Germany. The victory builds on previous achievements by earlier cohorts, which included a third-place finish in 2024 and the Best Newcomers Award in 2025.
"We have gained the confidence and conviction that future talents who will take responsibility for South Korea's autonomous driving technology can lead the world," said Professor Shin Sung-hwan, the director of the COSS Future Automobile Consortium. KMU students Kim and Oh noted that collaboration was key to their performance. "The effort and cooperation of team members who challenged themselves to the end amidst fierce competition became the driving force of our victory," the students said. "We were able to learn and grow a lot through the competition."
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