Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1729
Two years ago, “LatePost” interviewed Professor Li Zexiang . He provided a lot of help in the early days of his student Wang Tao’s founding of DJI, and participated in shaping this global drone overlord with a valuation of over 160 billion yuan.
After launching the XbotPark robot base in Songshan Lake, Dongguan in 2014, Li Zexiang also proved that he has the ability to replicate innovation: of the more than 60 technology companies incubated in the XbotPark robot base, 15% have become unicorns or quasi-unicorns, Including Cloud Whale Intelligence, which is a sweeping and mopping robot, Hairou Innovation, a logistics and storage robot system, Xidi Zhijia, a commercial autonomous driving company, and Zhenghao Innovation, which is an outdoor power supply.
Incubating companies and promoting industrial development are the ultimate goals and results; Li Zexiang’s efforts and energy have been devoted to the root cause of this result, that is, the reform of “new engineering education”. He hopes to cultivate “people who can use technology to create new things.”
XbotPark is the specific carrier of “new engineering education”, which connects university technology, young students and market demand. After 2018, Li Zexiang began to replicate the experience of the XbotPark robot base in Songshan Lake to more places, successively established bases and science and innovation colleges in Ningbo, Chongqing, Changzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou, and cooperated with local universities to set up new engineering education reforms class.
In the two years since our last interview, Li Zexiang has more summaries and thoughts on new engineering education, training entrepreneurial talents and promoting industrial development. At the “Education Power Strategy Consultation Meeting and On-Site Exchange and Promotion Meeting for the Training of Excellent Engineers” held by the Ministry of Education of China at the end of April this year, Li Zexiang reviewed his practice of cultivating scientific and technological talents from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in the past 30 years.
Some key points shared by Li Zexiang are as follows:
“Whoever wins the C end wins the world”
Well-known C-end brands are the locomotive that pulls the upstream manufacturing industry chain including chips, materials and equipment.
The fundamental way out for the transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry is to discover and cultivate young entrepreneurs and create a group of world-renowned C-end technology brands, so as to drive B-end industry chain enterprises and construct their own new manufacturing system.
From the birth and development of Dajiang and other companies, Li Zexiang summarized the core content of new engineering education
Identify and define problems and integrate various technologies and resources to solve them; project-based system design, manufacturing, debugging and iteration, interdisciplinary and cross-grade teamwork, and supply chain and project management.
The three big pits of hard technology entrepreneurship are product definition, supply chain and technology
For academic entrepreneurs with a technical background, product definition is the “main killer”. Li Zexiang also shared how to guide young entrepreneurs to form product design thinking.
Li Zexiang shared at the “Education Power Strategy Consultation Meeting and On-site Exchange and Promotion Meeting for the Training of Excellent Engineers”.
The following is the full text of Professor Li Zexiang’s speech:
What kind of talents should we cultivate?
The industrial, economic, and even social development of a city or region depends on local entrepreneurs, especially hard technology entrepreneurs. Take Silicon Valley for example: Thanks to the unremitting efforts of generations of outstanding entrepreneurs, Silicon Valley has transformed from the original “Apple Orchard” to today’s “Holy Land of Scientific and Technological Innovation”.
Today, several universities around Silicon Valley, such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and San Jose State, together with Silicon Valley’s enterprises, supply chain, capital, government funding and policy support, and western culture, constitute a world-renowned university. Silicon Valley Innovation Ecosystem. And this system has reacted on Silicon Valley itself, continuously absorbing innovative elements and talents from all over the world, and continuously producing new entrepreneurs and start-ups.
The same is true for today’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Shenzhen’s 70-year comparison chart
The business of start-ups can be divided into To C (for individual consumers) or To B (for the government or enterprises).
To B entrepreneurs are mostly engineers, doctors or professors with corporate work experience or university research experience (generally over 30 years old). To B business requires them to understand the industry and business operations, and have deep technical capabilities. To C entrepreneurs are younger (mostly 20-30 years old, mostly undergraduate and master graduates, or even college dropouts). The key to To C entrepreneurship is to understand the needs of customers (especially young customers), integrate existing technologies and supply chain resources, and quickly iterate products.
