Professor Wan-Jung Chang's research team from the Department of Electronics at Southern Taiwan University has been awarded the "Best Journal Paper Award" from the IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics (TCE), a consumer electronics journal under the IEEE Consumer Technology Society (CTSoc). The award ceremony was held on January 7, 2023, at the Tuscany Hotel in Las Vegas. TCE is a well-known international journal (SCI, IF: 2.739) that focuses on the engineering of electronic products, systems, software, or services that can be provided to consumers for their daily use, from theory to design, manufacturing, or final use. The research team was awarded the TCE Best Journal Paper Award (medal and prize money) for their paper "An Artificial Intelligence Edge Computing-based Assistive System for Visually Impaired Pedestrian Safety at Zebra Crossings", making them the second Taiwanese team to win this award after a research team from National Chiao Tung University won it in 1997.

The award-winning journal article "An Artificial Intelligence Edge Computing-based Assistive System for Visually Impaired Pedestrian Safety at Zebra Crossings" was the result of joint research by Professor Wan-Jung Chang of the Department of Electronics at Southern Taiwan University, graduate students Jing-Xiang Yang and Cheng-You Hsieh, and Dr. Liang-Bi Chen, who has since graduated and is currently teaching at National Penghu University of Science and Technology. The research includes the "Smart Glasses" for visually impaired people to wear, the "Smart Identifier" that can be worn around the waist, and the "Cloud Information Platform" that can be used by customer service centers. The system was developed to solve the problem of visually impaired people losing their way due to suspended obstacles or roadblocks during outdoor walks. In addition, the system provides real-time guidance for visually impaired people to cross the zebra crossing by using AI edge computing and image recognition technology. The winning article was evaluated based on the number of international citations, and it received more than 20 citations within a year, demonstrating its academic contribution and importance.

Professor Wan-Jung Chang from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology stated that the IEEE TCE journal has a history of 69 years and is a top journal in the field of consumer electronics of the IEEE. The paper starts from studying the needs of visually impaired individuals and introduces artificial intelligence technology into their daily lives to solve the problems of collisions with suspended obstacles, getting lost, and crossing roads safely. The recognition from the IEEE CTSoc committee is a significant affirmation for Taiwan's academic circle and the research capabilities of Nantai University of Science and Technology. This is the second time a Taiwanese team has won this award since 1997, and it will guide students to continue their research and contribute to the needs of the elderly and vulnerable groups by introducing artificial intelligence technology into smart medical and technological care aids.