Taiwan Wins 12 Gold Medals at iENA 2025 as AI, Biomedical and Materials Inventions Draw Recognition

Twenty-six medals for Taiwan in Nuremberg

Taiwan's delegation won 12 gold medals, seven silver medals, seven bronze medals and a special award at the 77th Inventors' and Innovation Exhibition in Nuremberg, known as iENA. Held from November 1 to 3, 2025, the exhibition brought together about 540 entries from roughly 30 countries. The Taiwanese team described the result as one of its best performances.

The delegation brought together inventors from five junior and senior high schools, five colleges and universities, four companies and four independent inventors. Its entries ranged from artificial intelligence tools drawing on cultural traditions to biomedical instruments and new materials. That mix placed student projects alongside work by academic researchers, businesses and individual creators.

Feng shui practitioner Lee Shang-yu received a gold medal, a bronze medal and a special award from Germany for two devices combining satellite mapping with AI. His systems identify buildings, roads and water flows around a selected location, then calculate an energy field strength index that he proposes as a guide to habitability.

Chung Yuan Christian University also reported recognition across several research fields. Its Department of Biomedical Engineering won gold for a Visualized Nano Microscope designed to image living cells at the nanoscale. Its Department of Chemical Engineering received two bronze medals for biomaterial and aerogel innovations, while advanced battery materials research led by Prof. Wei-Jen Liu received a Best Innovation Award from a partner organization.

The 12 gold medals account for about 46 percent of Taiwan's 26 gold, silver and bronze medals. Beyond that medal total, the exhibition offered the delegation a place to present prototypes, compare ideas with international peers and make contacts with potential research and business partners.

A fair that connects inventions with potential partners

iENA is a long established international showcase where independent inventors, university laboratories and companies introduce prototypes and products at an early stage of development. Its audience includes industry scouts, investors, patent professionals and public sector representatives, as well as fellow inventors.

Medals are one part of the attraction. Exhibitors also use the fair to gauge market interest, find manufacturing partners, explore licensing arrangements and collect feedback from juries and peers. Licensing allows an inventor to give another organization permission to use an invention under an agreed arrangement.

Inventors typically arrive with working prototypes, patent applications or plans to file them, and a concise explanation of what their invention offers. A prototype demonstrates the central idea before a product is ready for wider production. Jury feedback can help a team decide what to change in its next version.

Taiwan's participants used the event to reach international buyers and technical partners. For teams from smaller markets, an exhibition of this kind offers visibility beyond their home country and a chance to compare their solutions with work from Europe and other regions.

The event can also influence decisions about patents, pilot projects and regulatory requirements. Those decisions concern how an invention will be protected, where it will first be tested and what approvals may be needed before it reaches users.

Lee Shang-yu turns feng shui into a mapping tool

Lee's two recognized devices attempt to turn a practice often dependent on experience and personal judgment into a more consistent screening process. One provides an orientation aid based on remote geomancy. The other estimates energy field intensity for a particular location. Geomancy, in this setting, refers to evaluating a site's surroundings and orientation through feng shui principles.

A user enters a location, and the system examines mapping data to identify nearby structures, roads and watercourses. It then produces an index that Lee says reflects the site's suitability for habitation. The aim is to express traditional judgments through a repeatable set of calculations.

Satellite images provide a view of a site's wider surroundings. The technical approach would likely involve computer vision, which enables software to recognize features in images, alongside geographic information system methods for examining position, distance and flow. Algorithms would then convert those inputs into a single score.

The score depends on the model's design, including the weight assigned to each feature and the training data used to shape its choices. Giving a road, a building or a watercourse a different weight can change the result, even when the underlying map stays the same.

Lee's proposed approach offers a repeatable checklist for people comparing sites before a purchase or a design decision. Its appeal to homeowners and planners lies in applying the same screening process to different locations instead of relying entirely on an individual practitioner's assessment.

