The first Innovation Contest finals took place on the 23^rd of April at SUSTech in the first scientific research building lecture hall. 15 finalists made it through to the last stage of the competition, and it was the “Robot” project that took home the Invention Group prize and the “Sweet Lab 3D Dessert Printing” project that was awarded the Creative Group prize. SUSTech’s Research Department director Zhao Yousheng and the head professors of the departments of the winning teams were present at the closing ceremony.

The Innovation Contest is the first university-wide competition on the theme of innovation, which aims to promote innovation culture on campus, serve as practical real-life experience, and encourage innovation to be applied with impact and value.

The competition was co-organized by the Institute of Innovative Entrepreneurship, the Zhicheng College, the Shude College and various departments of SUSTech revolving around the entrepreneurship mechanisms. It has been taking place since November 2016 and has attracted dozens of projects with nearly 100 students taking part.

The university held a series of activities before the event to raise awareness and rally the students passionate about innovation and wanting to put their skills to the test. This was followed by a first qualifying round splitting into the “Invention groups” and the “Creative groups”, each having respectively 7 and 8 teams going on into the final.

Among the audience and judges of the final were a number of notable figures from the academic and industry circles including:

• Intelligent manufacturing experts

• Head of the SUSTech Department of Mechanical Engineering Rong Yiming

• SUSTech associate professor of computer science Hao Qi

• Innovation Institute associate professor Song Xiaofeng

• SUSTech Equity Investment Fund Management General Manager Men Xiaoguang

• AZ Design CEO and Head Designer Jia Siyuan

• The original Nokia Research Institute chief designer, Shenzhen Lu Bo technology CEO, Baoan Fanke Association Yan Qifeng and many other key industry leaders.

The finals used a new and innovating way to reveal the teams’ projects using short videos for a creative and unusual display method.

The final ranking of the teams was based on a investment fund simulation. The judges distributed the seed fund based on the overall performance of each team, and the prizes were determined by the accumulated amount and the equivalent seed fund that was supported after the competition.

The projects “Robot”, “24GHz radar sleep apnea monitoring system” and “flexible epoxy resins” came respectively 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd in the innovation contest’s “Invention Group”. The projects’ team leaders were Zheng Tao, Zhang Jin, Sun Dazhi, and Zhang was rated as the contest’s “best mentor.” Zhang’s project combined 3D print manufacturing and leap motion sensor technology, and the design of a humanoid robot through infrared sensor gesture control which included ten degrees of freedom, and remote control operation. In many cases it can replace its traditional counterpart and the judges believed that it had a wide range of applications and good industrial prospects. It was recommended to develop it further based on different scales and application scenarios, and to segment the target market in order to develop a comprehensive business plan.

In the “Creative Group”, the teams responsible for developing the “Sweet lab 3D Dessert Print”, “Goodnight Box”, and “Health Monitoring Technology Based on Saliva C-Reactive Protein Detection” won respectively the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd “Creative Group” prize, and project leader Liang Yong Ye was named the contest’s “best mentor.” The Sweet Lab 3D Dessert Print project explores new ways to achieve 3D printing desserts and how to implement this technology in the consumer market. The judges validated the concept of the project construction and the creative design based on modern technology. They suggested that the concept can be expanded into a much wider range of applications in the future which would make it a valuable innovation.

The results of the online vote were also announced at the scene, and it was the project “Based on saliva C-reactive protein detection of health monitoring technology” which rallied the most support and won the “Best Popularity Award.”

The Innovation Contest was encouraged by the student colleges in order to review and gain practical experience with with emerging technologies. The judges make suggestions and outline expectations, giving the students a chance to think about how to develop their innovations and bring about positive changes in our society. “Innovation” is one of the core values of SUSTech, and the university aims to provide the students with stimulating entrepreneurial services in order to encourage them to think as an entrepreneur. The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute provides students with a variety of tools and events such as summer design courses, industrial design double degrees, business counseling and other services, and together with the student colleges, the university and outside institutions, strive so that more students have the opportunity to develop their sense of innovation and apply it to the outside world.