A cross-university startup team named “Yingce Yuanhang – The Financial Dream Ark”, led by Sun Yu-Chi, a student from the Department of Graphic Arts and Communications at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), recently stood out in the Ministry of Education’s 2024 second round of the “Startup Practice Platform” initiative. The team was selected as an “Outstanding Team” and awarded a NT$100,000 startup grant, showcasing the impressive entrepreneurial innovation among NTNU students.
Guided by NTNU’s Innovation Incubation Center, the Yingce Yuanhang team created a self-developed financial education board game. The game integrates themes of restaurant entrepreneurship with real-world financial scenarios, offering an engaging and educational experience designed to help teenagers develop sound financial literacy and entrepreneurial thinking. The team also plans to expand into online platforms and multilingual versions, while actively pursuing educational collaboration opportunities—demonstrating strong interdisciplinary integration and sustainable development potential.
Professor Lin Cheng-Hung, NTNU’s Deputy Vice President for Research and Development, stated: “The Yingce Yuanhang team’s project is not only innovative and educational, but also highlights the strength of cross-university and interdisciplinary collaboration. This is precisely the kind of outcome we hope to cultivate through our innovation and incubation education. NTNU will continue integrating entrepreneurial resources to help more students realize their innovative dreams.”
The team’s members come from a diverse array of backgrounds, including NTNU, National Taiwan University (NTU), and Fu Jen Catholic University (FJU), working together on product development and promotion. Team leader Sun Yu-Chi, a sophomore in NTNU’s Graphic Communication department with a double major in Computer Science, also heads NTNU’s TEDx talk series and is responsible for administrative coordination and vendor communications in the project.
Administrative and visual design roles are handled by first-year student Chen Yi-Chieh from the Department of Civic Education and Leadership. With experience as a student council representative and coach for Gongling Yi-Qi, she was awarded the “Five Excellence Award” (covering physical and moral education) for the second semester of the 2023 academic year. She manages the team’s visual identity and art design.
Operations planning is overseen by Shi Song-Fan, a senior in FJU’s Department of Occupational Therapy, who brings interdisciplinary expertise and practical experience. Having previously participated in a startup team at FJU’s College of Medicine, he contributed to web development and now focuses on product and service design integration for the project.
Marketing and public relations are led by NTU senior Huang Guan-Hao, a Finance major with strengths in digital media and business negotiations. He manages the team’s social media platforms (such as Instagram) and external collaborations. In addition, Lin Shu-Wei, a sophomore in FJU’s Chinese Literature department, serves as visual promotion and PR specialist. With skills in visual communication and writing, he is in charge of product aesthetics, content editing for entrepreneurship courses, and external coordination, helping the team achieve interdisciplinary synergy.
Sun Yu-Chi shared that the team aims to break the monotony of traditional financial education through gamified learning, making financial knowledge both fun and relatable. “Yingce Yuanhang” is more than just a board game—it’s an educational ark that carries dreams and knowledge, leading the younger generation to bravely navigate the realms of finance and entrepreneurship.
NTNU’s Innovation Incubation Center stated it will continue to discover and support promising student startup teams, cultivating entrepreneurs with global vision and social responsibility, and further strengthening NTNU’s brand in “Educational Innovation and Entrepreneurial Practice.”
(Source: Office of Research and Development / Editor: Hu Shih-Tse)
