Taiwanese innovations win 9 R&D 100 awards

San Francisco, Nov. 19 (CNA) A total of nine Taiwanese technological innovations have won awards in the 2025 R&D 100, which will hold its awards ceremony Thursday afternoon in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to the awards official page.

Four of the awards were won by the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and its derivative company APh ePower, the institute announced at a press event held at its North American Branch, located in San Jose, California, on Wednesday.

The first is the elevator regenerative power system developed by APh in the mechanical/materials category, which recycles renewable energy from a moving elevator, with a convertible rate of 90 percent using its DC-to-DC converter, representatives of APh said.

Another award was won in the analytical/test category by abio-inspired ligament scaffold co-developed with Shinkong Synthetic Fibers Corp., Ossaware Biotech Co., Ltd., and Taiwan Textile Research Institute, which helps ligament and tissue integration and shortens recovery time by 30 percent, the ITRI said.

Others include AI-WaJe, an AI-optimized water jet system for producing high-activity rubber powder from waste tires in the process/prototyping category, co-developed by Taiwan Polymer Material Company, as well as the waterproof and breathable film derived from PET/PU composite and blend waste textiles, also in the mechanical/materials category, co-developed with SINGTEX Group, said the ITRI.

The R&D 100 Awards, referred to by some as "the Oscars of Innovation" and the "Nobel Prize of Engineering," have served as the most prestigious innovation awards program for the past 60 years, according to its website.

Each year, the award recognizes 100 technologies selected by independent judges from academia, industry, and government, said R&D 100.

The ITRI is listed as one of the award's sponsors, along with LabVantage.