Recently, the list of winners of the 2025 DNA Paris Design Awards was announced. Song Tao, a 2024 - level PhD student in Design at the Faculty of Innovation and Design, City University of Macau, won the Paris Design Award in the Product Design category with his work "Lighthouse - An Intelligent Interactive Scenic Area Service Robot".

Originating from Paris, the art capital of France, the DNA Paris Design Award is an internationally renowned and highly influential design competition. While recognizing innovative design achievements in various fields and discovering outstanding designers worldwide, it builds a platform to showcase design trends and progress.

The award - winning work closely links with the characteristics of Macau's marine culture. Its inspiration comes from the saying "There is a city on the sea (Macau), a mountain on the city (Guia Hill), a tower on the mountain (Guia Lighthouse), and a light on the tower. One knows the direction of home by looking at the lighthouse", conveying the warmth of poetic dwelling. The appearance incorporates designs such as an intelligent curved screen, wave - shaped ear contours, and a luminous lighthouse. With AIGC as the core, it realizes functions such as reciting Portuguese - style past events in dialect and generating AR tour routes. It connects cultural narratives and urban memories through digital art, and a physical prototype of the product has been made so far.

Award Acceptance Speech

Song Tao:

"I am honored to win this international competition. I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Po-hsun Wang, Jing Liu, and Heming Du for their professional guidance from design logic to the integration of humanity. At the same time, I am also grateful to the university for providing an international practice platform and the support from the National Art Fund project, which enables design concepts to meet global competition standards. Design requires being sensitive in life, and more importantly, honing innovation and collaboration abilities through practice. In the future, I will stay true to my original aspiration, continue to delve into the field of design, and strive for more outstanding achievements."

This award demonstrates the solid accumulation and innovative vitality of City University of Macau in teaching and research in the field of design. The Faculty of Innovation and Design will continue to cultivate talents with both professional depth and innovative thinking, injecting strong impetus into promoting the high - quality development of the design discipline and empowering the innovative upgrading of the industry.