Learning by doing

Liu's team gathered students majoring in materials science, computer science and industrial design. They met one another at a makerspace - a collaborative work space for innovative youngsters - founded by Southwest Jiaotong University in 2013.

"I am do-it-yourself kind of person; I really enjoy getting an idea to work by hand," says Huang Jintao, one of Liu's teammates, adding that in the makerspace, he can find partners from other departments to cooperate with.

For Huang, the makerspace is his "second classroom" where he can acquire knowledge that he fails to get from textbooks.

"Most of the time, we create prototypes for fun, rather than gearing up for a competition," he says. "In my view, it's super cool to explore and experiment with technology as a team."

It's widely accepted that China's first makerspace was Xinchejian (meaning "new workshop") established in Shanghai in 2010. After that, maker culture swept the country with more and more maker centers popping up in campuses, industrial zones and science parks.

"At the heart of maker culture is openness and a spirit of sharing," says Huang Gang, vice-director of Qiming College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. "The maker movement is driving the education of shuangchuang, or double chuang, activities - innovation (chuangxin) and entrepreneurship (chuangye) - in universities, and it's important to integrate the university faculty into the system of the maker community."

Alexander Frederick Wulff from Harvard University adds that participating in a maker competition allows him to meet his Chinese counterparts and to learn from one another.

"I've been to China once before but I've never had the opportunity to have such great dialogue with all the other Chinese finalists and see how the Chinese projects work," he says. "I was impressed by the scope and quality of the Chinese projects."