- Today to open five-day App Development Mentoring Camp for 50 teams (or 180 students) at Korea Polytechnic
University (KPU)
- Received strong interest from high school students, with 385 teams or 1,242 students submitting their applications
by May
Seoul, Korea, July 16, 2013—SK Planet and Small and Medium Business Administration (SMBA) announced today the opening
of the five-day App Development Mentoring Camp at the Korea Polytechnic University (KPU). The camp, held as part of the
Smarteen App Challenge 2013, is aimed at offering practical training and professional mentoring programs to the select 50
teams (or 180 high school students) that have outstanding ideas relevant to the fields of mobile and IT.
The camp is the third high school app development contest jointly held by SMBA and SK Planet this year. From an applicant
pool of 385 teams (or 1,242 students from 126 high schools), 50 teams (or 180 students from 18 high schools) were selected
to take part in the camp through two-tiered evaluation procedure.
The select teams will receive practical training in the areas including as planning application/game development,
understanding mobile UX/UI and smart content development. Roughly 30 school teachers will also participate in the camp
and form a community for ongoing networking.
Moreover, for the next three months, participants of the camp will enjoy access to mentoring support for problem solving
as well as other intensive app development training from ten professional mentors who have the experience of successfully
launching their own startups.
The final evaluation, scheduled for October, will review each team’s presentation on end product and select 20 winning
teams that will be awarded with a combined total of KRW 94 million in prize money. The grand prize winning team will receive
a cash prize of KRW 10 million along with the special benefit of studying abroad. Moreover, 30 outstanding developers
(double last December’s number) from winning teams will also enjoy a chance to receive overseas training.
Winning teams who wish to start their own businesses will be provided with an office space at the business startup incubation
center specialized for app development and enjoy access to startup funds. High-performing developers will also have
opportunities to work at SK Planet or other IT-related firms.
SMBA explained, “We plan to increase follow up support to evolve this event into a platform that discovers talents and helps
them become future leaders of the smart economy.” SK planet added that it will fully utilize its experience in running diverse
support programs through Open Innovation Center to present new opportunities to the participants.
