Kakao Mobility announced on the 11th that it successfully completed the 'Junior Lab 4th' program with the participation of 30 students at the 'Kakao AI Campus' in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, over four days and three nights from the 6th to the 9th of this month.
The Junior Lab, a coding camp for taxi drivers' families, is part of Kakao Mobility's social impact project '201 Campaign', which has been operated in cooperation with the Children and Future Foundation since 2023. It aims to provide practical educational benefits to the children of taxi drivers, harnessing the characteristics of information technology (IT) corporations to support them in growing into future talents.
This year, a variety of coding education and experience programs were organized with the theme of 'smart mobility', following last year's focus. The curriculum was designed to engage participating students in learning the basics of coding, starting with familiarizing themselves with coding learning tools, and allowing them to experience mobility through a machine learning app, as well as plan app services through 'planner exercises', fostering interest and understanding in smart mobility and apps. In particular, in the 4th Junior Lab, it was deemed necessary to include activities that would allow deeper thinking about future mobility service ideas, leading to the addition of 'design thinking' activities to creatively derive user-centered ideas.
Students could design their own apps and create and code smart mobility robots, resulting in their own outcomes over the three nights and four days, which is a hallmark of the Junior Lab. The completed smart mobility robots and app services were displayed on the last day, the 9th, so that families could view them directly, and the operation process was demonstrated to help students feel a sense of achievement.
Additionally, current Kakao Mobility developers directly attended to conduct a mentoring concert on the theme 'the fun and rewards of app planning and development', providing time for Junior Lab participants to discover their own potential and grow. After all programs concluded, a graduation ceremony was held, where students who successfully completed the entire Junior Lab course were presented with congratulatory messages and coding learning resources to continue their coding education, along with Junior Lab goods.
Ryu Geung-seon, CEO of Kakao Mobility, noted, 'Although it is a short time, I hope this Junior Lab will be a chance for students to discover their dreams and possibilities, and every year, I prepare this program together with my employees.' He added, 'We will continually create opportunities for more taxi drivers and their families to be part of Kakao Mobility.'