STUST's "Ton Up Tongue Weak Rhythm Training" recently won the first place in the college group of the 2023 BioSTEM National Biomedical Creativity Competition. The competition was hosted by Taipei Medical University and aimed to cultivate students' innovative thinking and academic research and practical ability, while emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary applications, combining science, technology, engineering and mathematics, responding to global STEM education trends, and encouraging participants to show creativity and potential. The competition attracted a wide range of participants, promoted industry-university-research exchanges and technological innovation, and stimulated the energy of technological innovation and industry-university-research cooperation.

【A physician was inspecting the condition of facilities for the "Ton Up Tongue Powerless Rhythm Training.】

【STUST's "Ton Up Tongue Powerless Rhythm Training" won first place of the college group of the 2023 BioSTEM National Biomedical Creative Competition: (From left to right) Prof. Min-yu Chen, Yi-zhen Li, and Yi-ting Li.】

"Ton Up Tongue Powerless Rhythm Training," developed by Yi-zhen Li, and Yi-ting Li, and Rong-shuan Yang and jointly directed by Professor Min-yu Chen from the Department of Electronic Engineering and Professor Kun Ouyang from the Department of Creative Product Design, won first place in the college group. This work is a solution for the recovery of tongue muscle strength, aiming to help patients restore the flexible movements of their tongues. Through the aids designed by the team, the training process becomes interesting and effective. The work combines the functions of interactive games and training therapy, specially developed for the recovery of tongue muscle strength with a variety of rehabilitation games and tongue suction devices for tongue muscle training. Patients can choose suitable rehabilitation method according to their own conditions and adjust the difficulty level. During the training process, the trainer uses AI technology combined with assistive devices to identify, obtain, and record data through algorithms before finally presenting these data in the form of visual charts, so that the therapist can objectively and accurately assess the effects and progresses of the rehabilitation

【A demonstration of how a patient uses the "Ton Up Tongue Powerless Rhythm Training”】

As Professor Wan-rong Chang from the Department of Electronic Engineering and Professor Kun Ouyang from the Department of Production Design said, they were very honored and proud to be awarded this time. The team had been through a lot of hard work. It was also an honor to cooperate with the Rehabilitation Department of Zhonghe Memorial Hospital affiliated to Kaohsiung Medical University. Their professional knowledge and rich experience provided valuable guidance and support for our research and development work, making the award-winning product "Ton Up Tongue Powerless Rhythm Training" closer to the actual medical needs and effectively responding to the challenge of tongue muscle recovery. In the future, STUST will continue to be committed to promoting the combination of technology and medical care, striving to explore innovative solutions in the medical field and bringing more far-reaching influence and improvement to the development of the medical industry.

As President Cheng-wen Wu of STUST pointed out, STUST firmly believes that project research is an important way to cultivate a student's innovative thinking and practical ability, and STUST has been committed to providing sufficient financial support to ensure that students can give full play to their creativity and academic ability in special research. Excellent students and schools from all over the country actively participated in the competition, which highlighted the importance of technological innovation and practical ability training. It is an important milestone for STUST to win first place in this competition. It has verified the efforts and achievements of the school in this area. In the future, STUST will continue to promote the cultivation of students' innovative thinking and practical ability and provide greater support and resources to students and teachers. At the same time, President Wu sincerely thanked the Rehabilitation Department of Zhonghe Memorial Hospital affiliated to Kaohsiung Medical University for its support and cooperation. Their professional knowledge and assistance have played an important role in our team’s achieving such excellent results. This cooperation has enriched the content of project research, promoted the cooperative relationship between the school and the medical field, and brought precious practical opportunities and valuable experience to students.