The iENA jury's written feedback praised the combination of cultural practice and analysis using data. The jury described Lee's devices in these words:

The devices were innovative and showed cultural integration, opening up new applications for scientific feng shui.

The recognition showed interest in expressing a cultural method through modern computation. Lee's gold medal, bronze medal and special German award made his two entries a prominent part of Taiwan's results.

How a site score could be tested

Feng shui's scientific basis has long been debated. Supporters argue that some traditional guidelines reflect practical choices about sunlight, shelter from wind, water management and the orientation of indoor spaces. Skeptics call for testing of predictions about energy flows.

Mapping data and transparent algorithms offer a way to examine how a site's calculated score relates to outcomes people can measure. Those outcomes include comfort, noise exposure, access, air circulation and resale value. A useful assessment would explain how each part of the score contributes to the result.

Daylight depends on latitude, the direction a site faces and surrounding buildings. Wind patterns and terrain influence ventilation and the movement of noise. Nearby traffic, rivers and drainage routes affect access, safety and flood risk. Satellite imagery, maps and open data can help evaluate these factors consistently.

A transparent index would allow researchers to test its components separately. They could examine whether higher scores are associated with less noise, better airflow or easier walking access. Positive results could support a practical screening tool; other results could guide changes to the model or a decision to present it as a preference guide.

Claims about energy fields therefore need a testing process alongside measurements of the physical environment. The jury's feedback expressed interest in an approach that respects cultural context while using data to inform decisions. The next useful step for such a tool would be validation against the outcomes it aims to describe.

A microscope designed to observe living cells

Chung Yuan Christian University's Department of Biomedical Engineering reported a gold medal for its Visualized Nano Microscope, which enables nanoscale imaging of live cells. The work addresses the challenge of viewing very small cellular structures while preserving the living processes researchers want to observe.

Conventional optical microscopes face a diffraction limit. In simple terms, light spreads in a way that restricts how closely spaced details can be distinguished. Researchers have developed methods that extend resolution through specialized optics, fluorescent labels and computational reconstruction, which uses calculations to build a clearer image.

A system that keeps cells alive while approaching nanoscale clarity can help researchers follow changes as they happen. Possible areas of study include cellular structures, responses to drugs and the behavior of cell membranes, the boundaries that surround cells.

Ease of use and cost would also matter for access. If such a platform is simpler to operate or more affordable than existing instruments, laboratories without expensive equipment could gain new opportunities to study living cells at greater detail. Those practical benefits depend on the system's eventual performance and design.

Biomaterials, aerogels and better batteries

Chung Yuan Christian University's Department of Chemical Engineering reported two bronze medals covering biomaterial and aerogel innovations. Both areas involve designing materials with properties suited to particular medical or environmental tasks.

Biomaterials are materials intended to interact with biological tissues. When that interaction is safe and useful, they can support wound healing, deliver drugs to a chosen target or serve as scaffolds for tissue regeneration. A scaffold gives developing tissue a structure on which to grow.

Aerogels combine very low density with an extremely porous structure. Their many small spaces create a large surface area relative to their volume, making them useful candidates for filtration, heat insulation and catalysis. Catalysis involves helping a chemical reaction take place.

For both fields, a promising laboratory result must be supported by a production method that can be repeated. Consistent pores and surface properties matter because changes in a material's structure can change how it performs. Reproducible synthesis becomes especially important when a team moves toward larger quantities.

The university also reported a Best Innovation Award from a partner organization for advanced battery materials research led by Prof. Wei-Jen Liu. The work sits within efforts to improve energy density, stability and charging rates. Energy density describes how much energy a battery stores for a given size or weight.

New cathodes, solid electrolytes and treatments at the boundaries between battery components can help reduce degradation and improve safety. Cathodes are one of a battery's electrodes, while electrolytes allow electrically charged particles to move between electrodes. iENA offers researchers a place to compare such ideas with international work and meet manufacturers able to test performance through repeated charging and use.

