The story appears on

Page B3

January 26, 2017

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Feature » Education

At contest, students tackle real-world problems

SEVEN groups from universities in five countries in the Lantsang-Mekong River region won prizes in a competition held recently at Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

The competition, which focuses on innovations in governance and development, was the second of its kind co-sponsored by Fudan University, the government of Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the Shanghai International Culture Association, Guangxi University of Finance and Economics, and other parties.

All competitors came from universities in the six countries along the Mekong River. With its headwaters in the Qinghai-Tibetan, the Mekong River starts in China and flows through Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, where it takes on different local names along the way.

The competition requires each participating team to identify a problem in the region and provide their own solution. It aims to propel youth and culture exchanges and south-south cooperation. It also offers an arena for students to build global awareness and international cooperation capabilities.

“Last year marked the starting point of the Lantsang-Mekong cooperation and we share the common ground that our fates are closely bounded together by the same river,” said Deng Xiaoxian, vice president of the Shanghai International Culture Association.

“With its foresight, specialization and innovation, the event has drawn extensive concern from the governments in the six countries,” he added. “For example, it has been included into the annual plan of the China-ASEAN education exchange by the Ministry of Education of China, up-scaling it to a national program.”

Officials from schools in other participating countries also said the event was popular among their students as it provided a good platform for applying their knowledge and skills, and also for communication and cultural exchanges with young people from other countries. The National University of Laos had three teams attend last year’s competition; while this year they had nine, and four entered the final.

Last year, the event was themed on the sustainable development of water and aquatic environments. This year, it focused on the challenge of climate change as well as disaster prevention and reduction. From a pool of applicants, 48 students in 16 groups from nine universities came to China to compete in the three-day final contest and vie for four awards: “Most Valuable Problem,” “Most Creative Team,” “Best
International Cooperation Team” and “Best Incubator Program.”

A group from the National University of Laos and another from Shanghai Ocean University won the award for “Most Creative Team.”

The Laos team won with a project on reducing eutrophication (a form of water pollution), while the Chinese group won with a plan to monitor ground deformation in earthquake zones with GPS and InSAR technologies.

The Guangxi University of Finance and Economics was awarded for finding the “Most Valuable Problem” as their project focused on the effect of natural disasters on banana farmers in the region. Their proposed solution was to set up a Lantsang-Mekong River basin climate disaster mitigation alliance to bring governments, companies and the public together to help farmers battle against extreme weather.

Four projects from the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, the National University of Laos, the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies Rangsit University in Thailand and the University of Yangon in Myanmar were awarded for their incubator programs. Each of the four groups also won 10,000 yuan (US$1,455) to further develop their projects.

Thet Nwe Soe, an industrial chemistry major and a member of the University of Yangon team, said it was her second time to attend the event. Last year, her team won the “Most Creative” award with a project about treatment of industrial waste water.

Vansyphengthajaim, from the National University of Laos, said there are few such competitions in his country and this was the first time for him to attend such an event.

He said his efforts with the competition have paid off. His project not only won a prize, but also attracted attention from a company in his homeland. He is set to graduate this year and would like to continue working on the project if it was developed as a real business.

This year, the organizers decided to do more to help students bring outstanding, reliable and operable programs into reality. So an innovation and entrepreneurship alliance for university students from the six countries in the Lantsang-Mekong River Region was set up during the event.

The alliance, supported by the Fudan-Guangxi Marinetime Silk Road Research Center, will organize summer camp every year to provide innovation and entrepreneurial trainings for winners of the incubation award and incubate their programs into operational charity projects or startups.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend