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

"One day 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 real time in sync with the runner’s stride."

StepBeats, an app enabling its users to make music with AI composing while running, just won the Gold Award in the Final Pitch of the International College Students’ Entrepreneurship Invitational Competition 2018 on Oct. 19. With 20,000 users in just four months, team behind the app was invited to Apple’s conference and even 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 useful products. Seeing the flaws of certificate verification in Singapore and China,they developed Blockcert-blockchain, a certificate verification platform for institutions, companies and individuals. Although their idea is not as developed as other teams, the team seemed quite optimistic about its application.  "We've pitched the idea in a few competitions and got 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."

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

"It was amazing, to see a lot of technologies and innovative ideas. Even some of you don’t get a Gold Medal, I still want to encourage you to participate in this 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, after the event, when you guys are back to school, you will keep working on your ideas, make some progress and some money, and contribute to society."

The biennial China College Students' Entrepreneurship Competition was launched in 1999. Over the past years, it has evolved into the largest and most influential college students’ entrepreneurship competition in China. Zhejiang University is selected to host the 2018 edition. As part of the event, International College Students’ Entrepreneurship Invitational Competition aims to promote intellectual exchange and cooperation amongst talented individuals from China and abroad, as well as to facilitate development in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Writer: ZHOU Shiyun

Photo: XIAO Jingyi