Reprint to Commercial Times
With the flourishing development of industry-academia collaboration and the startup ecosystem, the Angel Community's "Innovation Harbor" system (including Harbor Angels, North Bay Angels, and Southern Angels) joined hands with the innovation and invention education institution "Invention Switch" to hold the "Young Practitioners Forum" on January 17th at the "Bottle Cap Factory," a 13+ youth demonstration site in Taipei. This forum successfully brought together the energy of industry, government, academia, and research, and invited Wiipa (World Intellectual Property Organization) and Tianyuan Youth Support Society, among other non-profit organizations, to participate and exchange cutting-edge industry information.
The forum's highlights were "intergenerational exchange" and "international perspective." Exhibitors spanned high schools, universities, and youth startup teams. During the event, each participating team set up booths to showcase their research results. The organizers also exhibited the CCSP merchant ship model entrepreneurship education system and provided the "ANCHOR Business Personality Aptitude Test" for students and entrepreneurs to experience, fully demonstrating the grassroots-level development of innovation education in Taiwan.
The event specially invited Director Hou Chia-ling of the Youth Affairs Bureau of Taoyuan City Government to provide guidance and to give special commendation to the teams from Taoyuan: "Ai Water Safety Testing", "Yi-Xi Technology", and Wang Hsin-Wei's "Pre-Expiry Product Information Matching Platform". She listened to the presentations of the participating teams and provided feedback to give the young students a boost of confidence.
The event also featured a live video link with Professor Tao Yiqing, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Silicon Valley Research Institute in the United States, who gave a short talk to the students and entrepreneurs present. He talked about how startups should take root and move forward in the current era of AI explosion, and shared the ecosystem of the venture capital circle in Silicon Valley, USA. He also welcomed the teams participating in this event to the Silicon Valley Research Institute as their best window if they are interested in developing in the United States.
The most unique design of this research findings presentation and forum is the opening of "corporate awards," which allows legal entities to establish awards for social and environmental issues of concern to them and select winning teams.
The first organization to participate in the award ceremony was "Leave a Nest," a well-known Japanese venture capital accelerator. This organization has long focused on knowledge creation, hoping to transform students' learning and research abilities into commercially viable results. We were honored to have Dr. Shuichiro Takahashi, President and COO, and Ms. Nami, representative scholar from the Startup Strategy Department, present at the event and deliver a short presentation entitled "Goals and Case Studies of Transnational Local Revitalization." President Takahashi began by recounting his initial motivation for starting his own business after completing his studies, and how he later bridged the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application through knowledge transfer. Following the presentation, the Japanese academic delegation visited the students' presentation booths and carefully reviewed their work, ultimately selecting the project "PaPaWalk (APT Care System)" from Chung Shan Medical University (CSMU), led by team leader Tzu-Hsuan Liao.
Ms. Nami, a scholar from "Leave a Nest," stated that the "PaPaWalk (APT Care System)" project assists the elderly and reduces caregiving stress through a smart mobile care system that integrates cloud-based medical records. She noted that this demand and need for care is strong not only in Japan but also worldwide, expressing anticipation for future results. She presented the team with a NT$10,000 award and invited them to present their project again at HIC Taiwan 2026 (HIC Taiwan), offering to sponsor related expenses. Other institutional awards presented later by Chung Shan Medical University's "Visual Innovation" and "NXIA Boundless Sustainable Impact Incubation Base" provided crucial resource support to outstanding teams.
This event also received enthusiastic support from industry pioneers across various sectors, including:
Professional Mentorship: Taipei Small and Medium Enterprise Honorary Mentors (Enterprise Service Volunteers) Association.
Brand Marketing Power: Marketing Consulting Firm "Brand Emei".
Cross-border vitality: "Leqi Tourism" is a representative of the tourism industry.
Industrial Productivity: Creative Dad
Through the collaborative participation of partners from various fields, a comprehensive entrepreneurial support network has been built. Igniting new sparks for startup practice in Taiwan, the organizers stated that they hope the deep exchange between industry pioneers and young students will continue to incubate more innovative seeds in Taiwan. With the continued promotion of "StartUP Harbor" and "InventionSwitch," the Young Practitioners Forum aims to become an important platform for startup practice in Taiwan, allowing more impactful ideas to sprout and flourish here.
