President Tsai attends Presidential Hackathon award ceremony
On the afternoon of December 26, President Tsai Ing-wen attended the 2021 Presidential Hackathon award ceremony. In remarks, President Tsai stated that to address the key global issues and challenges of our time, the government will continue to cooperate with the private sector and use innovative technology to help Taiwan become a sustainable island of resilience.
A translation of President Tsai's remarks follows:
This year, the Presidential Hackathon enters its fourth year. Over these past four years, the hackathon has recognized 20 winning teams in the Domestic Track and six in the International Track, and has helped generate creative solutions to a wide range of domestic issues.
The pandemic complicated the submission of proposals and the organization of competition events this time around. But, in keeping with this year's theme of "Sustainability 2.0—Resilient Island," all of you hackers have continued to use innovative technology to demonstrate Taiwan's resilience in overcoming challenges.
This year, we received 164 proposals in the Domestic Track, and used online workshops to work around pandemic restrictions, with almost 12,000 members of the public participating in online voting. I want to congratulate the five winning teams from the Domestic Track: CO2UPtake, LASS-Location Aware Sensing System, Fish Herding Master, Aging Well, and Hiin Studio. Their proposals covered Taiwan's energy transition and decarbonization, conservation of river and marine ecology, and healthcare, all of which are pressing policy priorities for Taiwan.
This year also marked the first time that the competition's International Track has focused on climate action, attracting participants from 15 different countries. Of the seven teams that made it as finalists, several include Taiwanese hackers. This reflects how the private sector in Taiwan is taking real action on global climate issues.
I'm delighted to announce that the winning teams in this year's International Track are A/B Street, which developed an interactive tool for bike network planning, and Office Farmers, which modeled open source data to help farmers adapt their crops to climate change. I hope that, going forward, even more hackers from around the world join us in leveraging innovation and technological expertise to address key global issues and make our world a better place for all.
I also want to take this opportunity to extend a special welcome to Ani's Cuff, who are attending today's event. Earlier this year, Ani's Cuff took part in the NASA Space Apps Challenge hackathon with a project to track insect biodiversity in Taiwan. With over 28,000 participants from around the world taking part in the NASA Space Apps Challenge this year, Ani's Cuff overcame fierce competition to win the Best Use of Science Award and was among one of 10 Global Winners, a truly impressive achievement. Congratulations to Ani's Cuff, and thank you for showing the world Taiwan's hacking talent as well as its uniqueness and beauty.
In closing, I want to thank all of the winning and participating teams for working together with our government to seek solutions to the key global issues and challenges of our time. We will continue to cooperate with the private sector to address these issues, using innovative technology to help Taiwan become a sustainable island of resilience.
Also in attendance were Secretary-General to the President David T. Lee (李大維), Deputy Secretary-General to the President Li Chun-yi (李俊俋), Vice Premier Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津), Digital Minister Audrey Tang (唐鳳), Taiwan-Japan Relations Association President Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), Ambassadors-at-Large Chen Jen-ran (陳正然) and Eugene Chien (簡又新), National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫), Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Chern-Chyi (陳正祺), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Ho-jen Tseng (曾厚仁), and American Institute in Taiwan Acting Director Jeremy Cornforth.