Although To B startups (such as Hewlett-Packard, Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Cisco, Nvidia, etc.) have long been favored by capital, with the rapid rise of individual consumer groups and consumers’ higher pursuit of user experience, To B C’s enterprises and entrepreneurship (such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Tesla, etc.) are becoming more and more important, and gradually become the driving force for the manufacturing industry chain (including chips and materials, modules and equipment, manufacturing, logistics and channels) etc.) the locomotive of development. It can be said that “the one who wins the C end wins the world”.
Starting from the “Three Reimbursements and One Compensation” in the 1980s, the manufacturing industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has gradually developed into an The world’s most complete and competitive manufacturing base. Here, the product iteration speed is 5-10 times that of Silicon Valley, and the cost is 1/5 or even 1/10 of that. Therefore, the Greater Bay Area is known as the “Hollywood of Makers”. Some entrepreneurs who started out as OEM and trade seized the opportunity to transform, upgrade, and build brands, and a number of well-known technology companies were born (such as Huawei, BYD, Mindray, Han’s, etc.). A small number of enterprises have even cut into the C-end from the B-end (such as Huawei, BYD, Encore, etc.), creating a number of influential brands.
But generally speaking, the number of C-end brands with international influence is far from enough. Therefore, B-end enterprises in the manufacturing industry in the Greater Bay Area still mainly provide parts manufacturing and OEM services for foreign brands (such as Apple), and are in the In the middle of the smile curve, the profit is thin and the right to speak is small. The practice of DJI and XbotPark robot bases, as well as numerous cases in Silicon Valley and abroad (Jobs, Dyson, etc.) tell us that by discovering and cultivating young entrepreneurs (0.1% to 0.5% of the 4.5 million STEM talents per year), Building a group of internationally renowned C-end technology brands and using them to drive B-end industrial chain companies and constructing their own new manufacturing system is the fundamental way out for the transformation and upgrading of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and China’s manufacturing industry.
The new manufacturing industry system driven by C-end technology brands is the only way for the transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry.
The highest goal of the Academy of Excellent Engineers is to establish a new mechanism of new engineering undergraduate, undergraduate and master training programs and support systems, and cultivate a group of excellent system engineers, product managers and entrepreneurs needed for C-end hard technology product innovation. And help them embark on the road of entrepreneurship, accept the test of entrepreneurship and the market, and at the same time compress the entrepreneurship cycle and reduce the cost of trial and error. Such undergraduate or master graduates, even for employment or further studies, have a high probability of becoming excellent engineers and scientists, which greatly saves the on-the-job training period.
How do we develop these talents?
1. Proof of concept period: from Clear Water Bay to Shenzhen Bay (1999-2010)
The undergraduate engineering education system originated at MIT in the 1950s has two characteristics:
- Provide talents for postgraduate education;
- Provide talents for large companies (such as IBM, GE, etc.). Large companies generally have a good internal training system and a mentoring mechanism. Students with good foundations can become good engineers after 2-3 years of on-the-job training, and after 8-10 years of post experience, the few with good understanding and strong learning ability Can grow into the company’s most scarce and precious product manager, and enter the company’s core layer.
A training program for electrical engineering majors under traditional engineering education.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was founded in 1991 before the return of Hong Kong. The school-running mode of its engineering school adopts the mature school-running mode of schools such as MIT, UC Berkeley and Stanford: training by major (electronics and electrical machinery, computer, machinery, etc.), all English textbooks, international teachers, from mathematical foundation to professional foundation Then go to the graduation project (capstone) to integrate the previous knowledge, and at the same time attach humanities and business courses (5 courses per semester, no more than 40 courses, 110 credits for graduation).
I joined the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering (EEE, later changed to Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, ECE) of HKUST in 1992. I participated in the construction of the department’s undergraduate education system, and also built my own research laboratory “Automation Technology Center” (ATC, also known as Laboratory 3126). As mentioned earlier, this undergraduate education system has provided HKUST and well-known universities in the United States with excellent graduate/doctoral students. The outstanding thesis ability of students has also contributed to the academic ranking of HKUST and Wall Street. And big companies in Silicon Valley provide the talent.
In 1999, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology joined hands with Peking University to establish the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Industry-University-Research Base in Shenzhen with the support of the Shenzhen Municipal Government to explore the integration of industry-university-research. This was the third mission of HKUST when it was established. I also went out of campus and founded China’s first motion control company, Googol Technology, in Shenzhen Science and Technology Park.
