A competition calling on university students to participate in the nation's poverty alleviation efforts kicked off this week in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, and in Beijing.

As part of the 6th China International College Students Internet Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, directed by the Ministry of Education, the event offers a series of awards for sterling projects related to helping poverty-stricken counties, rural revitalization, environment protection and building a well-off society.

The activity is expected to gather national young entrepreneurs and deliver practical achievements. Last year, it attracted more than 1 million students and 220,000 teachers, who were committed to about 238,000 budding projects. As a result, 360 million yuan ($50.95 million) was contributed to projects that yielded about 6.4 billion yuan in economic benefits to 748,000 rural families.

Chen Ke, a doctoral candidate at the South China University of Technology, was one of the silver medal winners. His project was to design a new model of integrated development for towns and counties.

His planning and designing has been carried out in more than 70 villages in Guangdong, and some have been recommended as national-level pilot models. Chen also established his own firm focusing on village design and revitalization.

"Thanks to the competition, our team found the development direction and we are full of confidence in the sector's future," Chen said.