The 20th Macronix Golden Silicon Award, also known as the Oscar Award for departments of Electronic Engineering and departments of Electrical Engineering, recently saw its awarding ceremony at the Taipei Songyan Eslite Performance Hall. The competition was divided into a design group and an application group. The works covered a various of fields, such as elderly care, artificial intelligence, 5G, etc. This year participants came from 35 colleges and universities, with 303 teams signing up and a total of nearly 1,000 teachers and students enthusiastically participating in the competition. 10 teams were finally selected for the awarding ceremony. A number of guests from industries, government units, academic and research institutions were invited, including the current Minister of Science and Technology Zheng-Zhong Wu and the former minister Liang-Ji Chen, along with the former Dean of Academia Sinica Yuan-Zhe Li, who had participated in the event over the past two decades, giving the winners the greatest encouragement.
[Hong-Wen Chen (second from left) from the Department of Electronic Engineering of the "Go-to Guide" team was introducing to Yuan-Zhe Li (first from left), former Dean of the Academia Sinica their award-winning work—"Walking Obstacle Warning System for the Visually Impaired Based on Artificial Intelligence Edge Computing.”]
The "Go-to Guide" team of the Department of Electronic Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, directed by Professor Wan-Rong Chang, was formed by Bo-Heng Wen, Jia-Chi Chang, Wen-De Chen, and Hong-Wen Chen. They won the Bronze Medal with their work "Walking Obstacle Warning System for the Visually Impaired Based on Artificial Intelligence Edge Computing.” The work includes a pair of intelligent sunglasses for the visually impaired to wear, an intelligent recognizer that can be worn on the waist, and a cloud information platform that can be used by the customer service center. The purpose is to solve the problem that the visually impaired often encounter impediments and obstacles when walking outside, such as road trees, signboards, construction triangular cones, and many other ground construction roadblocks, resulting in injury from collision with suspended obstacles and inconvenience of being blocked by ground construction roadblocks. These are two major problems for the team to solve with their work.
[Wen-De Chen, Hong-Wen Chen, Jia-Chi Chang, Professor Wan-Rong Chang, and Bo-Heng Wen (From left to right) from the "Go-to Guide" team of the Department of Electronic Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, had a photo after they won the bronze medal in the application group of the 20th Macronix Gold Silicon Award.]
Professor Wan-Rong Chang of the Department of Electronic Engineering said that Macronix Golden Silicon Award has been in Taiwan for a long time and is known as the Oscar Award for departments of Electronic Engineering and departments of Electrical Engineering. It was not easy to win in the competition. The winning entry of this competition took the needs of the visually impaired as its starting point, introducing artificial intelligence into the daily life of the visually impaired to solve the problems of the visually impaired when they collide with suspended obstacles and lose their direction. Thanks should also be given to Professor Kun Ouyang from the Department of Creative Product Design for his assistance in product packaging and promotion. With the assistance of the Department of Creative Product Design, the team successfully combined the AI technology research and development capabilities of the Department of Electronic Engineering and the design capabilities of the Department of Creative Product Design, making outstanding results for their applications—the Group Bronze Medal. In the future, the teamwork will lead students to more interdisciplinary learning opportunities. In addition to the improvement of design skills, students will be able to learn and grow from each interdisciplinary cooperation.
[Bo-Heng Wen, Jia-Chi Chang, Wen-De Chen, and Hong-Wen Chen (From left to right) from the "Go-to Guide" team of the Department of Electronic Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, had a photo with their work "Walking Obstacle Warning System for the Visually Impaired Based on Artificial Intelligence Edge Computing."]
Deng-Maw Lu, President of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said that in accordance with the nation’s 5+2 policy, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology has vigorously promoted artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things education, providing teachers and students with a large number of special production funds and R&D resources. In addition to lectures of teaching theories and the establishment of students' thinking framework and concepts, it has also focused on how to effectively apply concepts to solving problems, bringing out the benefits of applying what they have learned, and laying a solid foundation for students to bring their learning to use. The award won in this competition was not only a honor for the school, it but also reflects the preliminary results of the teaching innovation of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology. The efforts of teachers and students should be greatly affirmed and encouraged. The various majors and industrial application technologies that students have acquired during the development of their works should enable students to directly engage in the workplace and seamlessly integrate with the industry after graduation, allowing them to better grasp the blueprint for their future development.
[Jia-Chi Chang, Hong-Wen Chen, Wen-De Chen, and Bo-Heng Wen (From left to right) from the "Go-to Guide" team of the Department of Electronic Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, attended the awarding ceremony of the 20th Macronix Golden Silicon Award.]