In the early days, I also tried to persuade HKUST undergraduate graduates and lab graduates to participate in the construction of Googao in Shenzhen, but it was unsuccessful. There are two reasons for this:
- The opportunity cost is too high: Students, especially undergraduates, lack hands-on skills, but start-up companies lack the internal training mechanism and mentoring system of large companies. It will take longer for students to really get started. Both parties feel that the opportunity cost is too high ;
- Mismatch of values: At that time, HKUST’s admissions orientation was to go to a famous American university for further study or to go to a famous American company for employment. Suddenly, it was going to start a business or get a job in Shenzhen. Everyone’s concept could not be changed all at once.
In 1999, Peking University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the Shenzhen Municipal Government jointly established the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Industry-University-Research Base, and Googo became the first Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to settle in the company. (Li Zexiang is the first from the right in the front row)
Founding Googo has given me a deeper understanding of companies, products, customers and supply chains. At the same time, I also began to reflect on the compatibility between the engineering education system of HKUST and the development needs of the mainland industry. How can we cultivate the talents needed to support Googoo and Shenzhen’s industrial development?
In 2004, I did two different explorations at the Shenzhen Graduate School of Harbin Institute of Technology and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
In the Deep Research Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology, several colleagues from universities in Hong Kong and the United States, with the support of Professor Wang Shuguo, President of Harbin Institute of Technology, founded a postgraduate teaching reform class in electromechanical engineering and automation, which recruits 50 master students every year. While emphasizing basic training and teaching in English, we have started an in-depth joint training exploration with two well-known companies in Hong Kong: ASMPT (the Dutch semiconductor equipment subsidiary) and SAE (the Japanese TDK subsidiary), and in 2007 with the teaching reform class Eight students founded Birui Precision Equipment Co., Ltd. to develop the most challenging gold wire ball bonding machine products in the semiconductor post-packaging field. Although due to various reasons, Bi Rui did not succeed in the end, these students got up again and founded a number of excellent companies in the field of semiconductor equipment and robotics. As of 2010, the teaching reform class has held 7 sessions, trained more than 300 students, and the entrepreneurial rate is as high as 21%. Several students became the core backbone of the early reconstruction of DJI.
The exploration of HKUST originated from a course opened for participating in the Robot Contest (Robocon) of the Asian Broad Federation. The course lasted about 10 months, and more than 20 sophomores to seniors majoring in electronics, mechanics, computers and other majors participated in a team to design, manufacture, debug and iterate several robots. Wang Tao, who usually doesn’t pay much attention to traditional courses, took it twice in a row, and finally won the championship in Hong Kong and the third place in the Asia-Pacific finals. In the process of robot development, Wang Tao and his team members took advantage of Shenzhen’s supply chain to quickly iterate prototypes (purchase components in Huaqiang North, use the machining workshops around the university town to process and weld parts, etc.). Afterwards, they combined what they learned in Robocon with their own interests, and put forward a graduation project project: making a flight controller for aeromodelling aircraft. During their postgraduate studies, they rented a private house with two bedrooms and one living room in Lianhua North, Shenzhen, and founded DJI.
Robocon embodies what is at the heart of today’s new engineering education: project-based system design, fabrication, commissioning, and iteration, interdisciplinary and cross-grade teamwork, and supply chain and project management. And Wang Tao’s graduation project is another core of new engineering education: discovering and defining problems, and integrating various technologies and resources to solve problems. In the past, the graduation project was all about teachers giving questions, students answering questions, and finally ending with grades. Students do not have a sense of ownership of such issues, lack of identity and a sense of accomplishment, and it is difficult to use this as a starting point to enter higher and deeper explorations, such as entrepreneurship.
After Wang Tao, I no longer assign graduation design problems to students, but ask them to discover and define problems through a large number of market research in the form of groups, and integrate interdisciplinary technology and supply chain resources to solve problems. After him, nine of the ten students I mentored for their graduation project embarked on the road of entrepreneurship.
