Students from the TKU Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering recently formed a team and entered the 8th annual Talent and Creativity Contest. Out of over 200 such teams from around Taiwan, the TKU team outclassed students from National Taiwan University, Tsing Hwa University, and various other leading institutes, to claim a silver medal in the group ‘mobile device software applications’. Their prize, which they received on the 8th of April, included a silver medal and an NT$60,000 cash prize.

Their prize-winning entry was a mobile phone that could control all home electrical appliances at one touch. Their supervising teacher, TKU’s Dr. Chang Chih-yung, explained that the winning entry was well-received by the judges because of its potential for practical application in everyday life, its high marketability, and the fact that it correlated closely with the theme of the competition. Indeed, the technology was very popular among competition judges, many of whom are major figures in Taiwanese industry. One of the successful TKU entrants, Chen Zheng-Chang said that the key to the success of the piece is the smooth integration of the hardware used, and the synchronized operation of both hardware and software. The process of technology testing was laborious at times, as each component was tested separately, one-at-a-time. Through this process, however, Zheng-Chang learned the value of team work.