A team from Hefei University (HFU) won the grand prize and three special awards at the national finals of the 16th National College Student E-Commerce Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship Challenge.
The team received the Best Innovation, Best Creativity and Best Entrepreneurship awards with the project “Dendrobium Ambitions: Green Seedlings Boost Incomes and Tea Brings Prosperity to Rural Communities”, marking HFU’s best performance in the competition to date.
Organized by the Teaching Steering Committee for E-Commerce Programs of the Ministry of Education, the challenge is classified as a national academic competition (Class A) and ranks third among innovation and entrepreneurship events on China’s national university competition rankings. This year’s event drew entries from more than 1,400 universities across 34 provincial-level regions, with over 280,000 teams and more than 2 million students and faculty members registering to participate.
To prepare for the competition, HFU arranged field visits to companies and industry sites, helping the team connect its expertise with practical business challenges. Experts from within and outside the university also provided several rounds of mentoring and project development support.
The results reflect HFU’s efforts to integrate innovation and entrepreneurship into applied education. It plans to expand practical training opportunities and help more students turn ideas into viable projects.
