Taipei Tech Industrial Design students, Wu Yun-chi(middle) and Lin Chi-hung(right), won the 2013 Red Dot Design Award Best of the Best. They are the youngest winners for the Best of the Best prize. (On the left is their design coach, Ms. Zhu)

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Two products designed by students from the National Taipei University of Technology (Taipei Tech, 台北科技大學) won gongs at the 2013 Red Dot Design Awards, an international design prize in Germany.

“Unbent,” a product designed by two Taipei Tech sophomore students, Wu Yun-chi (吳筠綺) and Lin Chi-hung (林季弘), won a Red Dot “Best of the Best” prize. Wu and Lin are the youngest Taiwanese contestants to attend the competition in the last few years.

Wu said “unbent” is an inflatable basket with wheels designed for people to store their groceries while shopping. She said in Taiwan wheeled-baskets are a common tool for people to put groceries in.

Wu said she and Lin noticed that the bottom of the basket is too deep for people to reach, and people often injure their neck and waist while bending over.

In light of this, Wu said they put a balloon underneath the basket and installed a pedal near the wheels of the device for people to step on and inflate air into the balloon. The expanding balloon pushes items at the bottom of the basket to the top.

Tang Wei-hsiang (唐偉翔), Tsai Bo-an (蔡博安), and Han Chi-shu (韓智淑), all postgraduate students of the Taipei Tech, won a 2013 Red Dot award for their “Easy button” product.

The team designed a button with two different ends: one end can been easily held by a person while the other end is narrow and pointed, therefore making it easier to pass through the button slit.

The trio said the product was inspired by their observation of the difficulties that the elderly and children faced when buttoning their clothes.

Source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/arts-and-leisure/2013/08/29/387599/Taiwan-college.htm