The 31st InnoServe Awards held its finals and awards ceremony on November 7 at the National Taiwan University gymnasium. The event was organized by the Administration for Digital Industries (ADI) of the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA), the Ministry of Education’s Department of Information and Technology Education, and the Chinese Society of Information Management. Participation reached a record high this year, with 9,870 individuals from 1,982 teams across 149 colleges and universities, culminating in 420 teams from Taiwan and abroad giving everything, they had to compete for 187 awards across a total prize pool of approximately NT$3.6 million.

Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Yang Chia-Ling stated that technology must ultimately remain human-centered and be applied to address the real challenges faced by the public. This year’s competition attracted nearly 2,000 teams, with themes centered on cybersecurity, agentic AI, and smart healthcare, among other advanced fields. As AI has substantially lowered the barriers to software development, she noted that creativity and the capacity for interdisciplinary knowledge integration will be important qualities in the future. Deputy Minister Yang encouraged outstanding students from Taiwan and abroad to continue refining their projects and launch startups or collaborate with industry partners, helping to further develop Taiwan’s software sector.

Deputy Minister of Education Liu Kuo-Wei stated that, in response to rapid AI developments, future Higher Education Sprout Projects will place a greater emphasis on information security and allocate funding support. At the same time, the Ministry of Education has outlined Taiwan’s Future Talent AI Competency Framework, which focuses on four core competencies for students: learning with AI, using AI responsibly, solving problems with AI, and cultivating capabilities that AI cannot replace. This year’s competition reached unprecedented levels in both scale and the number of judges. The Deputy Minister further encouraged participating students to make full use of the opportunity to network with industry, government, and academia contacts and to continue applying their expertise in ICT technologies to address social challenges and serve the public good.

The rapid evolution of AI has presented the industry with a new landscape of challenges and opportunities. Under the tagline "Youth Unleashed - Breaking Through," this year's competition encourages students to harness their creativity and leverage technologies like AI, cybersecurity, open-source applications, and open data to develop innovative solutions across various sectors. Thirteen organizations, including Google Cloud, Microsoft Taiwan, AMD, Titansoft, Galaxy Software Services (GSS), Landseed International Hospital, and various government agencies, collaborated to set up 17 topics for the competition. This collaboration prompted teams to approach problems from diverse perspectives, sparking a wide range of solutions for healthcare, tourism, education, manufacturing, transportation, social inclusion, and smart cities. To ensure a rigorous evaluation, a panel of 192 experts from industry, government, and academia served as judges. In particular, industry professionals accounted for approximately half of the panel composition to help better identify works with high market potential.

Starting in 2012, the competition has operated with an International Exchange Division to further promote global exchange of digital talent. This year, teams from 10 countries and regions reached the finals, including first-time participants from Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines, alongside teams from Belgium, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. This diversity brought together a wide range of innovative perspectives and technical expertise from various cultural backgrounds. Outstanding Taiwanese teams may also be recommended for the 2026 Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Awards, an opportunity that will allow them to broaden their international horizons while helping increase global visibility for Taiwan's innovation ecosystem.

During the finals, the venue also featured a talent matching zone to connect students with employers. Besides booths from the topic-setting sponsors, nine companies including CHT Security, Syscom Computer Engineering, Gotop Information, MetaAge Corporation, and Trade-van Information Services participated in the talent matching. The zone facilitated on-site networking to assist companies with recruiting experienced talents while providing students with expanded career opportunities. After the competition, the government also actively facilitates the transition of top teams into commercial enterprises. These efforts have led to the establishment of 79 businesses and the commercialization of 76 products, attracting over NT$517 million in investment and demonstrating the competition's success in bringing innovation to the real world.

The list of award winners will be announced on November 9 at https://innoserve.tca.org.tw/.