Cash prizes ranging from US$800 to 2,000 were awarded in Shanghai recently to 49 Chinese college students for top performances in the 2002 Edison Cup Technical Innovation Contest.
This is the first time the contest financed by the Fund of General Electronics was held in China.
A total of 40 different awards went to winners from nine Chinese universities including Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fudan University, Zhejiang University, Peking University, Chinese University of Science and Technology, and the Harbin Polytechnical University.
Scholars and experts on the judging panel said the students' inventions involving artificial intelligence, new materials, multimedia communications and environmental protection technologies were not only original but also quite feasible.
The competition was jointly organized by the China Scholarship Council and the United States-based Institute of International Education, both of which are non-profit institutions specializing in global educational exchanges.
(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2003)