President Tsai attends President's Cup Social Innovation Hackathon award ceremony
On the afternoon of June 2, President Tsai Ing-wen attended the final round and award ceremony of the President's Cup Social Innovation Hackathon competition. In addition to praising the collaboration between government and private sector teams to explore solutions, she also expressed hope that public servants will continue to draw on private sector experience and expertise, uphold the "hacker spirit," and join forces in the name of progress.
After President Tsai arrived, Secretary-General to the President Chen Chu (陳菊) announced the five prize-winning teams: Data for Child Protection; Winged Tigers Legal Aid; 8R; Water Leakage Detection by Big Data, AI, Machine Learning and Open Data; and SMART (Specialized Multi-Agency Rescue Team).
Secretary-General Chen congratulated the five outstanding teams named as final award winners, and also thanked the other five teams that made it through the preliminary rounds for their efforts. She emphasized that the "hackathon spirit" lies in providing open access to government data and getting private-sector information technology experts involved to promote free innovation and equal access. That spirit of freedom, equality, and openness, she said, reflects the values of advanced countries like the United States, which is why Kin Moy, Director of the Taipei Office of American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) was invited to participate in the award ceremony.
Speaking at the ceremony, President Tsai said she was pleased to see government ministries and agencies get together with private-sector young people and try to transform government operational methods. Topics addressed by the winning teams covered many government-provided public services, including the social safety net. The president expressed her appreciation and admiration for the compassion, intelligence, and wisdom of the prize-winning teams in their efforts to promote a safer society and care for senior citizens. Since she came to office two years ago, she said, the government has been changing, and she had great hopes that it can change. But the changes didn't come from the upper levels of government. They came from young people in the government and private sector working together to change government methods.
President Tsai also noted that "hackathon" is a new word for many Taiwanese, something they just heard about in the past few years. She then said she's sure that in the future, everyone will know that a hackathon is really about "collaboration" and "sharing," and a new model for solving problems.
President Tsai explained that over the past two years, the "hackathon model" has helped the government overcome existing limitations. The government has been promoting "collaboration meetings," and every ministry and agency has set up a "participation officer." We did that to connect with forces for social innovation, so that young professionals and the government can work together to solve social problems, she said.
The president further pointed out that today, we're gradually seeing results. The new web-based tax filing system is a good example. After using it this year, many people were amazed. They couldn't believe the government made something like that.
President Tsai stated that in the past, many people criticized Taiwan's tax filing system. So we opened up the gates of government, and invited people to come in, and get to work. And in the end, they created a tax filing system like we've never seen before. She said that the optimization process is still on-going, and expressed confidence that next year, the system will be even better.
For this hackathon, the president said, we've created even more government and private sector teams. They're collaborating to explore opportunities to provide solutions. So many civil servants have a chance to work with private sector experts, and learn about how the new generation thinks, and the methods they use, to get things done.
President Tsai believes that this hackathon gave private sector experts who are always under outside supervision a chance to roll up their sleeves, get to the real heart of the problem, and create real change. And that gave them a greater sense of accomplishment, she said.
The president stated that the five finalist teams proposed innovative solutions for various issues like legal aid for the disadvantaged, offshore medical services, emergency services, detection of water leaks, and early warning systems for recurring child abuse. She then congratulated each team for their outstanding performance in the heat of competition.
President Tsai emphasized that the President's Cup Hackathon is more than just a competition, because the solutions these five teams created will all become functional public services. Shen then asked National Security Council Advisor D. T. Lee (李德財) to coordinate that effort. Looking ahead, she said, we'll continue to keep the "hacker spirit," and continue to promote "open government." That means we'll be encouraging a collaborative model and make government information more open and accessible so the private sector can use it. When the information economy ecosystem is set up, the president said, we'll also have a strong foundation to develop big data and AI.
President Tsai further stated that what's most important is that public servants will start to understand the significance of social innovation and its methods. They'll also be able to interact and cooperate more closely with professionals in different fields. This is the right direction, she said, and we'll continue to pursue it.
The president also offered a special welcome to AIT Taipei Office Director Kin Moy for attending the award ceremony. She said that the "hackathon spirit" means "freedom, equality, and openness," and these are ideals that bind Taiwan and the United States together. The United States has held many global hackathons to promote a sustainable fishing industry and aerospace development. Last year at the NASA hackathon, three teams from Taiwan were very successful, and President Tsai attended the ceremony when AIT presented their awards at the American Innovation Center in the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei. She then expressed hope that Taiwan and the United States will have even more exchanges like that in the future. By combining government and private sector experience and expertise from both countries, we can work together to improve regional and global problems, the president said.
President Tsai pointed out that for this hackathon, there were over 100 participating teams, and they all came up with valuable innovations. So we made a record of the experiences gathered at this hackathon, and next time someone wants to take on any of these issues, they can stand on the shoulders of their predecessors, and see even further into the future. So the president thanked all the participating teams and friends who contributed their experience and expertise so that we can uphold the "hacker spirit," work together, and move forward. Finally, President Tsai congratulated the winning teams again, and personally presented the awards.