New Taipei City MAGIC Youth Forum

The Problem: Making sustainable lifestyle choices is difficult without knowing the impact of your decision

Our Solution: Informing people of the amount of carbon dioxide they save by biking instead of driving can help them make informed decisions.

Tracking the total distance of a bike ride enabled us to calculate the carbon dioxide that a car would have emitted. We displayed our calculated value for “Saved Carbon Emissions” on a phone app.

Our Team: We were an international team of six students from Taiwan and three students from the United States. Over six month period, we collaborated remotely to develop our solution before presenting it together at the MAGIC Youth Forum in Taipei.

This project was my first time directly collaborating within an international team. Time zones, language barriers, and cultural differences shaped the way I approached this project. I think incorporating our differences led to a uniquely broad result which applied to both Taiwanese and American culture.

Contributing to the breadth of our project was our team’s wide range of expertise. The Taiwanese students had vocational training in computer science and art, while the U.S. students, including myself, had more general education and a passion for engineering.

My highlight of the project was presenting in Taipei over live news broadcast to a panel of education officials. For me, it was an opportunity to give thanks to the organizers by sharing with them what they had made possible.