The Bureau of Standards, Metrology & Inspection (BSMI) cares about the aging population structure within our country, as well as issues for the disabled and elderly caused by body function obstacles and degeneration, and hence organized the "2015 Health-care and Universal Design Award" and the "2nd Evaluation of Friendly Outstanding Marketed Assistive Products for Disabled and Elderly People" this year. Moreover, in response to the issues including global warming as well as the promotion of relevant green energy sources, it also organized the "2015 Emerging Energy Product Design Competition" and held the joint award ceremony on October 14th. This event was held in the presentation room of the administrative building in the bureau, with Director Ming-Jong Liou as the host for the ceremony, and legislator Yu-Hsin Yang was invited as the honorable guest presenting the awards. BSMI indicated that the arrival of the aging society has become a significant issue globally during recent years, and the demands for products as well as industries related to healthcare for the elderly will definitely develop prosperously, the healthcare industry has already become the star industry featuring great potential for the 21st century. Moreover, the government has revised the "Protection Act for Rights and Interests of (Physically and Mentally) Disabled Citizens" in 2011, integrating the resources, research and development of assistive products for the disabled and the elderly people, thereby completing the protection measures for rights and interests of disabled people. Due to the vast scope of assistive products for disabled and elderly people, the bureau integrated the energies from institutes including Metal Industries Research & Development Center, Cycling & Health R&D Center, Taiwan Electronics Testing Center, Corporate Synergy Development Center, as well as Research Center on International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and Assistive Technology (RICFAT) at National Yang-Ming University, so as to establish the relevant industry standards, testing and certification system within our country. In order to encourage companies to devote in the R&D of assistive products, and to stimulate the development of the assistive product industry within the nation, the bureau has organized two events, the "Health-care and Universal Design Award" and the "Evaluation of Friendly Outstanding Marketed Assistive Products for Disabled and Elderly People" this year. It hopes to promote universal design principles and product safety regulations of assistive products, within the nation, encouraging enterprises to value the various demands of elderly and disabled people, thereby enhancing the friendliness of the product design. BSMI explained that, in response to the global warming issue, all countries worldwide are actively promoting green energy industries and subsidy policy for using green energies in order to construct green energy with low-carbon environment. Moreover, in order to promote the development of green industries within the nation, to further advocate the actions and principles of green energy, energy-saving and carbon-reduction, the bureau is also actively establishing national standards for products related to energy-saving and renewable energies, as well as promoting the testing and certification tasks. BSMI also further instructed the Chinese Testing and Certification Association to organize the "2015 Emerging Energy Product Design Competition", where the competition theme for this year's emerging energy product design is focused on the green energy and energy-saving technique applications of the four major energies including "LED lighting system, photovoltaics (PV) system, wind turbine system and hydrogen fuel cell system". BSMI indicated that, among the Emerging Energy Product Design Competition this year, the LED lighting work on "No.14 Messenger", the work on "Multi-Functional Wind Energy System" that uses wind turbine system to carry out water-drawing, filtering and pumping to provide oxygen, as well as the "360-UFO Lighting Equipment" that utilizes LED lighting have received the recognitions of Gold, Silver and Bronze awards respectively. Universal assistive product design emphasizes the common creative designs based on "Different User Groups, Environment and Scenarios" living products. In addition, the "Safe Cup", "Barrier-Free Staircase" and "Modularized Mobility Assistive Product" have received Gold, Silver and Bronze awards respectively among this competition, with other 5 designs attaining the award of excellence. Friendly products focus on the marketed products, with the emphasis placed on the users' actual use experience, encouraging enterprises to value the actual use conditions for the elderly and disabled people, thereby enhancing the friendliness of the product design. A total of 20 products were nominated for this year's event on "Evaluation of Friendly Outstanding Marketed Assistive Products for Disabled and Elderly People." BSMI stressed that, through this product design competition and result sharing, participants are encouraged to combine their creativities to devote in solving the issues encountered by the elderly and the disabled people. They are further encouraged to apply innovative technologies in order to stimulate the development of friendly environment, to inspire all fields in valuing the innovative R&D of the products, thereby to keep injecting more vitality into the development of our industries. Agency in charge: Inspection Techniques Division (the 6th Division) Contact person: Jason Hsieh Telephone: 02-23431888 
Award for the winners of Friendly Marketed Assistive Products Evaluation 
Reward of Health-care and Universal Design Competition