LG Electronics said on the 30th that it will hold the finals of the 2025 Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities (GITC) for three days from the 29th at Hotel Hyundai by Lahan Ulsan in Dong-gu, Ulsan.
GITC is the world's only international IT competition for youth with disabilities, launched in 2011 to improve their IT skills and help them enter society. LG, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs host the event, and LG Electronics and the GITC Organizing Committee oversee it. Participating countries have expanded beyond Asian nations such as Korea and China to the Middle East and Africa. Over 14 years through this year, about 4,500 youths with disabilities from 40 countries have taken part.
In particular, this year it gained added significance as an official side event of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit and the only disability-related event among the side events. Ninety-two youths with physical, visual, hearing, and developmental disabilities, selected through preliminaries in 16 countries, participated.
Participants competed in four events: the eCombination challenge, which covers AI-based information search and document work; the eCreative_SmartCar challenge, which evaluates Autonomous Driving car programming skills; the eCreative_IoT challenge, which covers technology ideas and IT capabilities; and the eContents challenge, which assesses video production skills. A pilot coding skills challenge to create an AI-based responsive game was held for the first time and received a positive response from participants.
Meanwhile, during the competition, participants also experienced Korean culture, including a K-pop performance, wearing hanbok, and traditional games, spending time interacting with one another.
GITC has served as a springboard to help youth with disabilities enter society, with past participants advancing to IT-related studies or securing jobs.
In fact, a person with a physical disability named Tona, who took part in GITC in 2014, was hired as a civil servant along with the teammates who participated at the time and is currently working; Paramuditaya, a person with a visual disability who was selected as a global IT leader at the 2015 competition, completed a long-term IT education program based on scholarship support from the Indonesian government after participating in GITC and is now working as an IT developer at the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. Aikio, a person with a visual disability who attended the 2014 competition, works as the head of the Laos Disability Service Center, developing and distributing free braille software.
Yun Dae-sik, executive vice president in charge of external relations at LG Electronics, said, "Through GITC, we will support youths who have dreams in the IT field so they can overcome disabilities, enter society, and communicate with the world."