Taiwan clinched the No. 1 spot among exhibiting nations in this year’s World Genius Convention and Education Expo, winning 23 gold, 18 silver and four bronze medals.
Chinese Innovation and Invention Society chairman Wu Chih-yao (吳智堯) said that 150 products and devices from 13 countries competed in the online event, with 55 coming from Taiwan.
Chen Wen-liang (陳文亮), a product design professor at Shu-Te University, and his student Huang Wan-tzu (黃婉慈) won a gold medal for inventing a smart device that helps people regularly sanitize their environment.
Photo: CNA
Users of the solar-powered device can monitor the air quality in their area through an app and schedule the disinfection of their environment depending on the airborne virus load, Huang said.
Huang said that she hoped the device could help curb the spread of COVID-19.
Another gold-medal-winning product, a game named “Cake” by Wong Chien-hui (翁千惠), an industrial design professor at Chung Hua University, and his students, combines interlocking playmats and building blocks.
Chang Hong-shun (張閎勛), a teacher at Taipei Fuhsing Private School, and five of his students invented another gold-medal-winning device that helps healthcare workers safely transfer older people or those with disabilities from their bed to other places within their home.
“With the device, caregivers can help people participate in family events,” said Chen Chi-wei (陳頎崴), one of the students on the team.
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