The 2024 Sustainable Social Value Innovation Summit took place in Beijing on December 3rd. Jointly organized by the United Nations Resident Coordinator Office (UNRCO), China Enterprise Reform and Development Society, Tsinghua University Institute for Sustainable Social Value, and Tencent Sustainable Social Value Organization, Tuesday’s Summit aims to construct an open global platform, connect enterprises with social value creation partners from a wide spectrum of fields and industries, and build towards a social value ecosystem.

         Professor Yan Chen is a Xplorer Prize winner under the New Cornerstone Science Foundation initiated by Tencent, and was invited to exhibit origami technologies including origami tents and the Miura-ori pattern. This exhibit was one of four representative works of research selected from New Cornerstone Foundation’s projects, and demonstrated for the public and representatives from industry, government and the United Nations how origami and mechanism theory provides value for engineering and society.

         The exhibited origami tents are based on origami tube designs, enabling unique characteristics including rapid folding and unfolding, highly compact stowage, as well as efficient low-cost production and transportation. Using modular and parametric design of origami, this series of tents include three different sizes for adults, children and pets. With its conveniences, such origami tents are aimed towards outdoor gear and disaster relief, such as realizing rapid production, transport and deployment during first-response after earthquakes to provide stricken areas with reliable temporary shelter.

         The exhibit also introduced how origami as a mechanism theory foundation has applications in multiple fields, such as how rigid-panel origami gives tents compatibility with arbitrary fabrication materials, how the Miura-ori fold is applied to satellite solar panels and antennas, and how origami-based mechanisms can be found in millimetre-scale robots up to architecture designs tens of metres in scale.

       In addition, the research group provided this year’s Sustainable Social Value Innovation Summit poster design, where the Miura-ori pattern along with instructions and educational content are printed behind all posters, giving each summit attendee an opportunity to try origami themselves.

         Curiosity and astonishment for origami technology was ubiquitous among audiences, who were shown how paper airplanes and origami cranes of childhood can lead to an entire field of research with a multitude of research outcomes leading to engineering applications and social value. We express our deepest gratitude to Tencent Sustainable Social Value Organization and New Cornerstone Science Foundation for their support and invitation.