Contest winners combine innovation, practicality
China Post, Taiwan
Winners of a creativity contest held by the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) were announced yesterday and recognized for their ability to combine innovation and practicality in their products.
The contest saw 56 entries submitted by students from four universities — National Taipei University of Technology, Transworld Institute of Technology, Shu-Te University, and National Pingtung University of Science and Technology. Sixteen of the entries were selected as finalists and were showcased at an intelligent textile show held by TTRI at the B3 floor of Taipei’s Living Mall. Eight of the 16 finalists were announced yesterday as winners, including gold, silver and bronze medal winners and five honorary mentions.<1--more-->
The theme of the contest was “creative textiles for the future,” demonstrated by products and prototypes that reflected students’ creativity and imagination.
“We’re hoping that these award-winning inventions, combined with innovation and practicality, will find huge business opportunities in the future,” said Bai Chi-chung, vice president of TTRI. “As you know, Taiwan has been a major production base for OEM contracts, and it needs to focus more on products that stress image and creativity as well as function. We believe holding this competition is one way to achieve that.”
The winning products were selected based on creativity, with a weight of 45 percent; practicality, 40 percent; and design, 15 percent.
One of the judges, Chintay Shih, Dean of College of Technology Management at National Tsing Hua University, said he was glad to be a part of the contest.
“It’s been a great pleasure for me to see so many wonderful, creative products with applications not only in homes but also in the IT, medical and other industries,” he said. “With the emergence of digital homes, textiles combining high-tech are definitely the way of the future.”
Both Bai and Shih agreed that holding the contest was helpful in encouraging students to create. “This is the first time we’ve held this contest, and we’re going to hold it again next year,” Bai said. “It is hoped that by doing this, more and more students will try to create something new. This is definitely helpful in raising Taiwan’s overall competitiveness.”
The gold and silver medals both went to National Taipei University of Technology. The gold medal winner was a special mountain climbing jacket — a garment equipped with solar cells that power the different electronic devices carried by mountain climbers. The silver medal winner was a mouse pad that can also be used to package the computer peripheral. The pad has a smooth texture to provide comfort for the wrist. It can also vibrate at a specific time to remind the user of important events.
The bronze medal winner was a temperature adjustable garment developed by Shu-Te University. The garment is equipped with sensors that can detect changes in atmospheric temperatures and trigger a change in temperature inside the garment.
TTRI will help the winners find opportunities to commercialize their products so they can one day be mass-produced and marketed, Bai said.
