Supported by the Medical Device Innovation and Translational Center and the College of Biomedical Engineering at our university, and under the guidance of Professor 賴穎暉 from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, a research team composed of five students —張育哲, 鍾伃晴, 單婉菱, 張書寧 and 張舒喬—participated in the 16th 2023 Global Student Innovation Challenge - Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology, held in Thailand.
Amid fierce competition from 33 teams worldwide, the team stood out with their outstanding performance and won the Gold Award in the Technical Category. The award was personally presented by Princess King Kanitthathiraj Chao, a member of the Thai royal family.
The team’s competition project was the Dysarthria Voice Conversion (DVC) System, which integrates three core technologies: patient-like data generation, automatic speech recognition (ASR), and text-to-speech (TTS). Collaborating with APrevent Medical Ltd, the team successfully developed an innovative assistive communication device. This device can instantly convert the speech of individuals with dysarthria, significantly improving the clarity of their speech and enhancing their quality of life, helping them regain confidence in speaking.
Professor Ying-Hui Lai expressed heartfelt gratitude to the university and the Ministry of Education's Cross-Disciplinary Talent Cultivation Program for the Precision Health Industry for their resource support. This support allowed the team to systematically learn about the development of intelligent medical devices and enabled their research results to be applied in practice, fostering innovation in the precision health industry.
The outstanding team has gained valuable cross-disciplinary competition experience, strengthened innovative thinking, and enhanced their international competitiveness by participating in domestic and international contests. Professor Lai also acknowledged the selfless guidance of the industry mentors involved in the program, as well as the dedication and effort of the team members. He hopes that more current students and alumni will take part in this series of enriching training programs.
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