The 2026 Soong Ching Ling Children's Future Science Day officially opened in Beijing on Saturday, with the award ceremony of the 21st Soong Ching Ling Award for Children's Invention held concurrently.
Shen Beili, vice-president of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, addressed the opening ceremony, encouraging young people to nurture their curiosity, imagination, and thirst for knowledge. She urged them to embrace trial and error, ask bold questions, and engage in hands-on innovation, while aligning their creativity with the needs of the nation and society.
A series of activities will take place throughout the event, including an exhibition showcasing AI model training and application outcomes, humanoid robot demonstrations, robotics competitions, interactive drone-piloting sessions for teenagers and science lectures by academicians. More than 100 science and technology museums and over 50 primary and secondary schools nationwide will also host science outreach activities.
At the award ceremony, Lin Zihan, a doctoral candidate at Shanghai Jiao Tong University specializing in AI-empowered high-end equipment design, recalled taking part in the invention competition 11 years ago.
"As a child, I was always eager to tinker and explore. My favorite pastime was visiting electronics markets to buy components and assemble them. Turning ideas into real objects felt incredibly cool," he recalled.
His light-controlled energy-saving socket won the silver award at the 11th Soong Ching Ling Award for Children's Invention, while his gaming mouse invention won gold the following year.
"Those two competition experiences were invaluable. They taught me that only by getting hands-on, trying, and even failing along the way can we truly grow and learn," he said.
This year's Soong Ching Ling Award for Children's Invention drew over 60,000 young participants from across the country, who submitted more than 54,000 entries — the highest number in the award's history. Following rigorous evaluation, 653 entries were selected as award winners.
