【THE GLORY OF UT】Fang-Ying Lee, an Outbound Exchange Student Won First Prize of Ideathon Liberec 2024
【THE GLORY OF UT】Fang-Ying Lee, an Outbound Exchange Student Won First Prize of Ideathon Liberec 2024
Great news from outbound exchange students! Fang-Ying Lee, a second-year student in the Department of Learning and Material Design, is on exchange to the Technical University of Liberec(TUL) in the Czech Republic, along with his Czech teammate, Adam Soltan, competed in Ideathon Liberec 2024, held from April 18 to 19, with their highly creative augmented reality (AR) app that ties in with travel opportunities created by direct flights from Taiwan to the Czech Republic. The team won first prize in the university category.
Ideathon Liberec 2024, hosted by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Liberec Region, Regional Development Agency, and the Technical University of Liberec, wants to show young people that their creativity can be an inspirattion for regional development. Students were given 24 hours to complete one of four challenges presented by the organizers, including better informing people about mental health prevention, effectively utilizing areas under the panels of the new large photovoltaic power plant, attracting visitors to the iQLANDIA Science Center, or designing a game to connect with the local glass industry and increase the visibility of the Crystal Valley brand in the Liberec region.
Fang-Ying Lee, who is on exchange at TUL's Faculty of Art and Architecture during the 2024 Spring semester, partnered with Adam Soltan from TUL's Faculty of Economics, to form Formosa team. Their use of AR technology won over the judges and earned them the highest score in the university category. "Our vision is to use a playful application to connect the indivaidual glass sites in Crystal Valley: Lusatian and Jizera Mountains, the Krkonoše Mountains, and the Bohemian Paradise with help of their mythological figures. Visitors could thus use their phone to catch mythological figures during their visit to the glassworks. In the future, they could also take them physically in the form of glass miniatures." they described the winning application.
The team pointed out that since the direct flight between Taipei and Prague was launched, the number of Taiwanese tourists visiting the Czech Republic has increased, and this app could help attract even more visitors to Crystal Valley. Fang-Ying Lee added, "Many visitors to the Czech Republic appreciate its glass art, like the elegant chandeliers in luxury hotels. Moreover, Taiwan also uses a lot of Czech-made glass products, which is one reason why we believe this project will resonate with Taiwanese tourists." The winning team was awarded 45,000 CZK (approximately USD1,900 ) by the organizers to help turn their project into reality.
