The 2020 Pre-Emptive Competition, hosted by the Technology Division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, held an awards ceremony at the International Conference Center of the Affiliated Hospital of National Taiwan University on December 15. The competition continued its tradition with "Creative Thinking Category," "Innovative Practice Category," and "Entrepreneurship Conception Category" over the past few years to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. There were more than 300 entries this year. After a professional review, a total of 35 entries stood out and entered the finals. In this competition, the team jointly instructed by Associate Professor Wan-Rong Chang from the Department of Electronic Engineering and Associate Professor Kun Ouyang from the Department of Creative Product Design won a Grand Slam in the “Innovative Practice Category" of the 2020 Pre-emptive Competition.

[The team formed by the Department of Electronic Engineering and the Department of Creative Product Design won the first place, second place, third place, and a prize for excellent work in the 2020 Pre-Emptive Competition with their interdisciplinary cooperation: (from left to right) Shin-Hong Liu, Hong-Shiang Huang, Pei-Chi Liu, Jia-Ying Chou, Shuan Lin, Associate Professor Wan-Rong Chang, Shen-Hong Zheng, Pei-Yi Wu, Jia-Hao Chen, Jia-Chi Chang.]

Among them, the work "MedHelper" developed an artificial intelligence drug identification system and sampling system that can be employed by the hospital's drug dispensing room. It was favored by the judges and won the national championship (with a prize money of NT$ 150,000). The work "BedVision" focused on preventing bedridden patients in hospitals for long periods of time from falling and completed clinical trials with a medical center; it won the runner-up (with a prize money of NT$ 100,000). The work " Guidance and Assistance System for the Visually Impaired Based on Deep Learning" was awarded the third prize; it uses smart sunglasses as the main body to provide safety protection for the visually impaired when walking outdoors (with a prize money of NT$ 50,000).The work "PCB Solder Joint Defect Intelligent Visual Inspection System" overcame the limitations of current AOI optical inspection and developed artificial intelligent visual inspection for PCB circuits, such as automatic welding machines and manual welding, to replace existing human inspection; it won a prize for excellent work. The four entries integrated the edge computing artificial intelligence technology of the Department of Electronic Engineering and the product design of the Department of Creative Product Design. This time, STUST won all of the first place, second place, third place, and a prize for excellent work in the 2020 Pre-Emptive Competition.

[The work "MedHelper" produced by the students of STUST won the championship of the 2020 Pre-Emptive Competition. The instructor Associate Professor Wan-Rong Chang (1st from the right), Shen-Hong Zheng (1st from the left) and Pei-Yi Wu (2nd from the left) and one of the awarding committee members.]

Associate Professor Wan-Rong Chang from the Department of Electronic Engineering of STUST and Associate Professor Kun Ouyang from the Department of Creative Product Design said that in order to encourage college students to devote themselves to scientific and technological creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship, the Technology Division of the Ministry of Economic Affairs held the Pre-Emptive Competition very year and offer great amounts of prize money, which have been able to attract teachers and students from all universities and colleges across the country to participate in the grand event. For this competition, the Department of Electronics Engineering and the Department of Creative Product Design had an interdisciplinary cooperation again, combining 5G+AIoT technology with design experience to win the glory for STUST. It won the the first place, second place, third place, and a prize for excellent work in the 2020 Pre-Emptive Competition. This was a great affirmation of the achievements STUST’s teaching efforts as well as its interdisciplinary learning.

Deng-Maw Lu, President of STUST, said that the educational goal of STUST is to cultivate talents in pragmatic sciences and technology. The school's resources are actively devoted to training of students' practical ability and to encouraging students to participate in various competitions at home and abroad, with its great offer of financial supports. Students’ employment competitiveness and international vision have reached the educational goal of getting employment after graduation and getting started at work. STUST has won many prizes in the Pre-Emptive Competitions over the years. Through the rewards of this competition, we hope to show the characteristics of technical education in the future, cultivate a lifelong learning attitude for technical talents, and cultivate more students with humanitarian concepts and professional skills, making technical and vocational education reach its peak again.