Students from 23 nations and territories — a record for the event — yesterday convened at the National Taiwan Science Education Center in Taipei for the final stage of this year’s Taiwan International Science Fair.
A total of 221 high-school and junior-high school students — 53 of whom are Taiwanese — made it into the final from a preliminary contest last month.
The finalists submitted a total of 40 works in categories including mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geography, environmental science, zoology, botany, microbiology, biochemistry, medicine, engineering, computer science, information, information engineering and environmental engineering and behavioral and social sciences.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The competition — started in 1992 as a contest for junior-high and elementary schools from nations in the Asia-Pacific region — was upgraded in 2002 when it attained its current title and started receiving entries from students around the world.
To bolster high-school students’ understanding of science, the ministry has revised high-school curriculum guidelines for next year to require students to engage in scientific projects and perform experiments in a bid to help them put theory into practice, Deputy Minister of Education Lin Teng-chiao (林騰蛟) said.
Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) gave a speech at the ceremony in which he detailed the potential for and challenges involved with the development of eco-friendly technologies that promote sustainability.
Prize-winning Taiwanese students would likely have the opportunity to compete in international science fairs, such as the US’ International Science and Engineering Fair, with the results scheduled to be announced on Friday, the education center said.
The overseas participants are from Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Italy, Canada, New Zealand, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Mexico, Nepal, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tunisia, Kyrgyzstan, Hong Kong and Macau.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
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A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
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