From January 16 to 19, 2026, the Global Sustainability Challenge (GSC) Asia-Pacific Regional Finals and Award Ceremony, initiated by Stanford University and jointly organized by Zhejiang University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, successfully concluded at the Zijingang Campus of Zhejiang University. The graduate student team “MUST Challenger” from the Department of Engineering Science, Faculty of Innovation Engineering at Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST), stood out with their technological innovation work and successfully won the First Prize in the competition. As the only award-winning university from the Macao, MUST demonstrated its robust research strength and innovation capabilities in the field of sustainable development.
From left: Chen Yamei, Liu Xiayan, Qian Yuansheng, Zhou Naiyue, Li Runze, and Kou Menggang — “MUST Challenger” Team
As a globally influential event in the field of sustainable development, the GSC is divided into four major regions: Asia-Pacific, West Asia-South Asia, Europe-Africa, and North America-South America. The GSC Asia-Pacific Regional Competition spanned four months, attracting over 300 teams and more than 1,200 contestants from the Asia-Pacific region to compete, with a total of over 350 entries submitted. The competition covered multiple frontier areas of sustainable development, including artificial intelligence, clean energy, energy storage technology, sustainable environments, and resilient cities. It precisely aligned with global core needs for sustainable development and built a global platform for innovation exchange. Through rigorous preliminary screening, only 67 outstanding teams successfully advanced to the Asia-Pacific on-site finals, undergoing three days of intense competition, the “MUST Challenger” team, composed of six graduate students—Li Runze, Kou Menggang, Qian Yuansheng, Zhou Naiyue, Liu Xiayan, and Chen Yamei—stood out from the 67 teams and won the First Prize with their technological innovation project, “The intelligent energy agent: Towards a grid-friendly and inclusive clean energy system via distributed photovoltaic-storage coordination.” The team was supervised by Professor Wang Jianzhou from the Faculty of Innovation Engineering.
From left: Students Li Runze and Zhou Naiyue in charge of the team roadshow
The GSC Asia-Pacific Regional Competition attracted participation from top universities and research institutions in the regiony. It became a stage for showcasing innovative achievements and intellectual exchange in the field of sustainable development. The competition focused closely on key realistic issues such as uneven global development, environmental pollution, and energy crises. Guided by the core principle of proposing global solutions adapted to local national conditions, it promoted the deep integration of innovative technologies with actual needs, injecting new momentum into global sustainable development.
First Prize group photo
This award is not only a concentrated embodiment of the “MUST Challenger” team's research capabilities and collaborative spirit, but also highlights MUST's deep foundation in the interdisciplinary field of artificial intelligence and sustainable energy. The research results provide innovative ideas for the practical application of distributed photovoltaic-storage coordination technology and play a positive role in promoting the realization of global carbon neutrality targets and the sustainable development of energy.
