A Chinese and a Pakistani student just teamed up—and won gold on the world stage. 🏆
At the 2025 World Vocational College Skills Competition finals, Pan Zhixuan from Jiangmen Polytechnic in China and Ali Syed Huzaifa Azhar from the Punjab Group of Colleges in Pakistan took Gold in the International Agricultural Track with their project: an AI-powered smart machine for processing ganpu tea citrus.
The idea came from a real problem. During a field visit in 2023, Pan noticed that factories were still manually cutting and hollowing citrus fruits one by one to make ganpu tea—slow, labor-intensive, and hard to keep hygienic. So he built a prototype machine.
Then came the international twist.
In 2025, Pan partnered with Azhar in Pakistan. Working across borders—often in late-night online meetings—the two upgraded the system with servo motor control, machine vision, and a custom algorithm that removes pulp layer by layer.
The result?
Their smart equipment can now process more than 35 citrus fruits per minute, dramatically improving efficiency and precision.
And they weren’t competing in a small event. The competition brought together 33,000+ contestants from 76 countries across 42 tracks, all tackling real-world industrial challenges.
For both students, the project was more than a competition entry—it was proof that innovation doesn’t stop at borders.
💬 Do you think cross-border student collaborations like this could drive the next wave of innovation?
