The 11th National Youth Science Popularization and Innovation Experiments & Works Contest kicked off on Saturday.

The competition is open to students from universities, colleges and high schools, and includes 32 competition zones in the Chinese mainland, as well as selection rounds in Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

Beginning in 2013, a total of 520,000 participants nationwide have participated in the contest. Professor Yang Yi, a consultant for the competition, said this year's competition features two themes for creative projects in the university and high school categories, focusing on "Human-Machine Collaboration" and "Technology Changing Lives".

"The competition emphasizes on evaluating students' abilities to discover and solve real-world problems, guiding students to pay attention to national development, people's livelihoods and cutting-edge technology," he said.

Additionally, the science popularization experiment project for the high school category is centered around the theme of "Future Space Vehicles", aiming to closely integrate competition with science popularization activities and encourage students to utilize technology and innovative thinking in their creative experimental designs.

The national finals will be held from July to August next year, according to the organizer, the China Association for Science and Technology.