On December 6, 2025, the National Finals of the 17th International User Experience Innovation Competition (UXD Award), hosted by UXPA China, concluded successfully at the Dali International Convention Center in Yunnan Province. A cross-university and interdisciplinary joint team composed of students from the Culture, Creativity and Management (CCM) and Media Arts and Design (MAD) programmes of Beijing Normal - Hong Kong Baptist University (BNBU) and outstanding student from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) stood out from more than 500 participating teams nationwide with their project “Memoji”, which focuses on facilitating joyful communication and emotional care for the elderly. After multiple rounds of rigorous competitions including the preliminary, semi-final and divisional final, the team advanced to the national finals as one of the top 29 teams in the country. Ultimately, they won three prestigious awards: the National Second Prize, the Best Performance Award and the Gold Award of the Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Division. This remarkable achievement not only presents a valuable gift for the 20th anniversary of BNBU’s founding, but also highlights the outstanding teaching strengths of the two universities in the fields of cultural and digital innovation and social welfare development.

"Memoji" team wins the Best Performance Award at the national finals

Group photo of all participating teams and judges at the national finals

Since its launch in 2009, the International User Experience Innovation Competition (UXD Award) has grown into a highly influential professional event in the global user experience sector. It is also China’s first and only authoritative design competition dedicated to the comprehensive application of user experience. Adhering to the principles of high standards and stringent selection, this year’s competition adopted three progressive rounds of fierce contests, selecting top-tier teams from various divisions nationwide to advance to the national finals. The intensity of competition sets an industry benchmark, making the winning honors highly valuable and prestigious.

The project was under the dedicated full-cycle guidance of Dr. Iceman LEUNG Assistant Professor of the Culture, Creativity and Management Programme at BNBU. His profound professional expertise and rich experience in competition mentoring charted a clear course for the project’s development. During the competition, Dr. Martin Man Ting CHOY from the Department of Computer Science at HKBU provided robust academic support, safeguarding the project’s technical implementation and innovative optimization. The cross-disciplinary and cross-campus collaborative guidance of the two mentors laid a solid foundation for the team to break through innovation bottlenecks and enhance the project’s competitiveness.

The “Memoji” team brings together outstanding students with distinct expertise from the two universities. All members have made their mark in top-tier authoritative competitions across China, boasting solid professional foundations and rich practical experience. In August 2025, core team members, under the guidance of Dr. Iceman LEUNG, participated in the 10th China College Students Computer Competition - Mobile Application Innovation Contest, where they won the second and third prizes respectively in two different tracks of the South China Division. Building on their prior collaborative rapport and shared vision of integrating artificial intelligence technology with humanistic care, the members assembled efficiently. They gave full play to their individual professional strengths in health and welfare, cultural creativity, media design, and other fields, demonstrating exceptional interdisciplinary collaboration capabilities.

The team members are as follows:

• Thea Cheng | Team Leader - HKBU, Innovation in      Health and Social Well-being

• Jecy Zhang | Project Manager - BNBU, Cultural      Creativity and Management (CCM)

• Cassie Tian | Operations Director - BNBU,      Cultural Creativity and Management (CCM)

• Whitter Ouyang | Designer - BNBU, Media Arts and      Design (MAD)

• Summer Song | Designer - BNBU, Media Arts and      Design (MAD)

Group Photo: Dr. Iceman LEUNG (5th from Left), Mr. Zhong Chengdong (4th from Left), Chairman of UXPA China & Dean of Ipsos User Experience Research Institute, and Mr. Hu Haidong (3rd from Right), Executive Chairman of UXDA Competition

The “Memoji” APP is built on the core vision of empowering intergenerational communication with AI to enable seniors to enjoy joyful interactions. It creates an AIGC social platform specially designed for elderly users, building a safe and warm family-shared digital space for them and filling the gap in the market for elderly-friendly communication tools. The core innovative highlights of the product are prominent:

During the final defense session, the team won high recognition from the judging panel with its clear logic, in-depth user research, and innovative organization and delivery of the presentation content. It ultimately clinched the Best Performance Award-an honor given to only one team in the entire competition—fully demonstrating the professional competence and innovative spirit of the young students.

"Memoji" App display poster

"Memoji" team's defense at the national finals

This cross-university joint award-winning achievement stands as a significant outcome of the deepened cross-campus collaborative education between BNBU and HKBU. It vividly embodies the two universities’ educational philosophy of focusing on social needs and enhancing practical innovation in talent cultivation. On the occasion of BNBU’s 20th anniversary, the team has added luster to the university celebration with their professional prowess and outstanding results.

This not only demonstrates the young students’ sense of mission to serve society, but also highlights the vibrant vitality of the two universities’ cooperative education endeavors. Moving forward, the School of Culture and Creativity at BNBU will take this award as a catalyst to further deepen the integration of competition and teaching. It will encourage more teachers and students to focus on national strategies and industrial development needs, contributing more youthful wisdom and innovative strength to the high-quality development of cultural creativity and digital industries in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Text by: ZHANG Weixi, LUO Zhuo

Pictures: Organizing Committee of the International User Experience Innovation Competition

Edit: WANG Xi