A temperature adjustable coffee cup designed by Taiwan student Lin Yu-chien is a gold medal winner at the recently staged annual British Invention Show in London.
The device, equipped with a digital regulator enabling coffee lovers to set their preferred temperature from minus 5 C to 100 C without sacrificing flavor, earned Lin the U18 Young Innovator of the Year at the Oct. 23-26 competition.
According to the mechanical engineering student at Shin Min High School in central Taiwan’s Taichung City, he came up with the idea while purchasing his mother iced coffee at a local convenience store day after day.
Melting ice cubes dilute the flavor and result in a generally unsatisfactory beverage, Lin said. Filial piety was definitely the inspiration behind this enlightened creation, he added.
Chen Tzer-shyong, distinguished professor and chairperson of the Department of Information Management at Tunghai University in Taichung, oversaw Lin’s work from Day 1. Mentoring this top talent during the six-month development process was a genuine pleasure, and his success will encourage more homegrown inventors of tomorrow to step up to the plate, he said.
Launched in 2001, the prestigious show is the U.K.’s largest and longest-running exhibition of invention, innovation and technology. This year’s edition attracted around 100 submissions from 15 countries and territories. (YCH-E)
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