What makes an invention persuasive to judges

Invention fair judging commonly examines originality, usefulness, technical merit, presentation and prospects for commercialization. Commercialization means turning an idea or prototype into something that can be produced and offered to users. An invention's explanation needs to be understandable to people outside its specialist field.

Five practical questions help describe that assessment:

• Is the concept original in a meaningful way?
• Does it address a real need?
• Is the solution technically sound?
• Can it be produced reliably at scale?
• Can the team explain it clearly to people without specialist knowledge?

A model or prototype that demonstrates its central function can make an entry more persuasive. Patent applications and a clear assessment of freedom to operate can also improve partnership prospects. Freedom to operate concerns whether a proposed product can be developed and sold without infringing another party's rights.

A concise plan for regulatory steps and early customers gives juries a clearer picture of how a project could move beyond the laboratory. For inventions using AI, questions often concern where data come from, whether the model's reasoning can be explained and how its predictions will be validated.

Health and safety entries may face questions about risk management and independent testing. Design clarity, the user interface and the quality of documentation also affect how an invention is received. A team needs to show both what the device does and how someone would use it.

Medals can attract attention during the exhibition, while conversations at booths and contacts gathered over the three days can shape later opportunities. The follow up over subsequent months often determines whether that attention develops into a research partnership, a licensing arrangement or a product.

Thuringia's role and the exhibition timeline

iENA named Thuringia as a partner for its 2025 edition, bringing research institutes and networks from the German state into the exhibition's support for inventors. Partner organizations often provide coaching, legal guidance and local showcases that help teams move from prototypes toward contracts.

Lee's special German award and the university's award from a partner organization illustrate the recognition available alongside the main medal categories. Together with the regional partnership, they reflect the exhibition's role in connecting invention with practical collaboration.

The main dates place Taiwan's results within a short exhibition period:

• November 1, 2025: The 77th iENA opened in Nuremberg.
• November 1 to 3, 2025: About 540 entries from roughly 30 countries took part.
• November 3, 2025: The exhibition concluded.
• November 7, 2025: Taiwan's reported results included 12 gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals, plus a special award.

Turning recognition into practical use

Taiwan's medal winners now face the work that usually follows an international invention fair. Teams typically pursue patent applications in priority markets, arrange limited pilots with early users and refine the documentation requested by investors or potential licensees.

AI tools need validation studies and testing of the user experience to build trust. Devices intended for medical or industrial use also require attention to safety testing and compliance with applicable standards. The timetable for specific pilots, patent steps or partner agreements has not been announced.

Taiwan's innovation ecosystem includes regular showcases and events focused on particular sectors, where follow up meetings can turn international interest into contracts. Exhibitions recognized by international inventor associations provide further opportunities to meet buyers and research partners.

Student teams can take juror feedback back to campus laboratories, using it to shape graduation projects and possible new businesses. Academic groups, companies and independent inventors can use their Nuremberg recognition when seeking funding or proposing trials with local governments, builders and manufacturers.

The delegation's results brought attention to both established research fields and an unusual meeting of cultural practice with AI. The practical task after the fair is to refine those inventions, test their performance and develop the partnerships needed to put them to use.

Key Points

• Taiwan reported 12 gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals, plus a special award, at iENA 2025.
• The 77th exhibition ran in Nuremberg from November 1 to 3 and attracted about 540 entries from roughly 30 countries.
• Taiwan's delegation included inventors from five junior and senior high schools, five colleges and universities, four companies and four independent inventors.
• Lee Shang-yu won a gold, a bronze and a special German award for two devices combining feng shui, satellite mapping and AI.
• Lee's systems calculate an energy field strength index that he proposes as a guide to habitability.
• Chung Yuan Christian University reported gold for its Visualized Nano Microscope, two bronze medals for biomaterial and aerogel innovations, and a partner organization's award for battery materials research led by Prof. Wei-Jen Liu.
• Thuringia partnered with iENA 2025, linking the fair with research institutes and regional innovation networks.
• Patent work, validation, safety testing, pilots and partner discussions are the practical next steps for turning inventions into products.