The Seventh TSMC Udreamer Project Inspires College Students to Build a Sustainable Island Together
The TSMC Education and Culture Foundation places great value on cultivating young talents, and therefore launched the TSMC Udreamer project competition to encourage college students to propose innovative solutions to care for the society. In 2022, the 7th Udreamer project invited college students across Taiwan to take sustainable actions with the theme of “Youth for a Sustainable Island” and introduced a mentoring program to the project for the first time. TSMC colleagues were selected for the mentoring program to provide counselling during the project implementation period and accompany the youths on their way to realizing their dreams. This year, 506 students from 61 colleges in Taiwan, composed of 161 teams, participated in the competition. There were over 100 more student participants than the previous year, representing a 27% year-on-year increase. In the final stage, eight teams stood out and won the NT$ 3 million prize to embark on their dream-building journey.
Pilot Project + TSMC Mentor Program to Encourage College Students to Practice Sustainable Living
The TSMC Education and Culture Foundation not only provides abundant resources during the competition period to stimulate creative thinking, but also supports the students to continue to execute their projects even beyond graduation. Among them, former award-winning team members, Ms. Lin Yu-Chun, founder of Rebag Design and Mr. Huang Zi Yuan, founder of Underground Studio, applied what they learned from their Udreamer project to develop their start-ups, extending the impact on sustainability through the form of social innovation. In the “Responsible Grand Tour“ pilot project launched in this year, the two designers were invited to begin an eco-friendly plastic-reduction journey in eastern and western Taiwan. Underground Studio cooperated with local shops in the Taitung area to clean the beach with the ECOBAG marine debris tool kit designed and made by Underground Studio; Yu-Chun found the balance between nature and human development through the experience of collecting natural wild plants from the intertidal zone in South of Taiwan. During the journey, they practiced the spirit of sustainability, thereby encouraging students to take the first step of action. In addition, for the first time, the 7th Udreamer project recruited 15 TSMC employees to mentor the students. Through workshops and online discussion meetings, they are trained to enhance their mentoring skills, allowing them to be able to provide feedback and advice to the winning teams during the execution period and to accompany and grow with the youth through the journey of pursuing their dreams.
Inspired by the TSMC Udreamer project, I discovered the things I am most passionate about through the initial Rebag project prototype: discovering multiple possibilities of sustainable development though the designs that provided diverse ways for people to live a more sustainable life, it’s not difficult to understand that sustainable living is just a matter of practice.
Adhering to the concept of encouraging more young students to bravely pursue their dreams, the TSMC Education and Culture Foundation will continue to innovate the TSMC Udreamer project and deepen the learning resources to ignite students' passion and attention to social issues, further enhancing their sustainability literacy and creating a better future together.
Ongoing Upgrading of the Seventh TSMC Udreamer Project
The 7th TSMC Udreamer Winning Teams
| Team Name | Project Name | Summary of Project Content | University |
|---|---|---|---|
| Board Games for Elders | Intergenerational Collaboration on Life Stories Illustrated Books and Campaigning Projects | Encouraging the elders to share their life stories and present memories of past times and life experiences in illustrated storybooks, accompanying the elders on the path of positive ageing and creating an opportunity for cultural continuation |
National Normal University National Taiwan University |
| Master Framework for the 12-year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines Advocating Team | Master Framework for the 12-year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines Advocation Project | Using one’s own study history to establish a platform as a bridge for high schoolers and college students to engage in dialogues, accumulate empowering capacities with the goal for students to have a voice in educational policymaking |
National Tsing Hua University National Chengchi University National Taiwan University |
| GTA Robotics Competition | Organizing the First International Humanoid Robot Competition in Taiwan | Organizing robot competitions in Taiwan allows Taiwan to be a major racing hotspot and thereby raises Taiwan’s International profile and increases its visibility |
National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Chang Gung University |
| Special Needs Students Science Taskforce | A Team for Science Education Composed of Special Needs Students as Teachers | A platform for special needs students to demonstrate their abilities and elevate their self-esteem while changing the stereotypes the public perceive of special needs students | National Kaohsiung Normal University |
| Alliance for Advocating Basketball for Local People in the Chiayi Region | Light the Fire of Basketball | Non-profit training basketball camps to offer students from underprivileged backgrounds opportunities to learn basketball and provide diverse opportunities for future career development | National University of Kaohsiung |
| Sixteen Production | The First Mini-Kavalan Art Festival | To pass on the cultural heritage in the team’s hometown - Yilan, to nurture local theater groups and audience, and to promote a positive Yilan identity through performing arts | National Taiwan University |
| CoNature | Learn from Nature and Interdisciplinary Empowering | Campaign for long-term biomimetics, enabling young students to be able to make use of concepts and designs of biomimetics to find solutions for sustainable development for the society | National Taiwan University |
| Seample Coral Tank | Civic Engagement in Coral Restoration Program | Develop a new type of coral tank as a way for raising public awareness for coral restoration and make efforts to contribute to marine ecosystem conservation | National Taiwan University |