In the past 30 years, more than 100 masters, doctors and postdoctoral students have graduated from 3126 Lab, and 1/3 of them have embarked on the road of entrepreneurship (including several serial entrepreneurs). More than 50 companies. Originally, there was a huge gap (also known as the Valley of Death) between universities and industry, and a bridge needed to be built so that students with ideas could cross it. 3126 built such a bridge, including these important piers:
- HKUST Shenzhen Industry-University-Research Base: Let teachers and students understand the surrounding industrial environment and supply chain;
- The establishment of Googo: let teachers understand the company, help students expand their horizons, and give correct guidance;
- Robocon and students independently explore this type of new engineering course for graduation design: to allow students to master the basic process and skills of product development, and learn to use supply chain resources;
- DJI’s role model and role model: DJI’s achievements have established confidence for latecomers, allowing young entrepreneurs in the Greater Bay Area, some even academic entrepreneurs without a day’s work experience, to realize that they can also create influence and change the world The key to the brand is to dare to challenge yourself, not to be afraid of failure, and to iterate quickly.
The 3126 laboratory spans the canyon, a bridge linking laboratories and entrepreneurship.
2. Minimum Viable Product (MVP): XbotPark Robot Base (2014-2020)
In 2014, Dongguan promoted industrial upgrading and replaced people with machines. Attracted by the high-quality industrial chain resources around Songshan Lake, I proposed to the Dongguan government to build XbotPark robot base (formerly known as XbotPark Songshan Lake robot industry base) ) platform, based on the previous academic entrepreneurial exploration, gathers core entrepreneurial resources, systematically cultivates academic entrepreneurs, and systematically incubates technology companies that focus on C-end products. The platform is committed to helping young entrepreneurs solve problems such as direction selection, product definition, and product iteration. So far, the XbotPark robot base has incubated more than 60 companies. These companies are concentrated in the field of hard technology, with a survival rate as high as 80%. The proportion of unicorn or quasi-unicorn companies is as high as 15%. A group of domestic or international well-known industry-leading technology companies such as Yidong, Woan, Zhenghao, and Xidi.
At the same time, we cooperated with President Chen Xin of Guangdong University of Technology to establish the Guangdong-Hong Kong Robotics Institute with the “2+2” model (the first two years at Guangzhou University of Technology, and the next two years at XbotPark Robot Base). Each year, 50 to 100 new students are enrolled in mechanical, automation, computer, design and mathematics majors. Similar to other colleges and universities, each student has to take more than 170 credits and 70-80 courses (about 8-10 courses per semester) in the previous training programs of these majors. Teachers are busy transferring knowledge, students are busy with homework and exams, hands-on experiments are a formality, graduation projects are useless, and professional knowledge is forgotten after learning…
According to the characteristics of “2+2”, we have jointly designed a new training plan: using project-based courses (such as robot competitions) to promote students to learn across majors, reducing the number of courses and credits (credits reduced to 156 credits, the first two years No more than 5 main courses per semester, no more than 3-4 main courses per semester for the next two years). The first phase of Guangdong-Hong Kong Robotics Academy has trained three students. Compared with other students in the same period, their values have changed a lot. They are more willing to work in hard technology start-up companies, and are very popular with enterprises. They have become the XbotPark robot base The technical backbone of many start-up companies. After working for one or two years, their salary is about three times that of other students in the same period. However, due to reasons such as geographical location, resources and personnel, the reform of the Guangdong-Hong Kong Institute of Robotics has also encountered a ceiling. To sum up, there are relatively large room for improvement in three aspects: 1. The original model of mathematics and science and professional basic courses is still used, which leads students to I have almost forgotten about it after the base, and I don’t know how to use it; 2. Design thinking and other courses are not in place, and students can’t find problems that make their eyes shine and are extremely excited, so they can embark on the road of entrepreneurship; 3. Some have potential It is a pity that many of the students faced the pressure of postgraduate entrance examinations and finally returned to the original system. But it is gratifying that some students who returned to the original system for postgraduate study embarked on the road of entrepreneurship after graduation.
The students are at the base.
