From Local Needs to Global Connections: Tangyi Studio and Wenzao USR at UPM SEEDS Showcase 2026

On this visit, I represented Tangyi Studio as an expert adviser supporting 「SDGs 看見需要・千手扶學」, a Ministry of Education University Social Responsibility (USR) project at Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages in Taiwan. I joined the team led by Li-Chen Tai at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) for the 12th International SEEDS Showcase 2026. The project's Chinese name reflects its commitment to recognising needs and bringing many helping hands to learning.

I had attended many project meetings with the team, taking part in discussions, revisions and practical development. Seeing that accumulated work presented overseas for the first time felt different. International impact became something tangible: people who had never heard of the project stopped to try the exhibits, asked questions, exchanged ideas and even began discussing possibilities for future collaboration.

Wenzao USR: bringing games and digital content into local communities

The project team exhibiting on this trip consisted of Wenzao graduates with backgrounds in games and digital content applications. They bring game design, interactive technology, visual communication and storytelling into partner elementary schools, communities and conservation settings, turning the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into experiences people can participate in.

Their work ranges from educational support in partner schools to local settings such as Longjing in Shoushan National Nature Park and the Matoushan community, alongside issues including coexistence with macaques and pangolin conservation. The team begins by asking: What does this place actually need, and how can our skills help? The choice of technology follows that understanding.

The smiles I knew from Taiwan's schoolchildren appeared on Malaysian university students too

What stayed with me most was people's response. In Taiwan, I had watched children become excited, curious and absorbed in interactive content. In Malaysia, I saw similar expressions on current UPM students, graduating students and visitors of different ages and backgrounds.

Alongside UPM students and staff, local residents and visitors from various fields came into the exhibition area. Nearly ten members of our team worked together on demonstrations and explanations. Watching these young people use their expertise to introduce an initiative rooted in Taiwan's local needs to an overseas audience made me proud to have been part of the conversations along the way.

From exchange to possibilities: meeting UPM faculty and Dr. Velu

During the visit, Dr. Mohd Faiz Yahaya from UPM's Department of Industrial Design and Dr. Velu Perumal, the SEEDS 2026 coordinator, showed interest in the team and its work. Conversations moved from individual exhibits to possibilities for future collaboration. I look forward to seeing how Wenzao, UPM and partners in Malaysia's art and design community can develop these connections.

Dr. Velu and I also exchanged experiences in art, design and professional practice. He shared Malaysian stamp designs featuring Tamil calligraphy and gave me an original Mixed Media Twig Art work he had created. That gift gave our cultural exchange a memory I could bring home: a conversation had become a work of art I could hold in my hands.

UPM SEEDS 2026: from product form to future ways of living

What impressed me was how many works brought user research, sustainability, smart controls and everyday contexts together, then expressed those ideas through physical prototypes. Beyond attractive forms, I could see how students defined a problem, refined their thinking and made something concrete enough to discuss.

MUSA AMOR: starting with the everyday question of storing bananas

One work that stayed with me was MUSA AMOR — Banana Storage. The student development process ran from background research, problem definition, target users and concept development through to a physical prototype, translating a familiar Southeast Asian need into a product proposal. It reminded me that innovation can start with what is right in front of us. Taking a small, overlooked problem seriously can reveal a worthwhile design challenge.

Tangyi Studio's generative AI storybook app joined the exhibition

Returning to a shared starting point: recognising needs

After walking through SEEDS Showcase, I found a close connection with Wenzao's project. UPM's industrial design students identify problems in food, housing, the environment and everyday behaviour, then propose product solutions. Wenzao's team understands needs in education, communities and ecology, responding through games, digital content and interactive technology. In developing our AI storybook app, I am also asking what kind of tool parents and children would actually want to use together.

This visit to Malaysia showed me how a Ministry of Education USR project can grow from local work in Taiwan into international exchange. It also showed how student design, professional practice, art, culture and digital technology can meet naturally in one exhibition space.

As a representative of Tangyi Studio and an expert adviser supporting the project, I hope the team led by Li-Chen Tai can continue exchanging ideas with UPM and Malaysian art and design partners, turning this encounter into a starting point for future collaboration.

I returned with photographs, a certificate of appreciation and a treasured artwork—and a clearer sense of direction: design truly begins when we recognise a need.