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【Translator：Zhi-Yu Yang】

【Promotion of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) series】

2023-09-27 National University of Kaohsiung's Department of Information Management Associate Professor Lin Hsin-Tzu supervised students, including Hong Li-Cheng, Wang Zheng-Heng, Yan Zhi-Hao, and Zhou En-Xi, in their participation in the "2023 Data Innovation Application Competition and Interior Hackathon" hosted by the Ministry of the Interior. Recognizing the challenges young entrepreneurs face, they proposed "Assisting People in Entrepreneurship" as the core theme of their project. They competed with talents from across Taiwan and successfully advanced to the quarterfinal. This showcased their youthful creativity and applied the knowledge learned in the classroom to leverage the power of data to address real societal issues.

Lin Hsin-Tzu and the IF-School(Imagination for Future School) jointly offer the course 'Data and Design Thinking,' aiming to empower students with data awareness applications and enhance their 'information soft power.' At the same time, they encourage participation in the Interior Hackathon competition to learn from the wise and accumulate practical experience.

The team composed of students from the Department of Information Management at the National University of Kaohsiung, including senior Hong Li-Cheng, sophomore Wang Zheng-Heng, and Yan Zhi-Hao, along with Zhou En-Xi, discovered from government open data that Taiwanese youth face numerous challenges in the entrepreneurial process. Therefore, they proposed the service theme "Sao Nian! Ni Ke Wang Chuang Yeh Ma? (Youth! Do You Aspire to Start-Up?)" intending to assist users in overcoming various difficulties encountered during the entrepreneurial process.

To enhance the depth and breadth of their competition entries, students, including Hong Li-Cheng, also participated in the "When Board Games Meet SDGs" workshop organized by the IF-School(Imagination for Future School). They learned to apply a "global sustainability perspective" to understand local societal issues, including SDG 4.4, which aims to substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship, and SDG 8.3, which focuses on supporting decent employment, entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation.

Advanced Business Incubation Center Manager Liu Jian-Cheng and Vice Manager Chen Ying-Lian also provided consultation, assisting the team in constructing a blueprint for service development to create the "Sao Nian! (Youth!)" entrepreneurial information service platform. Its highlights include "map searching" and "analysis of the business model matrix," which help young entrepreneurs enhance their efficiency in gathering government policies, regulations, information, startup resources, and even potential competition in the industry. This platform offers them a better chance to excel and stand out.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Ministry of the Interior Hackathon competition, and it has expanded significantly. Government departments such as the Ministry of the Interior's Department of Statistics, the Central Weather Bureau, the Information Department of the Ministry of Labor, and the Department of Information Technology, Taipei City Government have all joined the list of organizers. This not only makes the competition more closely aligned with societal needs but also increases its level of challenge.

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#SDG4 #SDG8