Among the many entrepreneurs in the XbotPark robot base, Zhang Junbin, the founder of Cloud Whale, was the first entrepreneur to settle in the base. His story is also a typical example of contemporary academic entrepreneurs: Zhang Junbin graduated from Shenzhen Experimental Middle School in high school. He had experience in scientific and technological innovation activities in middle school and participated in the design of computers for the blind. Subsequently, Zhang Junbin went to Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Shanghai Jiaotong University JI to study for undergraduate and master degrees. With most of his classmates going abroad or entering foreign companies or Internet companies, he came to Songshan Lake alone to start a business. After a period of exploration, Zhang Junbin aimed at the sweeping robot market, hoping to create a sweeping and dragging robot. At that time, sweeping robots seemed to be a sea of red. There were iRobot and Dyson abroad, and Cobos and Xiaomi in China. There were also many foundries and copycat companies within an hour around Songshan Lake. Can a college student with no experience and extremely limited resources come out? We also sweated for him. After a lot of research, Jun Bin and his team defined a brand new product that can vacuum, mop the floor, and automatically wash the mop. After more than three years of careful polishing, it has now become a leading company in the industry.
In 2018, by reviewing and summarizing numerous entrepreneurial cases in the XbotPark robot base, and in-depth research on entrepreneurial failure cases in Silicon Valley and other places, we finally realized and concluded that product definition, supply chain and technology are the three major pitfalls of hard technology entrepreneurship. For academic entrepreneurs with a technical background, product definition is the “main killer” – this is also fully reflected in the students of the Guangdong-Hong Kong Robotics Institute.
How to enable students and young entrepreneurs to find and master a set of scientific methods and effective tools to knock on the door of their entrepreneurship? Through in-depth interactions with Stanford d.school, UC Berkeley Jacobs Institute, MIT Media Lab, and Olin Institute of Technology, we realized that “design thinking” is one of the effective ways to solve this problem.
Design thinking training and product innovation flowchart.
In the summer of 2019, combined with the methodology learned in the training camp of Olympian Institute of Technology, we cooperated with Vanke and many other construction companies to hold a six-week science and technology innovation camp with the theme of intelligent construction in Songshan Lake. Seven student teams discovered and defined a series of good problems through learning and applying design thinking tools, under the guidance of enterprise engineers, on-site observation, user research and front-line operations, and quickly iterated prototypes by taking advantage of the resources of the industrial chain around Songshan Lake , find the entry point for entrepreneurship. Taking this as an opportunity, the two teams embarked on the road of entrepreneurship. In 2020, we tried another science and technology innovation camp with the theme of smart home, and half of the team embarked on the road of entrepreneurial exploration from here.
3. NPI Period: XbotPark Robot Base II (2018-present)
After verifying the MVP, Ningbo, Changzhou, Chongqing and Shenzhen also hope to promote and build an industrial innovation model similar to the Songshan Lake XbotPark robot base. We summarize this model as “1 place + 1 school + 1 platform” model. “1 place” refers to the local government: the local government hopes to create a new model of local business incubation based on education + talents in addition to the traditional path of investment promotion and achievement transformation; “1 school” refers to the local colleges and universities: the local colleges and universities respond to the government and society Call for the creation of a new mechanism of new engineering education and undergraduate and even undergraduate and master entrepreneurial talent training platforms (which can be included in the training of doctoral students in the later period to train teachers for science and innovation education); “1 platform” is the XbotPark territorial platform company: the establishment of the XbotPark territorial platform company , recruit and build a professional team, responsible for the construction of science and technology camps, incubation, funds, supply chains and territorial science and innovation ecosystems, and at the same time connect with the new engineering education platforms of territorial universities, guide the teams that meet the incubation standards to enter the incubation system, and accelerate the team growing up.
In response to such needs, our approach is: 1. First investigate the local industrial environment, and conduct an in-depth analysis of the characteristics and challenges of this model with the local government and territorial universities. Local governments support territorial colleges and universities in building new engineering education platforms in terms of funds, venues, and policies. Territorial colleges and universities must establish new school-running mechanisms, formulate flexible policies for student selection and training, teacher recruitment and evaluation, and find ways to understand new engineering education. And dedicated teachers who are willing to pay for it are responsible for the continuous iteration of the project. 2. On the basis of the government providing funds, venues and policy support, jointly establish the XbotPark territorial platform company (government + XbotPark + operation team). The XbotPark robot base headquarters will empower the local team and import corresponding resources. The territorial team will assist colleges and universities to formulate curriculum training plans, introduce courses, and establish a student selection mechanism. In addition, the territorial team will also set up a science and technology innovation camp. While empowering young entrepreneurs, it will test the effectiveness of the education reform class, assist in the iteration of the education reform project, and build a closed-loop system that tests entrepreneurial talent cultivation with entrepreneurial practice.
