Seoul Students Win International Award for Turning Human Play into Robot-Training Data

Working on separate robotics projects, the students discovered a common problem: robots need more real-world data to learn how humans interact with objects.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA, October 29, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Three students from Seoul have been selected as one of the four winning teams in the World Robot Olympiad™ (WRO^®) STEM Entrepreneur Program after developing a system that turns everyday human interactions into training data for robots and Physical AI.

The WRO STEM Entrepreneur Program, powered by Aramco, is a new initiative to bridge the gap between STEM education and entrepreneurship by giving students the opportunity to defend how their technologies work, why they matter and how they would take their solutions from the competition arena to the market with the objective of solving real-world challenges.

Jaeseong Kim, 16, Sungchan Kim, 17 and Sungkyeom Kim, 16, competed as team Why Combinator. Their project, PlayData, grew from a problem each had encountered independently while working with robotics and AI.

Sungkyeom was building robot hands but lacked enough real-world manipulation data to train them effectively. Sungchan was teaching robots how to perform physical tasks but also lacked examples to train them effectively. Jaeseong encountered similar data shortages while researching humanoid robotics. When they compared their experiences, they realized they were tackling the same problem from different angles.

Their answer was to look at where people already spend time grasping, twisting, pulling, inserting and pressing physical objects. Instead of relying on people being paid to perform repetitive demonstrations for robots, PlayData explores whether activities people already perform – such as playing in escape rooms – could provide useful physical interaction data.

To test the concept, the trio built a working data glove and body-camera prototype that records first-person video together with information about finger movement, hand motion and contact force. They also built their own robotic hand with 16 independently controlled movements and a data-processing system that synchronizes and structures the recordings.

In Hyderabad, India, Why Combinator presented PlayData to entrepreneurs, investors and industry professionals as part of the WRO STEM Entrepreneur Program. 22 student teams from 13 countries took part, pitching both the technical and practical value of robotics projects developed through WRO’s Future Innovators competition.

“What stood out about Why Combinator was their ability to identify a real challenge, combine their knowledge and develop a concrete solution. This is exactly the kind of learning we want young people to experience through World Robot Olympiad in Korea,” said Sang-Yep Nam, National Organizer for WRO in Korea.

Why Combinator was selected as one of the four winning teams, alongside teams from India, Italy and the Philippines. Each winning team receives a $5,000 award and six months of mentoring from industry experts, including investment professionals from Aramco Ventures, the global venturing arm of Aramco, as well as experts from India STEM Foundation and WRO, to help further develop their projects.

“As students, one of our biggest barriers has been limited resources. With this support, we can focus on developing the hardware, advancing our research and taking our idea closer to the real world to solve the most important problem in the Physical AI industry,” said Jaeseong Kim, Why Combinator.

The WRO STEM Entrepreneur Program, powered by strategic partner Aramco, bridges STEM education and entrepreneurship by challenging young people to explain not just how their technology works, but why it matters and how it can evolve beyond the competition.

“At Aramco, we believe the future lies in empowering young people. Our STEM Education Global Program enables students to understand science and technology and use it to create, build, and solve. Our strategic partnership with WRO continues to expand, allowing students to take their ideas outside of the classroom, from ideation and prototyping to execution and real-world innovation,” said Hadeel Al-Eisa, Aramco Corporate Citizenship Manager.

Following the inaugural event in Hyderabad, WRO plans to bring the STEM Entrepreneur Program format to National Organizers around the world.

ENDS

About the WRO STEM Entrepreneur Program
The WRO STEM Entrepreneur Program is a new program launched as a result of a strategic partnership between Aramco and WRO. It combines robotics, innovation, and entrepreneurship by challenging student teams to present both the technical and practical value of their solutions to a panel of industry professionals. The international event took place in Hyderabad, India, on September 28, 2026. It brought together 22 teams from 13 countries: Ghana, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, and Uganda.

About the World Robot Olympiad Association
World Robot Olympiad™ Association (WRO^®) is a global non-profit that engages over 175,000 young people across more than 100 countries through hands-on robotics challenges. The competition helps students develop creative problem-solving skills while fostering international collaboration and STEM leadership.

Media Contact
For media enquiries regarding this release, please contact press@wro-association.org

Tina Lee
World Robot Olympiad Association
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