The My Toy Design Competition 2014-15, co-hosted by the Department of Industrial Engineering and Logistics Management, Federation of Hong Kong Industries, Hong Kong Toys Council and The Toys Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong Limited, encouraged further design, creativity and innovation among young people, attracting more than 600 entries from over 1,000 Hong Kong participants.
The competition, first held in 2012-13, seeks to nurture students’ creativity and discover talented designers. Two categories of entries were available in the second contest, Traditional Toys and Toys with Smart Device Apps, with over HK$2 million in funding secured from different sources, including the CreateSmart Initiative, established under the Hong Kong government’s Create Hong Kong agency, and local toy companies and associations.
Thirty-eight finalists in the Student Group (secondary schools and tertiary institutions) and 24 in the newly added Designer Group were chosen by a judging panel comprising design professionals, academics, industry specialists and toy users.
An award ceremony was held on May 29, 2015, with Mrs Janet Chu, Assistant Head of Create Hong Kong, as the guest of honor. HKUST undergraduates Tak Hei Wong and Tin Lam Yeung, Electronic and Computer Engineering, received the bronze award in the Smart Device Apps category for Spiderbot, a robot that behaves like a spider and a car. The toy is controlled via Bluetooth through smartphone Android apps using voice input and buttons. Two School of Business and Management undergraduates also received the bronze award in the Traditional category for their Big Money card game. A total of 13 awards were presented.
