TU’s project “Coran New Materials—A Pioneer in High-Performance Halogen-Free Flame-Retardant Rubber and Plastic Materials for New Energy Vehicles” proudly won the silver award in the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition (2025), which was jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and nine other central ministries and commissions, together with the People’s Government of Henan Province, and held at Zhengzhou University from October 12 to 15.
As the only project team from a local university in the group, our students competed alongside teams from leading universities nationwide, and took home the silver award in the Undergraduate Creativity Group of the Main Track (Higher Education Category). In addition, through the online evaluation, the project “Zhi Fang TongYuan—A Leader in Big-Data-Driven Design of Functional Foods Based on the Food–Medicine Homology Concept” earned a bronze award at the national level.
Group photo of the participants
This year’s national competition silver award was won by a project from the School of Pharmaceutical and Chemical Engineering. The team comprises nine students—Yang Haiqin, Zhao Mengyuan, Yang Wen, Chen Yuhui, and five others—guided by four faculty members, Liu Guihua, Huang Guobo, Yan Ruiqiang, and Li Xin. In active response to China’s “dual-carbon” (carbon-peaking and carbon-neutrality) goals, the team has developed ingenious, safe and efficient thermal-insulation and energy-saving solutions tailored to customers’ individual needs. They pioneered a phosphorus-nitrogen intercalated hydrotalcite technology, creating a series of rubber-plastic insulation products, including boards, pipes, and profiled materials, which deliver high-efficiency flame retardancy and smoke suppression. Dedicated to integrating the principle of green safety into corporate development strategy, the project contributes to the momentum of the national dual-carbon initiative. The team demonstrates strong interdisciplinary knowledge integration and innovative practical ability, fully exemplifying the spirit and responsibility of a new generation of college students who dare to venture and excel in innovation.
The project that won the bronze award came from the School of Life Sciences. The team comprises 15 students, including Shen Yitong and Zhou Jie, guided by three faculty members—Li Junmin, Tong Yingpeng, and Li Na. In response to the “Healthy China” initiative, the team leveraged its expertise in functional food formulation based on the food–medicine homology concept to tackle a key challenge: designing formulations that achieve both efficacy and palatability. They pioneered an intelligent formulation design system, integrating a food–medicine homology knowledge graph with graph neural networks to guide formulation development. To optimize outcomes, the team employed multiple advanced models: an efficacy optimization model built on a medicine framework and the golden ratio, and a flavor regulation model that combines a synergy database of taste and efficacy with convolutional neural networks. Together, these methods enable the efficient creation of high-quality functional food formulations that balance therapeutic effectiveness with pleasant sensory experience.
Since its launch in April this year, the competition has attracted participants from 161 countries and regions worldwide, with 5,673 universities submitting 6.19 million projects and a total of 24.43 million participants. Our university submitted 1,100 projects, involving 6,545 student participants, achieving a participation rate of 32.6%. In the provincial-level competitions, we won 9 silver and 2 bronze awards, with two projects advancing to the national finals.
During the preparation for the national competition, Zhu Jian, Secretary of the CPC TU Committee, paid a visit to the training site to encourage faculty and students and offer guidance to project teams through mock roadshows. The School of Entrepreneurship actively organized multiple rounds of comprehensive, multi-level training and instruction, with nearly 50 coaching sessions conducted in total, continuously enhancing the quality of submitted projects and the standard of roadshow presentations. The schools responsible for the selected projects actively participated in on-site support services. Thanks to the joint efforts of all involved, the university achieved yet another outstanding result.
The competition is the only undergraduate contest recognized in both the national documents of Outline of the Plan for Building a Strong Educational Nation and Work Plan for Discipline Evaluation. Guided by the message in General Secretary Xi Jinping’s two important letters to student representatives, the university will continue to deepen undergraduate innovation and entrepreneurship education. The university will further deepen undergraduate innovation and entrepreneurship education, promoting teaching, learning, and innovation through competitions. Leveraging the competition as a key platform, the university will continue to optimize its innovation-oriented education and entrepreneurship system, focus on exploring effective mechanisms for integrating science and education as well as industry and education, and guide young students to actively engage in scientific and technological innovation.
