Taipei, Oct 26 (CNA) Taiwanese research institutions have won seven awards at this year’s R&D 100, a prestigious science and technology competition, a spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said on Tuesday.
Taiwan has won a total of 66 awards in the past 14 years at the annual event, in recognition of the country’s achievements in technological research and development, Deputy Economic Affairs Minister Lin Chuan-ning (林 全能) told a news conference. at Regent Taipei Hotel.
Six of this year’s winning applications have been developed by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the Information Industry Institute (III), the Metal Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC) and the Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI), while another is from the National Laboratories for Applied Research (NARLabs), Lynn said.
Although it is traditionally known that Taiwan focuses mainly on hardware development, the Deputy Minister said that Taiwan’s award-winning products and technologies this year are focused not only on hardware, but also on software or the integration of the two.
During the event, ITRI President Edwin Liu (() said the next step would be to transfer these profitable technologies to industries so that local manufacturers could eventually put them on the market.
“We’ve seen a huge impact on industries from national laboratory innovations, and that’s one of the things the R&D 100 awards are meant to celebrate – inventions that change the world for the better,” said Paul J. Henny, Deputy president and editor-in-chief of R&D World, was quoted as saying in an ITRI statement on Tuesday.
“ITRI is clearly a major player in this field and a huge resource for Taiwan’s industrial communities,” Henny added.
Among the three winning applications from ITRI this year are the biomimetic materials and structures for tissue integration (BioMS-Ti), which can be used in sports and orthopedic implants for the integration of soft and hard tissues.
BioMS-Ti’s hybrid structures not only allow tissue growth, but also provide the necessary biomechanical strength for different tissues, shortening rehabilitation protocols to better restore mobility, ITRI said.
Another profitable invention of ITRI is a device called “Ubiquitous Water Wand”, an ultra-highly efficient steam / air separation equipment that can extract clean water from the air, it says.
ITRI’s third winning invention is a software-defined augmented robotic joint that serves as an effective building block for flexible mechatronic applications.
The other four R&D 100 award winners from Taiwan are MIRDC microparticle heat treatment system equipment, TTRI radio frequency identification yarn (RFID) yarn, and cloud point processing software from NARLabs, which developed the technology with Taiwan National University. Yang Ming Chiao Tung and Tunhai University.
Finally, the software platform of III, which he developed to combat misinformation involving artificial intelligence technology, won bronze for corporate social responsibility, a special category of recognition awarded by R&D World.
The R&D 100 Awards are the most prestigious innovation awards program in 58 years, with the awards being announced during a virtual celebration on Tuesday, according to the organizer’s website.