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The awarded list of the 19th International Design Awards (IDA) was released on December 12. A student from the School of Mechanical Engineering & Robotics Engineering of Guangzhou City University of Technology (GCUT) won the Silver Winner of the IDA (Category of Industrial Designs/ Conceptual Products) among works from over 70 countries around the world.

Significant innovation: AI boosts urban “underground lifelines”

The awarded work GEO-NAV Pipeline Intelligence System supervised by Feng Ying, was created by Lin Rongxin. It serves as an innovative solution to maintaining urban underground infrastructure. To address the difficulties in the operation and maintenance of traditional pipelines such as “high people-related risks and limited functions of a single robot”, Lin Ronxin put forward a model featuring “coordination of dual robots with different structures”, whose system consists of Robot RECON (specializing in high-precision survey and diagnosis) and Robot MODEX (specializing in heavy machinery repair).

The design builds a scientific closed-loop operation system that combines “diagnosis-decision-execution” through AI intelligent diagnosis, full spectrum visual modules and modular tools, which greatly improves the efficiency and safety of the operation and maintenance of pipelines. Judges of IDA thought highly of its clarity of perspective, quality of design and contributions to modern design development.

The awarded work

Building up fully and releasing sparingly: from provincial Gold Award to international prize

After wining the Silver Winner of the IDA, Lin’s work has won several prizes in China’s various authoritative competitions, covering provincial, national and international prizes such as Silver Award of Kunpeng Global Design Award 2025 (Category of industrial design), first prize of Guangdong universities Industrial Design Competition 2025, and national third prize of China College Student Digital Media Technology Works and Creativity Competition. The series of prizes witness the development of his work from an initial concept to a mature solution while mirroring the steps that Lin Rongxin kept challenging himself to pursue excellence.

Awarding ceremony of Guangdong universities Industrial Design Competition 2025

Awarding ceremony of Kunpeng Global Design Award 2025

Achieving fulfillment: striving for excellence with designs as his accompany

 “Striving for excellence with dedication” is Lin Rongxin’s motto. To make good preparations for the competition, he chose to stay at the campus during summer vacation this year without hesitation. He started his rich journey of creation alone, working day and night with his monitor and designs at the workshop.

From user research, analysis of difficulties, ideas of sketches, 3D modeling, to countless rendering debugging and creation of animation, Lin endeavored to strive for excellence in every aspect. Though he stayed alone at the workshop during the period, he never felt lonely since he had designs as his partner. Lin was grateful for platforms and quality resources provided by GCUT and GCUT’s School of Mechanical Engineering & Robotics Engineering, which enable him to focus on his work. Moreover, he also appreciated himself who never ceased to strive for excellence day and night during the period.

It is known that IDA was founded in Los Angeles in 2007, which is one of the most authoritative and influential design competitions worldwide. Centering on the sustainability, science and intelligence of designs, it aims to discover and recognize emerging global talents with vision in architecture as well as indoor, product, graphic and fashion designs. Judges of the competition consist of global top designers, art critics and media editors. Awarded works of the competition represent outstanding achievements in international designs.

The fact that Lin won the Silver Winner in one of the top international competitions proves that GCUT’s strength in industrial design education. Furthermore, it mirrors GCUT’s School of Mechanical Engineering & Robotics Engineering have made significant achievements in integration between industry and education and innovation-driven strategy, which helps to encourage its faculty and students to stay consistent with international advanced standards on the field.