Here are some of our results:
The industrial innovation model of the Xbotpark robot base has entered the stage of small batch replication NPI (New Product Introduction).
- XbotPark Robot Base (Ningbo)
The Ningbo base was launched in 2018, and the partner is the School of Robotics of Ningbo Institute of Technology. At present, the college has a total of 98 graduates out of the first batch. According to statistics, this group of students is more popular with companies than other students in the same period, with an average starting salary of over 110,000 per year (up to 400,000 per year). Among them, 55 people participated in the science and technology camp, and 17 people settled in the Ningbo base to start a business, covering 8 incubating projects. A start-up company with 6 of them as the main partners has reached a valuation of 30 million yuan and received 5 million yuan in angel investment. At the same time, the Ningbo base cooperated with Shanghai Jiaotong University, China Academy of Art and other universities to set up new engineering education cooperation, and held a total of 12 science and innovation camps. At present, 12 companies have been born, and the incubating team has reached 270 people.
- XbotPark Robot Base (Changzhou)
The Changzhou base was also established in 2018, and the partner is the Robotics College of Changzhou University. The reform of the Robotics Institute of Changda University should be more thorough, especially in terms of enterprise cooperation projects. Among the first batch of 50 graduates, 35% studied abroad (75% of them received government scholarships to study at Ben-Gurion University in Israel), 55% of the graduates have the idea of starting a business within 1-5 years, and 5 smart C-end teams Received the exploration and angel funding support from the Changzhou base, totaling 2.5 million yuan.
- Shenzhen Academy of Science and Technology
Shenzhen Academy of Science and Technology was established in 2021. It takes advantage of Shenzhen’s rich entrepreneurial resources to provide systematic entrepreneurial cultivation for potential entrepreneurs from university alliances. It empowers students in the fields of product thinking, technical support, entrepreneurial literacy, and industrial chain to help them find project directions and complete projects. Define products, form an entrepreneurial team, and continue to promote project landing and growth. Entrepreneurs/entrepreneurial teams that have successfully advanced are expected to receive support from the Academy’s Exploration Fund and external angel funds and enter the fast track of entrepreneurship. In 2021, through a series of science and innovation camp activities, the college will recruit a total of 50 students. Currently, 5 teams have entered the exploration period, and 3 of them are expected to enter the angel stage.
- XbotPark Robot Base (Chongqing) and Mingyue Class
The Chongqing base, as well as the Mingyue Class, a new engineering education reform class co-founded with our Chongqing University, was established in 2020. The person in charge of the Mingyue class was Professor Luo Yuanxin, then the deputy dean of the Undergraduate School of Chongqing University. A total of 30 students were recruited in the first class of Mingyue Class, which has made new and fundamental breakthroughs in the framework of curriculum training programs and curriculum construction. Teacher Luo led a team of teachers who are passionate about new engineering education. With the support of the robot base team, they conducted an in-depth review of previous reforms. On the basis of absorbing the teaching reform of Olin Institute of Technology, give full play to the resource advantages of the XbotPark system to polish the training plan. Students have the opportunity to do internships in system companies during their freshman year to broaden their horizons and encourage them to actively participate in science and technology camps in Chongqing and other bases. Among the first batch of third-year students, two teams have successfully obtained financial support for the exploration period of the Chongqing base, and the quality of the projects is excellent. It is estimated that by the time of graduation, the proportion of students starting businesses will exceed 1/3. This will be a remarkable achievement in the history of entrepreneurial talent training both at home and abroad. On the basis of the Mingyue class, with the support of the Chongqing Municipal Government, Chongqing University established the National Academy of Outstanding Engineers, which received strong support from the Ministry of Education and was included in the first batch of construction units. The college recruits 60 undergraduates (namely the students of Mingyue class) and 200 postgraduates every year, truly realizes the integration of undergraduates and masters, and adopts an evaluation mechanism that matches the cultivation of entrepreneurial talents.
