HKUST Annual Report 2018-19

15 HKUST STUDENT ENTREPRENEURSHIP Entrepreneurial Moves and Mind-set Over 100 students took part in the Entrepreneurship Center’s Leapfrog program, which provides opportunities to exchange ideas with overseas peers and entrepreneurs and build potential business networks. Participants visited Seoul, explored emerging prospects and careers in the Greater Bay Area, and joined entrepreneurship programs at Fudan University and Tongji University. The University’s U*STAR Program (previously the InnovationAcceleration Fund) encourages entrepreneurial technology transfer based on HKUST technologies and research outputs. The program received 12 applications in 2018-19. Seven projects each received a cash award of $40,000, bringing the number of award-winning teams since launch in 2016-17 to 23. Three companies formed by 2017-18 U*STAR Program awardees secured funding from the Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities, run by the Hong Kong government’s Innovation and Technology Commission (see also P23). Some 38 seminars, workshops, and talks related to entrepreneurship were held, drawing more than 3,150 students (+12%). One popular seminar featured Prof. CHEN Qifeng, co-founder of LINO Network, a decentralized live streaming platform with 500,000 monthly active users. More than 300 students attended the event. HKUST students setting up a technology-based start-up company can also apply to join the HKUST Entrepreneurship Program, first established in 1999. As at 2018-19, the program has assisted 64 technology start-ups. Competitive Opportunities The Entrepreneurship Center collaborated with the School of Business and Management and China Everbright Bank Hong Kong to organize the bank’s first academic-industry cyber security competition for HKUST students. The top three winning teams were rewarded with internship opportunities at the bank. A team of four MSc Big Data Technology students also won the championship at the PwC’s Data-lympics 2019, a two-day contest that challenged students to demonstrate how data and analytics could be used to address business challenges. The flagship annual HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition continued to provide a platform for start-ups and teams from different regions of China to showcase their innovative ideas. In 2018, 934 teams from seven regions took part, with 35 teams (five from each region) entering the Grand Final at Nansha, Guangzhou, in October 2018. HKUST senior management and Council Members attended, along with 40 venture capitalists fromdifferent organizations. The 2019 HKUST- Sino One Million Dollar regional contest in Hong Kong, attracted 117 teams to the HKUST campus, a rise of more than 15% over 2018. At the final in June 2019, Horizon Biochip won the top President Award, GF Innovation Award and Healthcare Prize for its cryochip that automates the process of preserving embryos/oocytes in IVF medical procedures.