Taiwan excels at world's oldest Nuremberg invention show

Amid tight competition, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology in southern Taiwan won three golds with a high-performance accelerometer, uricase enzyme biosensors, and methods for fabricating a chlorine ion sensing membrane.

The Technology and Science Institute of Northern Taiwan, Far East University and National Chin-Yi University of Technology each won two golds.

Meanwhile, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology earned a special award, conferred by invention associations of Hungary and Poland, for an innovative power generation and storage system that uses both solar and wind power.

An invention by National United University students that can help reduce automobile exhaust emissions attracted the interest of a German company which has approached the student inventors to negotiate on possible technology transfer.

The Taiwan team, drawn from 22 universities, colleges, and high schools, was the country's biggest representation ever at the show.

The younger members of the team also performed well, taking two gold medals for their ingenious presentations. Huang En-tien, a student from National Taichung Industrial High School, won gold for his invention of a multifunctional umbrella.

Two students from Ming-Dao High School in Wu-Ji, Taichung County also received a gold medal for their invention of a special glue bottle device.

Many researchers from the Instrument Technology Research Center under the National applied Research Laboratories, as well as several private inventors, also won gold medals and other accolades for their innovative instruments and devices in memory chip examination and multimedia transmission systems.

A total of 800 inventions from 34 countries were on display in 12 exhibition halls, all of which were packed with visitors during the four-day event that ended Sunday.

Organizers of the world's oldest annual invention show said that this year the numbers of exhibitors and visitors were the largest in the event's 61-year history.

Kao Fa-yu, founding president of the Taiwan Prominent Inventor Association who led the Taiwan delegation to the exhibition, also known as 2009 iENA, said the event provides a platform for inventors from around the world to showcase their creativity and seek business opportunities for their novel products.

"The fair is also a good forum for entrepreneurs to gauge new market trends and strike trade deals," Kao said.

As the 'green' fever continued to rage, he noted, inventors from around the world showcased many energy conservation and environmental protection innovations at this year's fair.

As Taiwan is a global computer chip manufacturing powerhouse, Taiwanese companies should work harder to integrate green techniques with chip technologies to cash in on the green fever, he suggested.

After years of efforts, Taiwan has shed the ugly label of piracy, Kao said, adding that he was pleased to see junior and senior high school students demonstrate their ingenuity at the show.

Noting that the idea of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection should be instilled in the younger generation from an early age, Kao said encouraging invention could be an effective way to promote IPR protection.

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