In addition, we are also working with Beijing University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou City University of Technology, Shenzhen Vocational Technical College and Shenzhen University to explore more implementation models of new engineering education.
Borrowing the mountaineering path on the north slope of Mount Everest to show several important stages of our new engineering education and entrepreneurial training exploration: the practice of the 3126 laboratory of HKUST positions our new engineering education at the base camp of Mount Everest, not at the base camps of other mountains . This is especially important. If the starting point is wrong, the result will be completely different later.
The new engineering education of Guangzhou University of Technology, which cooperates with the XbotPark robot base, is the first systematic and large-scale exploration. Compared with the Olin course, we have completed about 1/3 of the reform, and the students we train can play an immediate role in start-up companies and become the backbone. The 3-5 year training cycle of the enterprise is reduced. Changzhou University Hening School of Engineering Robotics can achieve the training of co-founders and core engineers, which marks that we have reached a new level. Subsequently, the breakthrough of the Mingyue Class of Chongqing University allowed us to finally cross the most difficult northern slope. Although there are still many challenges ahead, we can already see the peak.
Several important milestones of the new engineering education and entrepreneurial talent training experience promoted by the Xbotpark robot base.
Establish an end-to-end regional science and technology innovation ecosystem
The latest progress in the exploration of cultivating new engineering talents is to form an end-to-end regional innovation ecology and implement it in more places.
Located in Songshan Lake, Dongguan, the XbotPark robot base headquarters covering an area of 98 acres and a construction area of 110,000 square meters will be completed in the second quarter of 2023. In addition to a series of facilities such as science and technology camps and laboratories, incubation spaces, science and technology museums, product launches, and living facilities (especially sports venues), we are also equipped with production lines for product proofing, flexible manufacturing, small batch production and mass production Verify space.
In order to strengthen the supply chain system of the robot base, we have introduced a group of top-level supply chain companies to settle in the base, and established a joint laboratory, in the fields of chips and mold components, PCBA, machining, injection molding, abrasive tools, materials, 3D printing, etc. Provide VIP services for the team, solve core supply chain problems in one stop, and avoid quality and efficiency problems caused by finding the wrong supply chain company.
Chips, sensors, components, equipment and smart factories have become important supports for C-end product innovation; C-end brands drive the B-end industry chain.
The industrial innovation model of “1 location + 1 school + 1 platform” we explored has also recently landed in Guangzhou. With the support of the National Technology Innovation Center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the XbotPark robot base (Guangzhou) was established in Huangpu, Guangzhou, which is the intelligent system innovation base, and the Da Vinci Innovation Academy was established in cooperation with the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts to explore “design + “Science and Technology” innovative talent cultivation.
In order to promote the development of Hong Kong’s science and technology industry, we cooperated with Sequoia Capital and Professor Chen Guanhua of the University of Hong Kong to establish the HKX Science and Technology Angel Fund in 2017. In 2022, with the support of the Sequoia-HKX Foundation, the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Education Center was established to provide science and innovation education services for young entrepreneurs in Hong Kong. In addition, with the support of the Hong Kong InnoHK program, HKUST joined hands with the University of California, Berkeley to establish the Hong Kong Smart Construction Research Center (HKCRC) with the theme of smart construction, to systematically explore entrepreneurship education and business incubation in the B-end field.
Several other cities have also expressed strong interest in the model. King Saud University of Science and Technology is also preparing to set up an innovation center in the Greater Bay Area in cooperation with Shenzhen Academy of Science and Technology and XbotPark Robot Base to provide science and technology education and business incubation services for young entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. In addition, Israeli universities, Olin Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University and University of California, Berkeley are also approaching us, hoping that the entrepreneurial resources of the XbotPark robot base can be connected to their entrepreneurs.
Chen Fanchang, President of King Saud University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and his team visited Shenzhen and XbotPark robot base and signed a cooperation agreement.
Cultivating a large number of outstanding engineers is an important task in building today’s national strategic talent force. Only by building a world-class engineer education system with Chinese characteristics can it effectively support the needs of industrial economic development and serve the world’s important talent centers and innovation highlands. Today, we are undoubtedly in the midst of great changes that have never happened in a century, and technological innovation will deeply affect and even dominate the direction and end of this change.
Title map source: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology website
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