"Atfirst it all began with a simple idea: make running more fun,"said LI Chenxiao, CEO of StepBeats and a sophomore from ZJU’sCollege of Media and International Culture.

"Oneday I heard someone complaining beats in his music doesn’t match his running steps,and it came to my mind that it would be great to have music produced in realtime in sync with the runner’s stride."

StepBeats,an app enabling its users to make music with AI composing while running, justwon the Gold Award in the Final Pitch of the International College Students’Entrepreneurship Invitational Competition 2018 on Oct. 19. With 20,000 users injust four months, team behind the app was invited to Apple’s conference andeven had a face-to-face talk with Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

Similarly,a team from NUS has been working on transforming their ideas into usefulproducts. Seeing the flaws of certificate verification in Singapore andChina,they developed Blockcert-blockchain, a certificate verificationplatform for institutions, companies and individuals. Although their idea isnot as developed as other teams, the team seemed quite optimistic aboutits application.  "We've pitched the idea in a few competitions andgot good feedback. Right now we are off to do piloting with Singapore schools,and we hope to cooperate with schools in China in the future."

Morethan 100 teams from around the globe submitted their ideas to the Competition,and 38 of them attended the event after rigorous screening. Only eight teamsmade it to the Final Pitch. Besides StepBeats, Transparent Display fromMIT and Intelligent Traffic Control from Ben Gurion University alsowon a Gold Award.

"Itwas amazing, to see a lot of technologies and innovative ideas. Even some ofyou don’t get a Gold Medal, I still want to encourage you to participate inthis kind of event to share opinions, learn from each other and make friends.”said Mr. WANG Jing, one of the judges on the Closing Ceremony. “I wish, afterthe event, when you guys are back to school, you will keep working on yourideas, make some progress and some money, and contribute to society."

Thebiennial China College Students' Entrepreneurship Competition was launched in1999. Over the past years, it has evolved into the largest and most influentialcollege students’ entrepreneurship competition in China. Zhejiang University isselected to host the 2018 edition. As part of the event, International CollegeStudents’ Entrepreneurship Invitational Competition aims to promoteintellectual exchange and cooperation amongst talented individuals from Chinaand abroad, as well as to facilitate development in the fields of innovationand entrepreneurship.

Writer: ZHOUShiyun

Photo: XIAOJingyi