Recently, the 13th National College Students “Innovation, Originality and Entrepreneurship” Challenge (hereinafter referred to as the Challenge) in Heilongjiang Province and the National Competition Trials was successfully held at NEFU. This is the seventh time (and the sixth consecutive time) that NEFU has hosted the provincial competition of the Challenge.

As the host of the competition, NEFU actively implemented the requirements of the Committee, and prepared well to ensure the smooth running of the event. This year the competition was divided into two stages: the preliminary and the final competition. A total of 969 teams from 26 universities in the province, including Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Northeast Agricultural University, and Northeast Forestry University participated in the competition, setting a new high in the number of participating universities and students in the Heilongjiang Division. The preliminary competition was conducted in the way of online reporting and defense by students and offline evaluation by judges, disciplinary and arbitration experts. A total of 108 teams were promoted, including 92 teams in the regular competition and 16 teams in the practical competition. The final competition was divided into two tracks: the regular and the practical competition, and the teams were divided into 6 groups to conduct their defense on June 3 and June 10-11 respectively in the Chengdong Building. The top 3 teams of each group in the final competition also made a wonderful presentation.

The provincial competition gave out 14 awards for the first prize and above, 18 second prizes and 28 third prizes, with the certificates being issued after the examination on the official website. The outstanding teams will be the representatives of Heilongjiang Division to participate in the 13th National Finals of the Challenge.

During the competition, Prof. Yang Xingkai and Prof. Wang Lifang, members of the Steering Committee of E-Commerce in Higher Education, supervised and guided the whole process as the head of the disciplinary team and the head of the arbitration team respectively. At the closing ceremony, the guests and expert representatives made wonderful comments on the content and defense of each team.

The Challenge is a disciplinary competition to stimulate the interest and potential of college students, cultivate their innovation consciousness, creative thinking, entrepreneurial ability and spirit of teamwork. As early as 2010, the competition was included in the competition projects funded by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance, and it has been continuously listed in Higher Education Academy Competition Catalog, and successfully held for 12 years since 2009. This event is another test of innovative talent cultivation and high-level competition organization ability to NEFU.