Written by: Sophie Lee
Award-winning product designer brings a cross-cultural UX perspective to judging Eureka Institute’s Eurekathon and apexart’s international open call.
Product designer Xiesiyuan "Sybil" Shu has recently completed her term as a juror in two prominent global competitions: the Eureka Institute’s 2025 Eurekathon innovation challenge and apexart’s 2025–26 international open call for exhibition proposals. Both events have now concluded, with winners selected and announced. Shu’s dual role — evaluating cutting-edge ideas from teen tech innovators on one hand and curating art exhibition proposals on the other — underscores her growing influence at the intersection of design, technology, and culture.
Eurekathon 2025, which ran from late September to October 25, 2025, was a five-week global innovation challenge blending the spirit of a science fair with the creativity of a hackathon. This online competition invited participants to research or code their way to innovative solutions across multiple STEM tracks. The program featured weekly workshops, mentorship sessions, and a final virtual symposium where projects were presented. In total, 243 participants took part, forming teams to tackle categories ranging from AI and medical science to community problems and environmental issues. The hackathon culminated in a showcase of projects, from AI-powered climate analysis tools to health-tech innovation, vying for recognition in innovation, impact, and technical excellence.
As a judge on Eurekathon’s international panel, Shu was among roughly 30 industry professionals and academics who evaluated the student projects. Representing the UX design field, Shu brought a user-centered lens to a panel otherwise filled with software engineers, product managers, and tech leads from companies like Cisco, Meta, and Google. Judges scored entries on well-defined criteria: Innovation & Creativity, Impact & Relevance, Execution & Technical Quality, and Presentation & Communication, each weighted at 25%. Shu’s expertise in design thinking meant she looked for projects that were not only technically sound but also original and human-centered. Observers noted that her cultural perspective and UX sensibilities likely influenced which ideas stood out – for example, emphasizing clear problem-solving relevance and an intuitive user experience in line with the competition’s judging rubric. By the end of Week 5, Shu and her fellow jurors had identified the standout projects, helping to crown winners such as ChronoWeather (an AI climate predictor) and FocusOS (a productivity app) among others. In reflecting on the hackathon, Shu remarked on the "impressive creativity and polish" the teen teams achieved under tight timeframes, highlighting how design mentorship can empower the next generation of innovators.
In parallel with the tech-focused Eurekathon, Shu also served as a juror for apexart’s 2025–26 International Open Call, a renowned global competition that turns the curation of art exhibitions into a crowdsourced initiative. Apexart, a nonprofit arts organization in New York, invites curators, artists, and thinkers worldwide to submit 500-word proposals for unconventional exhibition ideas. Rather than relying on a small expert panel, apexart engages hundreds of jurors around the world to review submissions anonymously, ensuring a diversity of perspectives in selecting winning proposals. In the 2025–26 cycle, over 600 jurors collectively rated hundreds of proposals, with each juror (including Shu) assigned a random set of 50 entries to evaluate over a one-month voting period. This process yielded five winning exhibition proposals out of 369 submissions, chosen through over 20,000 votes cast – a true meritocracy of ideas on a global scale.
Shu’s role in this jury exemplified her ability to bridge design and culture. While her background is in product and user experience design, these skills translated seamlessly into assessing exhibition concepts: she approached each proposal with an eye for clarity, originality, and potential audience engagement. Jurors are instructed to judge ideas based on their intrigue and the proposal’s clarity – essentially, would you like to see this idea realized as an exhibition?. Shu’s cross-cultural experience proved valuable here. Shu is originally from China and now based in California, she was attuned to the nuances of reading proposals from non-native English speakers and diverse cultural viewpoints. Apexart emphasizes allowing for translation quirks and understanding context beyond one’s own culture, guidelines that align well with Shu’s own ethos as a designer who often merges Eastern and Western perspectives. By applying her human-centered design mindset, Shu likely championed proposals that were not only conceptually strong but would also deliver meaningful experiences to visitors – much as she would evaluate a user’s experience in a product. In doing so, she helped apexart identify exhibitions that promise both creative vision and resonant storytelling. The five selected winning exhibitions for the 2025–26 season will unfold in cities from New York to Lagos, and Shu can take pride in having had a hand in shaping that culturally rich lineup.
Shu’s participation on these two juries is a natural extension of her broad design pedigree. She is an award-winning designer with a portfolio that spans physical and digital realms, known for integrating technology with cultural insight. Over the past few years, Shu has earned multiple prestigious accolades – including a Red Dot Design Award, a MUSE Design Award (Gold), and recognition in the UX Design Awards – for her innovative projects. One of her most notable works is PulseHeal, a comprehensive health platform that merges Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practices with modern mobile UX. PulseHeal allows users to assess their well-being via AI-enhanced pulse diagnosis, consult with TCM doctors, and purchase herbal remedies through an app interface. The project effectively "promotes Chinese cultural practices while providing users with a gentle way to improve their well-being," according to a UX Design Awards case description. By fusing ancient wellness wisdom with contemporary design, PulseHeal exemplifies the cross-cultural innovation that defines Shu’s approach. It’s no surprise that PulseHeal garnered international honors – from winning Gold in the 2024 MUSE Design Awards to earning a coveted Red Dot – given its blend of user-centric functionality and cultural relevance. Shu herself, as part of the design team, was credited in these awards for her role in creating an experience that is both cutting-edge and deeply rooted in heritage.
Completing these two high-profile jury engagements in 2025 has cemented Xiesiyuan Shu’s reputation as a rising international voice in design and innovation. Not only is she creating award-winning products and experiences, but she’s also now influencing which ideas gain recognition on the world stage. In both a tech innovation challenge and an arts curatorial open call, organizers sought out Shu’s expertise to help shape the outcomes. By all accounts, Shu approached her judging duties with the same passion and thoughtfulness that characterize her design work. The result is a pair of competitions whose winners reflect the values she champions: creativity, inclusivity, user-centric thinking, and cultural richness. As her career progresses, Shu’s international impact only continues to grow. She is part of a new generation of design leaders who fluidly cross boundaries between industries and cultures. From mentoring young innovators to curating global art dialogues, Xiesiyuan Shu is leveraging her skills to drive innovation not just in products, but in how we define and reward creative excellence. Her journey from award-winning designer to sought-after juror suggests that we’ll be seeing much more of her influence in years to come – guiding the future of design and cultural innovation with a keen eye and an open mind.
