Taiwan last week topped the medal table at a global invention competition, finishing with a total of 45, Taiwan’s Chinese Innovation and Invention Society said yesterday.
At the annual International Salon of Inventions and New Technologies on Monday last week, Taiwan won 31 gold medals, 11 silver and three bronze, with inventions ranging from sports applications to healthcare devices, the society said.
While Taiwan bagged fewer medals than last year’s 50, its gold medal count increased to 31, compared with last year’s 29, and the nation finished at the top of the table with 45 medals, it said.
Photo: CNA
One of Taiwan’s inventions that won gold was a healthcare device that Matthew Ma (馬惠明), vice superintendent of National Taiwan University Hospital’s Yunlin branch helped to develop, the society said.
Without contact, the detection device monitors a person’s heart rate and breathing via a camera, with sensors transmitting data to an artificial intelligence center that analyzes their condition, it said.
Another notable entry to the virtual contest in Crimea, Ukraine, was a sports training device invented by a university team that was led by retired Taiwanese basketball player Hsu Chih-chao (許智超), who was once the nation’s top midrange shooter in the Super Basketball League.
The device can be used for a range of sports, serving as a warm-up machine for competing athletes or a training device for weightlifters, for example, said Hsu, who now teaches at Hungkuo Delin University of Technology.
The contest typically draws contestants from across the globe and lasts several days, with the submissions displayed at exhibition centers, but, due to COVID-19, this year’s event was held virtually on one day in Sevastopol, the society said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS