Smart Design Meets Industrial Innovation at Jinji Lake
The Jinji Lake Luminous Trail in Suzhou Industrial Park has emerged as a standout example of how technology and art can transform urban spaces. With a 15 km smart running trail and a 3.5 km light-chasing interactive route, the project blends breathtaking illumination with interactive experiences, earning top honors at two of the world’s most prestigious design awards in 2025. The accomplishment underscores Suzhou’s commitment to smart city innovation and shows how robust microcontroller technology can amplify public art and citizen engagement.
The Awards That Spotlighted a City-Wide Transformation
In June, the Jinji Lake Luminous Trail received the Gold Award in the Innovative Lighting Design category at the 2025 MUSE Design Awards. Often described as the “Oscars of the design world,” the MUSE Design Awards recognize outstanding creativity across global design disciplines. The Jinji Lake project was one of only two recipients of the highest honor in its category, signaling a rare convergence of technical excellence and artistic merit.
Further elevating the project’s prestige, the trail earned the Award of Excellence in the Control Innovation category at the IES Illumination Awards in August. The Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES) has a long history of shaping lighting standards, and its Illumination Awards are among the most respected accolades in the field. Together with Lighting magazine’s Lighting Design Awards and the IALD International Lighting Design Awards, the IES honors stand as a benchmark for global design quality in lighting and control systems.
NUC1311: The Brain Behind the Interactive Lighting System
At the core of the Jinji Lake Luminous Trail’s smart system lies the Nuvoton NUC1311 microcontroller. The NUC1311 powers real-time lighting control and sensor networks, delivering reliable performance in outdoor conditions. Its 5V operating voltage enhances stability and noise immunity, ensuring uninterrupted operation amid humidity, temperature variations, and electromagnetic interference common near large bodies of water.
Key features of the NUC1311 that benefit the trail include:
- Industrial-grade communication security with Bosch-licensed CAN Bus IP for high-speed, reliable data transmission.
- Robust performance suited for interactive lighting and smart sensing devices integrated along the trail.
- Compatibility with smart poles, Bluetooth sensors, DMX512 networks, and Bluetooth dual-mode control for diverse lighting effects.
Together, these capabilities enable a synchronized, immersive user experience—whether runners are following AI-assisted cultural tours on the 15 km path or fans are engaging with the light-driven storytelling on the 3.5 km interactive route.
From Renewal to Recognition: Urban Impact and Industry Validation
The Jinji Lake Luminous Trail represents a landmark urban renewal project for Suzhou Industrial Park in 2024. By upgrading the Jinshuiwan Trestle Bridge and the lakeside walkways, the project transformed a traditional infrastructure corridor into a living art-and-technology corridor. The integration of smart running poles, Bluetooth sensing, and a user-friendly mobile app for selecting lighting effects exemplifies how cities can fuse culture, health, and technology into everyday spaces.
Industry observers note that the international recognition goes beyond aesthetics. The awards affirm the trail’s design and control innovations as credible models for smart city deployments worldwide. Nuvoton’s MCU ecosystem—featuring stable hardware, software integration, and responsive service—was highlighted by partners as a decisive factor in selecting NUC1311 for large-scale projects. A representative from Suzhou Tianping remarked that the collaboration demonstrated the value of reliable MCU solutions in complex outdoor installations, and expressed intent to deepen ties with Nuvoton in future ventures.
A Vision for the Future of Smart Cities
As cities worldwide explore more responsive, data-driven public spaces, the Jinji Lake Luminous Trail offers a blueprint for combining aesthetic resonance with practical functionality. Nuvoton Technology’s continued commitment to high-quality MCU solutions will likely empower more partners to create innovative applications, pushing the development of smart cities to new heights while maintaining resilience in challenging environments.
