Toronto Global Young Entrepreneur Star Awardee Bernie Ting, creating opportunities with cross-domain R&D

Bernie Ting, a young man from Toronto who won the Global Young Entrepreneur Star Award, is a passionate engineer, a subversive and dedicated entrepreneur, and also the founder of research and development companies across various fields such as digital creativity, scientific research, construction and industrial engineering. He has founded three companies, namely Graphite Studio, T Engineering, and Zapbox, and is currently the CEO and co-founder of Zapbox, which is under patent protection for its air purifying research and development technologies. Bernie Ting was awarded the Global Young Entrepreneur Star Award by OCAC Minister Tung Chen-Yuan on September 11, 2022, when the Minister was making his visit to the first overseas youth seminar in Toronto.

Bernie Ting graduated from the Department of Materials Engineering Science at the Univer sity of Toronto, and received a master's degree from the Institute of Electrical Engineering at the University of Toronto. He was born in Taichung, Taiwan, and at the age of 13, he went to study in Canada alone. He remembers when in his teenage years studying alone abroad, he would ask his parents who were still in Taichung to call and wake him so he wouldn't be late for school the next day; his loving parents, when looking back on those days, would still feel pained, having sent him abroad alone to face life alone.

Bernie Ting talked about starting up his business, he said that he was always interested in technology and had always wanted to have his own business, but he knew starting a company was no easy work, and that not everyone could succeed in the end, and it was inspiration he gained from the ideals and actions of three people that pushed him forward. The first being Thomas Dambo, an artist that made art with renewable energy or recycled objects he found around the world; he transformed trash into inspirational art creations with unique significance. The second was Ting's good friend, Micheal Helander, who finished his doctorate degree within four years, throughout which period he published 75 research articles, all of which proposing different perspectives, aiming to help other researchers around the world. After completing his studies, Helendar chose to open up his own business in Canada in developing hardware technology products, although he failed repeatedly in his research and development process, he did not give up and made great contributions with his technology R&D products. The third person was Chuck Feeney, head of a global duty-free shop. Though he already enjoyed great wealth, Feeney is humble and generous, he made donations that maximized benefits and always sought out the truth behind facts; he is also the inspiration to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet's philanthropic acts. Ting's very first Graphite Studio was founded back in 2009, it is a creative development company that provides data and creative services to many companies around the world. Bernie Ting's first Graphite Studio was founded in 2009. It is a creative development company that provides data and creative services to many companies around the world. Graphite Studio has provided services in terms of website design, logo design and APP design for many counties/cities in Taiwan, for example, the Taitung City Health Department APP, the Chiayi City park rental APP, and the Taiwan Sugar Corporation Gas Station APP were all designed by Graphite Studio.

Land subsidence caused by early gold mining under the Yellowknife Giant Mine in Northwest Canada resulted in severe arsenic tioxide poisoning that could wipe out the world's population, thus the Canadian government and the Yellowknife local government invested capital and effort in environmental remediation and restoration projects aimed to contain waste pollution and toxic spills so as not to endanger human health. In the restoration process, Bernie Ting's R&D team used discarded furnace stones, mixed cement and gravel from steel manufacturing as fillers for remediation, he stated that the hardest part was to ensure fillers did not disintegrate in the 200 plus meters fall due to different density compositions or be displaced due to high exotherm, in the end, Ting's team took advantage of the filler's liquid features and successfully completed the restoration project. After years of hard work in R&D and testing, T Engineering achievements received professional recognition from all sectors and also the SCA 2019 Project of the Year – Innovation Application. Furthermore, Bernie Ting and his company were the first non-American (Canadian) individual and company, respectively, to win awards in the United States. Bernie Ting's company won the Canadian government's Giant Mine Remediation Project Award for the third time in 2022, gaining recognition and attention from around the world .

Zapbox is established in 2020 in Toronto at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Bernie Ting said that his father and himself have both suffered from allergies since childhood and with the COVID-19 pandemic raging on for the past two years, a group of doctors in British Columbia brought up a proposal hoping for the development of air purifying and energy efficiency-enhancing technologies to fight viruses. Zapbox Engineering and Manufacturing Company soon brought together a team of chemistry, material science, aerospace and system engineering professionals, with their joint efforts, Zapbox hopes to improve people's lives by improving air quality in public venues such as schools, shops, banks and fitness centers, as well as in people's work and home environments; the aim being to reduce colds, coronavirus variants and other air-transmitted diseases.

Bernie Ting pointed out that because Zapbox technology is related to virus and bacteria research and product development, it is therefore in cooperation with many research institutions, including the National Research Council of Canada (National Research Council Canada), McMaster University, the Ministry of Labor and the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and Zhongshan Medical Universities. Zapbox products are currently in the final stage of third-party testing. According to the product test results, the disinfection rate of E. coli, viruses, and molds can reach up to 99.9% after using Zapbox bioaerosol just once. Once the product is launched, it is bound to be of epoch-making significance and value to the improvement in human health, air quality, environmental protection and ecological balance.

Bernie Ting was invited by the OCAC Culture Center twice this year to share his experience. In April, in the "Cross-domain Exchange Seminar", he shared his personal entrepreneurial philosophy, indomitable resilience and persistence, all of which inspired and encouraged Taiwanese youth in Canada; in August, , an engineer talked about the waste and toxic soil remediation and restoration process at the "i-Taiwan Experience Camp" his speech was so rich in practice and content he captured the attention of the young participants, and inspired them into believing that "those who act will succeed."

Bernie Ting thinks that everyone hears stories that inspires their lives, and that stories of well-known great entrepreneurs' lives can inspire and encourage people into reaching heights in the fields of the arts or academia or scientific research. Ting is from Taiwan and proud of Taiwanese background, and hopes to be more closely tied to Taiwan. He said humbly that any personal achievement he has made is all due to cultivation and nourishment provided from his homeland, Taiwan.

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