From December 3 to 6, the China International College Students' Innovation Competition 2023 Championship, the Excellent Project Resource Matchmaking Meeting, and the Project Signing Ceremony were held at Tianjin University. "Intelligent Agriculture – Open a New Pattern of Digital Agriculture in China with Intelligent Plant Protection UAV equipment", a three-year innovation and entrepreneurship project of Chengdu University (CDU), won the provincial gold award in the 9th China International College Students' 'Internet+' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. In the final round, it secured the gold award in the national competition focused on "Red Tourism for Youths to Build Dreams", achieving a significant milestone as the first-ever gold award recipient in the top national competition since the China International College Students' 'Internet+' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was held in 2015. It is also the only project in Sichuan Province which won the gold award in the national competition of "Red Tourism for Youths to Build Dreams".
Under the guidance of Associate Professor Yao Yuan, a professional instructor from the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, and Professor Xiang Dabing from the College of Food and Biological Engineering, the award-winning project titled "Intelligent Agriculture – Open a New Pattern of Digital Agriculture in China with Intelligent Plant Protection UAV Equipment" was completed by Liu Chang, Chen Lin, Liang Yue, Luo Jiamin, Zhang Haichuan, Lv Feng, Wang Jiayi, Zhang Qianhao, Zhou Zhiyuan, Yang Cheng, Zou Zilong, Zhang Duo, Luo Chuanjiang, and other students. With the unwavering original aspiration and vision of rural revitalization, an increase in farmers' income, and the promotion of rural development, the project team has independently developed new high-load oil-powered single-rotor plant protection UAV equipment that integrates software and hardware. This significantly reduces the manufacturing cost of UAVs and enables intelligent and barrier-free plant protection operations. Relying on county-level agricultural machinery cooperatives, the team addresses equipment maintenance challenges at the grassroots level by providing assistance. Meanwhile, it is committed to empowering a greater number of farmers with science and technology to enable safe and efficient plant protection operations, thus increasing their income while reducing costs.
Since the launch of the 2023 competition in January, the Academic Affairs Office, Entrepreneurship College, and other departments of CDU have worked together to mobilize students across the university to participate in the competition. 4,671 teams have registered for the competition, with the number of participants reaching as high as 19,853. Focusing on the entire project growth chain from planning, cultivation, selection, intensive training to final stretch, CDU has taken innovative measures and coordinated for the new mechanism of "integrating entrepreneurship and competition". Additionally, it has combined major entrepreneurship projects with innovation and entrepreneurship competitions such as the China International College Students' 'Internet+' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. It has introduced the innovative concept of "Talent-Project Matchmaking for Scientific Research", made overall arrangements for project topic selection, team building, and project-to-talent and talent-to-project targeted matchmaking, thus establishing a high-quality project cultivation system. CDU has organized, both online and offline, nearly 100 project cultivation activities such as information sessions, training sessions, and training camps. A total of over 70 experts from the education, industry, and investment sectors have been invited to provide targeted, in-depth project guidance by stages at different levels for different fields, contributing to the advancement and iteration of projects. In July, CDU recommended 53 projects for the online evaluation of the provincial semi-final after a rigorous process of competitions across the university. In August, following the expert review of the provincial competition, 22 projects were selected as finalists for the on-site qualifying round of the provincial competition. After five rounds of competitions from the university-wide preliminary, university-wide final, provincial semi-final, provincial final to national online evaluation, the project titled "Intelligent Agriculture – Open a New Pattern of Digital Agriculture in China with Intelligent Plant Protection UAV Equipment" successfully entered the national final. Before the national competition final, the Entrepreneurship College organized intensive pre-competition training to improve the project in multiple rounds. Both the participating instructors and students raced against time for pre-competition training and continuously enhanced project quality. The national competition's on-site final was held in the form of a project roadshow, with 10 minutes for PPT presentation and five minutes for defense. A panel of nine judges asked questions and scored. The participating teachers and students from CDU won the gold award with excellent performance.
Background Information:
The China International College Students' Innovation Competition 2023 was sponsored by 12 departments, including the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Tianjin Municipal People's Government and organized by Tianjin University. With the theme of "Dare to Differ, Dare to Win", the competition included various contests related to higher education, "Red Tourism for Youths to Build Dreams", vocational education, industrial propositions, and innovative concepts. Remarkably, it attracted 4.21 million projects from 5,296 colleges in 151 countries and regions worldwide, with the number of participations reaching as high as 17.09 million. A total of 1,260 outstanding projects were selected to enter the final, and subsequently 423 projects won gold awards (including 60 projects from the "Red Tourism for Youths to Build Dreams" contest). After fierce competition in the final, four Chinese teams and two foreign teams participated in the championship contest, with Peking University’s "Cross-species Tumor Gene Therapy" project as the champion.
