A team of teachers and students from the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST) participated in the “2025 National Vocational and Technical College Competition and Exhibition for Practical Project Production” hosted by the Ministry of Education. A total of 1,181 works were registered nationwide for the competition, then after the preliminary review by industry, academia, and research experts, 141 works in 16 categories were selected to enter the finals and display their results. The finals for the competition were held at Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1 in the beginning May, and NPUST, which had a total of 9 works shortlisted, was able to win 5 awards including 1 first place, 2 second places, 1 third place, and 1 excellent work award. The total prize money received came to NT$105,000.
NPUST’s president, Chin-Lung Chang, attended the press conference to announce the success of the National Practical Project Competition. He said that “technical and vocational education is an important driver of Taiwan’s industrial and economic development. In order for students to put what they have learned into practice and verify market trends and needs, NPUST continues to encourage them to participate in the national technical and vocational school practical production competitions. Through the current competition, the students were able to closely connect with the industry and put into practice the concept of ‘pragmatic and useful’ technical and vocational education”.
The project which won the first place in the “Energy and Environmental Protection Group” was entitled “TuckiTuck – Recycling and Reuse of Wooden Furniture Waste”. For this project, under the joint guidance of Professor Ming-Feng Wang and Professor Way Long of the Department of Wood Science and Design, students used fiberboard materials from discarded furniture to increase fiberboard recycling rates, achieve multiple cycles of recycling, reduce the use of new materials, reduce resource waste, and promote a sustainable circular economy model.
The “PIÉTON – Research on the Development of Biomimetic Leather Film Using Bacterial Cellulose” project won second place in the “Energy and Environmental Protection Group”. In this project, which was supervised by Professor Tung-Lin Wu from the Department of Wood Science and Design, the student team developed a bio-fiber material from renewable resources as a substitute leather. After market research, it was found that although the product still has different properties from commercially available leather, the plasticity, touch, and other properties of the material hold potential in the faux-leather market.
The “Birds Arrive Home – Establishing an Ecologically Restorative and Mutually Beneficial Economic Model”, which won the second place in the “Business Group”, was developed under the guidance of Professor Zaou-Jun Deng of the Department of Wood Science and Design. This project brings science to the public by providing people with an understanding of mountain sparrows and getting them involved in conservation by instructing them how to make and set up nest boxes, then participate in subsequent observations. A webpage also provides the public with instant notifications about the arrival of the birds, thereby heightening awareness and the experience of active participation. Thanks to the training provided by NPUST’s higher education project for innovation and entrepreneurship and the Ministry of Education’s innovation and entrepreneurship education project, the team’s work is now highly mature, and by raising funds through short videos on educational platforms, they have successfully demonstrated the ability to integrate wood science and business models.
Professor Tai-Sheng Su from the Department of Industrial Management oversaw the team which developed a “Solar-Powered Smart Beehive” with monitoring and identification capabilities. For their work, the team was awarded third place in the “Business Group”. By collecting research data on bee ecology and allowing for real-time monitoring of bee colony conditions with precise management and controls, the team’s work is able to make significant contributions to the beekeeping industry.
Finally, a team led by Professor Hsu-Yang Kung and Professor Jian-Liang Pan from the Department of Information Management won the Excellence Award in the “Information Engineering and Communications Group” for a multimodal AI system that they developed to detect and warn against pests and diseases in agriculture. By combining imaging, acoustics and other environmental sensors, the system uses AI to analyze the number pests and their behavior and provide real-time monitoring and prevention recommendations. This way they are able to reducing the impact of pests and diseases and contribute to the transition to smart agriculture and sustainable development.
