On May 26, the 40th Odyssey of the Mind (OM) World Finals 2019 closed at Michigan State University. The four-day competition gathered more than 6,000 creative young people from more than 900 teams worldwide. The team from Donghua University (DHU) won the world finals of the University Group in Long-Term Problems and Spontaneous Problems (Acting), achieving the best results since DHU participated in the event.

(DHU team)

The OM is an international event that takes innovation ability and teamwork as the major evaluation criteria, requiring participants to use their actions, language and performances to demonstrate the creativity and problem-solving skills of their team. The OM is divided into two portions: Long-Term Problems and Spontaneous Problems. For a long-term problem, the team must complete the production of equipment and props within the specified time and budget, and then present them at the competition. While for a spontaneous problem, team members must generate creative solutions to the problem randomly raised by the referee team within the specified time. The former portion stresses creativity and artistry while the later portion examines the teamwork, quick response and problem-solving ability of the competitors.

Led by Pang bingliang, teacher from the College of Foreign Language, the six members of DHU team are Gao Wenjie, Gan Shuwen, Liu Jiayi, Zhang Meihui, Zhu Bei from the College of Foreign Language and Xu Weiyi from the Glorious Sun School of Business and Management. The team won the first place of the University Acting Group in the OM China in March this year, and thus was invited to attend the world finals in U.S. in May.

The event was reported by many domestic media, including Shanghai News, Xinmin Evening News and Shanghai Daily.