Aspiring students go head-to-head in college innovation competition

Six teams of aspiring student innovators from among the world's top universities have made it to the final of the 2024 China International College Students' Innovation Competition, held in Shanghai on Tuesday.

A team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University secured the first prize for developing a sea and air cross-domain unmanned vehicle, followed by a team from Tsinghua University who won the second prize and four teams from the world's top universities who took the third prize, including University College London and University of New South Wales.

This year's competition has introduced the artificial intelligence+ category, drawing 326,000 projects to apply, in addition, new projects added to the new engineering, the new medicine, the new agriculture and the new humanities categories.

A platform that connects academia and industries, the event also organized a resource-matching meeting on Tuesday to open up and expand channels for excellent projects, bringing together over 400 representatives from the participating projects, investment institutions and enterprises. More than 30 such meetings have been convened since the competition launched in May, with the total intended investment reaching 6.803 billion yuan ($954 million).

Another parallel event, the World University Student Innovation Forum and the establishment ceremony of the World University Student Innovation Alliance, also took place at Shanghai Jiao Tong University on the same day. Approximately 350 guests were invited to attend the event, including representatives from the United Nations and presidents of well-known universities from China and abroad. During the ceremony, a report and an evaluation index system were released, which focused on assessing college students' capacities to innovate and start businesses.

Furthermore, an exhibition was unveiled to showcase 28 excellent participating projects that have made innovations in fields, such as agriculture, aerospace, information technology, new materials, and high-end equipment.

Several projects initiated by high school students were also on display, demonstrating the potential of Chinese young talent to apply cutting-edge technologies and engage in interdisciplinary innovation activities.

Zhang Zile contributed to the story.