The final of the 2020 FCC Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition China was held in Jiading District earlier this month with more than 250 students taking part via livestreaming.

A nutcracker in the shape of a parrot’s beak from students at Shanghai Jiading World Foreign Language School makes cracking nuts more efficient and keeps the shell from going everywhere. It has obtained a national utility model patent certificate and is applying for a design patent.

Students at Shanghai Hua‘er Private Middle School brought their “Virtual Puppet Show” project, using the latest modern motion capture technology to control the characters in the show.

“The children not only had an idea and finished the product, but also considered market-oriented operation and even financing. Their ideas are very comprehensive,” said Li Wei, a professor at the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Automation of Shanghai University.

Judging from the entries, many children are interested in artificial intelligence. In the future, relevant courses will be introduced in schools to further stimulate their potential, said Xia Hongmei, executive vice president of the Shanghai Experimental School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

This year is the third year the event has been held in China, and this year’s theme was “Intelligent Dreams, Touching the Future.”

In addition to the innovation and invention competition, a creative programming competition was added this year.