Kookmin University Students Sweep 2026 SEA:ME Autonomous Driving Hackathon
Undergraduate teams dominated the AI-native competition, using generative AI to program scale-model cars in Seoul.
Three undergraduate teams from Kookmin University claimed the top prizes at the 2026 SEA:ME Hackathon, demonstrating how generative AI is reshaping automotive software education in South Korea.
The competition, held July 14-16 at Park Habio in Seoul's Songpa District, brought together 117 students from 27 teams representing seven universities. Tasked with programming scale-model cars to navigate urban driving simulations, participants used natural language instructions to generate and refine code through a technique called "vibe coding."
Kookmin Dominates Top Prizes
Team SMT took the grand prize, with teammates SKY and KUUVe securing the top excellence and gold awards respectively. The clean sweep underscores Kookmin University's strategic focus on mobility as a core specialization.
"We learned a great deal turning ideas into working results with AI, and it was a valuable experience," members of the winning SMT team said.
Teams from Keimyung University, Chungbuk National University, and Sunmoon University earned silver, bronze, technology, and design awards.
Industry-Backed Training Pipeline
The hackathon was jointly organized by Kookmin University's COSS Future Mobility Project Group and Hanyang University ERICA's Intelligent Robot Business Unit. The Volkswagen Group WE: Foundation backed the event as part of its SEA:ME program, the flagship training initiative aimed at cultivating automotive software talent in South Korea.
Telechips served as technology partner, providing TOPST single-board computer platform scale cars. Each team received a one-month subscription to Claude Code Max 20x for the AI-assisted development work.
The competition theme—"AI-Native Scale-Car Autonomous Driving Challenge"—reflected the industry's shift toward rapid prototyping with generative AI tools.
"It was a valuable opportunity for students to tackle the kind of advanced autonomous driving problems that carmakers are actually wrestling with," said Kim Jong-chan, hackathon director and deputy head of the project group.
Momentum Builds for Korean Mobility Talent
The hackathon victory follows another international win for the SEA:ME program. In May 2026, a SEA:ME team won the Bosch Future Mobility Challenge 2026 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
The back-to-back successes highlight growing synergy between academic research and industrial application in South Korea's mobility sector. As automakers increasingly rely on AI-native development workflows, programs like SEA:ME position Korean undergraduates at the forefront of automotive software innovation.