Making things better

In an effort to "co-making the future", a total of 6,300 young people from the United States and China take part in the 2017 China-US Young Maker Competition, with its finals held in Beijing over Aug 7-11. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In January, when Zheng Xuefen visited his grandmother, in her 70s and suffering from diabetes and hypertension, he noticed how difficult it was for her to remember to take her medication, let alone differentiate the various pills.

"I wanted to design a machine to help," says Zheng, a 20-year-old freshman from Zhejiang Industry and Trade Vocational College in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province.

His answer: a "Domestic Automatic Medicine Machine" that helped his grandmother take her pills properly. Seven months later, Zheng, together with his team, decided to enter his machine in the 2017 China-US Young Maker Competition.

His team didn't make it to the top 10, but they won an award for excellence.

"It's a bit of a pity, but I'm satisfied with the result. I've learned a lot," says Zheng, an electronic information engineering student.

Launched in 2014, the competition is now in its fourth year. Themed "Co-making the Future", this year's event rolled out in May in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province. It attracted more than 6,300 participants from China and the United States. The finals were held in Beijing from Aug 7 to 11.

This year's projects focused on sustainable development in fields such as education, environment, health, energy and transportation.

Sun Hongbin, the chairman of the judging panel, expressed his delight at seeing such a variety of projects created by young makers, and their concern for global issues.

About 300 finalists formed 70 teams and competed in the 24-hour hackathon in Beijing.