The 12th Challenge Cup, also known as the “Entrepreneurship Plan Competition for University Students in China”, ended on December 9 at Northeast Forestry University. As a bi-annual national inter-university competition on the innovation and entrepreneurship education, it was co-organized by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, the China Association for Science and Technology, the All-China Students Federation, and the government of Heilongjiang Province.

Yangzhou University (YZU) ranked 5th across the country for the number of gold awards. YZU students won six awards, including two gold awards, one silver award and three bronze awards. The University also set the record by winning the "Cup of Excellence" in the competition for the first time. Highly acclaimed by the panel of judges, six projects by the University made it to the final round and were awarded the followings:

Gold award: (1) The founder of integrated ecological and efficient seedling trays (Agricultural College); (2) The soil hospital (College of Environmental Science & Engineering)

Silver award: The pioneer of scientific and technological innovation of pavement materials (College of Civil Science & Engineering)

Bronze award: (1) A chemiluminescence-based array chip detector for multiple tumor markers (College of Chemistry & Chemical Engineering); (2) A subway tunnel detection system: the world's fastest subway tunnel automatic detection system; (3) Juicy Dumpling and its brand innovation: A cultural service mode (Business School)

Launched in June, the competition has already attracted more than 179,000 projects from 6 million entries online in over 2,786 colleges and universities nationwide.