A group of engineering undergraduates (Alexander Yu Tse and Chen Tang from Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Chun Sing Poon from Electronic and Computer Engineering) won the 2nd prize with US$2,000 in the final contest of the International Contest of Applications in Nano-Micro Technologies (iCAN 2015) in Anchorage, Alaska, US on 20-22 June 2015. Their project, entitled “Air Hand”, is a good application of low-cost multiple MEMS sensors, soft robotic hands, integrated with micro controller unit to perform handling and manipulation of different objects without complicated control. Yu and Chen were motivated by their Mechanisms of Machinery course (MECH 3030) term project to participate in iCAN.

A total of 19 teams from United States, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, Poland, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China attended and showed their innovative projects in the final contest of iCAN. One of the most innovative iCAN 2015 projects is “Anywhere Sadou” by students from Tohoku University and Osaka University. It is the application of MEMS motion sensors to the mixing enhancement of making Japanese tea.

In the domestic contest in Mainland China, more than 20,000 students from 100+ universities in China participated. Our students were exited to attend this contest because they learned a lot about the spirit of teamwork and the applications of MEMS devices to daily life. There are currently 15 companies which provide free MEMS devices for all the iCAN teams.