2024 Ford UCAN Innovation Camp in Nanjing
As a key component of Ford’s Better World CSR Program, the Ford UCAN Innovation Competition aims to empower bright young minds to use innovative approaches for solving mobility challenges. This year, based on continuing the system of previous competitions, UCAN not only expanded its coverage across universities nationwide, but also added AI courses in line with current mobility trends to nurture more innovation-minded talents and contribute to industry development.
From Aug. 22 to Sept. 1, the first 2024 Ford UCAN Innovation Camp was successfully held in Nanjing. Multiple cross-industry experts and Ford volunteers provided course instruction and guidance to the student participants.
The upgraded Ford UCAN Innovation Camp consisted of two parts: online courses and an offline workshop. The camp attracted over 600 students from across the country to apply for participation. After three days of online coursework, competition, and screening, 30 students who stood out for their excellence successfully advanced on to the offline workshop.
The online course kicked off with real-world case studies to illustrate the theoretical knowledge of innovation thinking, then provided training with relevant AI tools, helping the students to enhance their innovation efficiency and apply these tools for their own innovation projects.
Using the world's leading Design Thinking methodology as the theoretical basis, the offline workshop continued to utilize case studies, user interviews, group discussions and interactive Q&A to guide the students to turn theory into practice, to explore the potential problems in the transportation sector and understand the true needs of society and consumers, ultimately inspiring them to develop innovative mobility solutions.
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UCAN Nanjing Camp
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UCAN Nanjing Camp
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UCAN Nanjing Camp -
UCAN Nanjing Camp -
UCAN Nanjing Camp -
UCAN Nanjing Camp -
UCAN Nanjing Camp -
UCAN Nanjing Camp -
UCAN Nanjing Camp -
UCAN Nanjing Camp
Under the Camp theme of “A better outdoor camping experience”, the champion team innovatively designed a vehicle-mounted water purification and recycling system integrating collection, filtration, heating and storage for the challenge of outdoor camping water, which won unanimous praise from the judges.
The training camp received positive feedback from students, one student remarked, "The Ford UCAN Innovation Camp is very different from regular school courses. By teaming up with students from different universities, grades, and majors, we achieved a breakthrough from concept to practical product within just 2 days, which was an enriching experience." Another student shared, "Through the Innovation Camp, I truly experienced the sense of urgency that comes with the tight deadlines and heavy workloads of future jobs. Learning AI skills also significantly improved my innovation project work efficiency, which is a huge benefit."
This year, the Ford UCAN Innovation Camp will continue to be held in Chongqing, Beijing and Shanghai, and the young talents will be selected from each region to compete in the annual finals.
