Internet of Things Camp: Tapping Coding Potential in Korean Youth

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been heralded as the next big wave in the technology revolution. In an ever-connected world, the IoT offers vast untapped potential for a new generation of innovators to create new apps or develop solutions that will enrich their communities.

At a recent YouthSpark IoT Camp, 20 students got the chance to acquaint themselves with the latest IoT concepts and master basic programming logic through Arduino.

This trend is apparent in South Korea, where there is an increased focus on integrating computer programming and coding education into the school curriculum to spark creativity and innovation among students.

Collaborating with local nonprofits, Microsoft Korea is offering a series of training courses to empower South Korean youth with the necessary skills and coding capabilities to meet future employment needs.

“I was surprised at how easy the entire learning process was. Attending the IoT Camp has given me with the confidence to attempt my very own coding project!”  
-Eun Hee Lee, IoT Camp Participant

At a recent YouthSpark IoT Camp, hosted by Microsoft and its nonprofit partner Dream Together, 20 young students aged between 12 and 14 got the chance to acquaint themselves with the latest IoT concepts and master basic programming logic through Arduino. An open-source prototyping platform, the Arduino environment is conducive for young programmers to learn how to write code that integrates sensors into their projects.

“Inspiring young people to code is something we feel strongly about at Microsoft, and the IoT Camp is part of our efforts to provide more opportunities for underprivileged students to learn what they need for the future digital economy,” said Young Wook Kim, Microsoft Korea’s Technical Evangelist, who was the lead trainer at the two-day event.

Young Wook was joined by a team of 10 Microsoft Student Partners (MSPs) to coach the youth participants on the use of C programming to control and operate connected devices via sensors. Each of the participants managed to overcome their initial difficulties with the programming language, and displayed a high level of competency in connecting the sensors for simple distance measurement.      

“While IoT may not be an easy concept for students, we are very encouraged by their enthusiasm and how quickly they picked up on the knowledge,” Young Wook added.

Eun Hee Lee, one of the participants, said, “I was surprised at how easy the entire learning process was. Attending the IoT Camp has given me with the confidence to attempt my very own coding project!”