On March 23, the 1st Innovation & Entrepreneurship Competition for International Students, jointly hosted by the International Students Office, Academic Affairs Office, Graduate School, and the Communist Youth League Committee of Fudan University, was held at the Asian Youth Exchange Center on Fudan University’s Handan Campus.
Bringing together 11 groups of creative students, industry mentors and judges, the competition showcased outstanding projects addressing cultural inheritance, culinary reviews, cross-border employment, drug development, travel itinerary and cross-border regulation compliance, demonstrating the innovation, social value and global vision of international student entrepreneurs at Fudan.
So, which teams took the top spots? Let’s check out their business plans.
Helping Every Overseas Chinese Find Their Way Back Home
RootLink, the champion project, is an AI-powered ancestral pathway platform dedicated to connecting global overseas Chinese with their cultural roots.
Jinglam Kong, the project leader, shared that the project was inspired by a story close to his family,“My grandma wanted to trace her roots but never got the chance. So I wanted to build a platform to make it possible—using digital methods.”
RootLink integrates AI agents with explainable inference and knowledge graph technologies to address the key challenges of traditional root-seeking: information fragmentation, limited access to resources, and trust deficits. It offers a range of services, including clue sorting, ancestral region inference, trusted mediator matching, and emotional support.
“As ethnic Chinese, we mustn’t forget our roots,” Jinglam stated. “We hope this project helps more young people understand the meaning of roots, fulfill lifelong wishes for older generations, and let every overseas Chinese find their way back home.”
With a target market of over 60 million overseas Chinese worldwide, RootLink combines technological innovation with profound cultural significance, earning high recognition from judges for its social value and humanistic care.
Redefining Food Discovery: Dish First, Restaurants Later
Wonton, the second-place project, is a dish-first discovery and ranking platform that redefines food exploration.
Unlike traditional restaurant-centered apps, Wonton is dish-centered. It allows users to compare the same dish across different restaurants and uses that data to generate credible rankings. This helps food lovers quickly find the best version of any dish while providing a fair promotion channel for small catering businesses.
Project leader Melinda Xu Shu presented their plan: “We would start with Fudan as our first business market, targeting people who are looking for a specific dish.”
When asked about focusing on dishes rather than restaurants, they explained that existing apps only recommend highly rated restaurants instead of the best dish and that they want to provide a trustworthy way for food lovers to make decisions.
With innovative product design and clear market positioning, Wonton offers a fresh solution to daily consumption scenarios and demonstrates keen user insight.
Connecting International Students with Opportunities in China
GoodJob, the third-place project, is an AI-powered cross-cultural employment platform built for international students in China.
The project targets two prominent pain points: severe information asymmetry between international students and employers, and complicated visa procedures that hinder employment. “International students lack access to company recruitment information, and enterprises struggle to reach international student talent,” the team leader Sungjun Kang noted. “Visa issues also create obstacles.”
Powered by AI, GoodJob bridges the information gap between international students and employers. It has built a partnership network covering eight major universities in Shanghai, uses AI to match resumes with job opportunities, and provides detailed step-by-step visa guidance. The platform has already partnered with more than 130 enterprises and serves over 2,200 international students.
By tackling real employment challenges, GoodJob solves practical problems while fulfilling a social mission—helping international students better integrate into China’s job market.
Pioneering a Breakthrough Drug That Stops Seizures at the Source
Beyond the top three award-winning projects, one stands out for its extraordinary potential.
The project focuses on developing a novel antiepileptic therapy targeting the KCC2 protein—a target fundamentally distinct from existing ion channel, excitatory amino acid pathway, and GABA receptor-based approaches. With a unique dual mechanism found nowhere else in the world, the drug can not only suppress acute seizures but also halt the progression of epilepsy.
According to project leader Benjamin Hongye Wang, a master’s student from Fudan University Zhongshan Hospital, the drug works through a brand-new mechanism that effectively controls epileptic seizures and prevents disease progression.
Early-stage validation has been completed with solid research backing, showing great potential to help patients with refractory epilepsy. With its strong innovation and market value, the project is well-positioned to bring an effective new drug to patients in the future.
More than a competition, this was a stage where ideas took flight. From creativity to execution, these international students showed what it means to innovate with purpose—balancing ambition with responsibility, and local insight with global vision.
As the judges remarked, the journey doesn’t end here. The hope is to see these projects grow, find real-world applications, and ultimately create value that lasts—for users, for communities, and for society.
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Writer: WANG Yiyao
Editor: LI Yijie, WANG Mengqi
