Sparks of genius

A motion sensing musical device is displayed at the first Capital University Students' Science and Technology Innovation and Patents Expo. Photos by Wang Ru / China Daily

A recent science and technology exposition suggests creativity is flashing at many of China's universities, Wang Ru reports in Beijing.

The first Capital University Students' Science and Technology Innovation and Patents Expo, a two-day event that closed on Dec 9, was a showcase of creativity and hard work by college students.

No longer satisfied with making small high-tech dolls, they are aiming at a more practical market. The exhibition, organized by the Beijing Association of Science and Technology, gave inventive college students a helpful platform.

Among the high-tech creations were an unpiloted helicopter, a snakelike earthquake-rescue robot and a solar-energy speedboat.

Zhu Qiaofeng's work, for example, was a bassinet with a pink cradle complete with a skirt of white silk that concealed the rocker beneath.

In fact, it took a whole year for Zhu and four other students from Beijing University of Chemical Technology to finish the bassinet, an automated baby bed that is able to sense the baby's crying and adjust itself to a soothing rocking motion.

Zhu's goal was to attract investment to put the bassinet into mass production.

"I believe there is a good market prospect for those inexperienced young parents who get a headache from rocking their babies to sleep," he says.

Wei Yufei, a graduate student of Beijing University of Technology, came to the expo to show a shopping cart.