- Providing a platform that ignite young people’s passion for innovation and enhance their ability of solving real-life problems
- Aiming to cultivate interdisciplinary talents to meet the new demands of industrial development
The 2023 ABB Cup Innovation Contest themed Intelligent Technologies for the Future was officially launched on April 18. This year’s contest involves areas such as power electronics, machine learning, mathematical modeling, industrial robotics, digital twin and human-computer interaction, with the aim of promoting the open and innovative thinking among young people, enhancing their ability to solve real-world problems by exploring interdisciplinary approaches, and better support the cultivation of local innovative talents.
The contest invites students from vocational schools and universities in China to create bold innovations and designs around either of the two set topics: AI-based modeling for predicting the temperature of IGBT in drives and Robot programming and remote control for domino. Students may join the competition individually or in teams. Click here to learn more about details and sign up for 2023 ABB Cup Innovation Contest.
Dr. Chunyuan Gu, Chairman of ABB China said: “China’s high-quality economic development depends on the high-level technical professionals, particularly the outstanding engineers that meet new requirements from the emerging technologies, industries and business models. With a focus on engineering practice, ABB Cup Innovation Contest aims to advance the student’s innovation and practical skills, and encourage them to try to solve technical problems in real industrial scenes by making full use of interdisciplinary knowledge, so as to adapt to the changes brought about by new technologies."
Dr. Nan Zhang, Secretary of the Chinese Association of Automation (CAA), the co-organizer of ABB Cup Innovation Contest said, "China’s new engineering construction emphasizes the interdisciplinary integration, combining science, humanities and engineering. In line with this trend, the innovation contest co-hosted by ABB and CAA encourages participants to break down barriers between disciplines and innovate cross-boundaries, so as to cultivate outstanding engineering talents who are able to solve problems through interdisciplinary reserach and meet the needs of future development of industries."
The Embassy of Switzerland in China and the Consulate General of Switzerland in Shanghai have been the strong supporter of the contest over the years. Jürg Burri, Ambassador of Switzerland to China said that since the establishment of Sino-Swiss innovative strategic partnership, the two countries have carried out fruitful cooperation in technology innovation. ABB, as a global technology leader headquartered in Switzerland and deeply rooted in the local market, has actively promoted China‘s sustainable development, making the ABB Cup Innovation Contest a frontrunner for Sino-Swiss cooperation in technology innovation and talent cultivation.
Group 1: AI-based modeling for predicting the temperature of IGBT in drives
In the wave of industrial digitalization, ABB's drive business has been continuously driving its digital transformation to better serve the market. For example, through ABB Drive Cloud, it provides a series of digital solutions to help customers improve efficiency and create more values. Based on real-time monitoring and analysis of key performance figures, it enables cloud diagnosis and prediction services to support users to achieve digital operation and maintenance.
In the Challenge of AI-based modeling for predicting the temperature of IGBT in drives, contestants will try to solve a specific challenge in application by realzing digital value. Based on the data provided by ABB from real industrial scenarios, the contestants are expected to use machine learning, big data prediction and other technologies to analyze the data and build a predictive model in Python to monitor and estimate the temperature fluctuation of IGBT, a key power semiconductor of ABB drive in real time with high accuracy and fast response.
Group 2: Robot programming and remote control for dominos
In recent years, as the robot market continues to boom, it has generated a great demand for robotic engineers that design, build, apply and maintain industrial robots, and the shortage in China is expected to exceed 4.5 million by 2025. As one of the world’s leading robotics suppliers, ABB has actively promoted the cultivation of robotics talents in China, working with around 1,000 vocational schools and universities to provide robotics training for up to one million students, supporting the country‘s innovation-driven development and talent strategy.
This year's Innovation Contest will provide an excellent platform for these applied talents to showcase their skills. In the Challenge of Robot programming and remote control for dominos, participants will use RobotStudio®, ABB’s offline programming and simulation tool for robotic application, to build digital twin workstations, develop software functions, and remotely control an industrial robot to place and push a certain number of dominoes, etc. This will help them gain a better understanding of the robotic software, improve their skills of function development and remote control of industrial robots.
To better support the contestants who are spread across the country, ABB will organize a series of livestreaming Q&A sessions, provide the necessary software tools and technical training materials, and invite technical experts to answer questions. Contest winners of the contest will be invited to attend an award ceremony and visit ABB's booth at the China International Industry Fair in late September.
With a history of 18 years, ABB Cup Innovation Contest combines the previous two annual contests – the ABB Cup National Automation System Engineer Thesis Contest which was co-organized by CAA and ABB in 2005 and the ABB University Innovation Contest, which was initiated in 2012. The contest has received great support from CAA, the Swiss Embassy in China as well as many industry experts and the media.
ABB is a technology leader in electrification and automation, enabling a more sustainable and resource-efficient future. The company’s solutions connect engineering know-how and software to optimize how things are manufactured, moved, powered and operated. Building on more than 130 years of excellence, ABB’s ~105,000 employees are committed to driving innovations that accelerate industrial transformation. www.abb.com
