On December 15, BUAA-BIT Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Final commenced at BUAA Science Park. Li Junjie, member of the Standing Committee of the Haidian District Committee, Li Junfeng, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Beihang University, Bao Liying, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), Xia Wei, President of Beihang Entrepreneur Club, Beihang Investment Co., LTD. and Delux Techonology, attended the event and delivered speeches. Other attendees included government officials, cooperators, investors, media partners and so on. The final was witnessed by alumni of Beihang and BIT from around the world via live streaming. Lasting for two months, the competition attracted attention from more than 500,000 Beihang and BIT alumni.
Ten regional contests have been held in Heilongjiang, Hangzhou Greater Bay Area, Shanxi, Yunnan, Henan, Hebei, Sichuan, Guangdong-Hong Kong- Macao Greater Bay Area, Beijing and Hainan respectively with 1,376 innovative start-up projects presented since October when the competition kicked off. The jury of the final was composed of representatives from prestigious investment institutions such as AVIC Trust, Beijing JHF Investment, Fenghou Capital, Cretrend Capital, Essentials Capital, Huashu Capital, Stars Capital, Plug and Play, Aplus Labs and Sky9 Capital who expected to spot promising and lucrative projects at the scene.
During the two months of road shows and preliminary cooperation, the local governments gained comprehensive understanding of these innovative start-up projects and made efforts to introduce high-tech enterprise to the regions through talents recruitment and technical cooperation. Based on the success of the first BUAA-BIT Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition last year, the competition generated great publicity among universities this year while also catching wide attention of big enterprises like the Second Research Institute of China Aerospace Science & Industry Corporation (CASIC), Beijing Aerospace Changfeng Co., Ltd., and Tencent.
As one of the most significant innovative start-up competitions, the 2018 BUAA-BIT Global Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition has a larger scale, wider publicity, more partners and better services compared to the previous one, attracting innovative projects from universities and institutes like Imperial College London, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, Peking University, Beihang University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Renmin University of China, Xi’an Jiaotong University and the Second Research Institute of CASIC.
The project topics covered fields of Internet of Things (IoT) chip, artificial intelligence robotics, biological pharmacy, Internet and Big Data, military-civilian integration, new materials, automobile, aviation, unmanned aerial vehicle and so on. Millions of prizes were shared by 22 competitors who entered the final. Each competitor gave an 8-minute presentation in which they introduced advantages and highlights, business models and future strategic plans of their projects before entering to the 4-minute Q&A session where the jury raised questions or made comments on their projects. Projects titled “Software-Defined Advanced Anti-Clone SDD Controller” and “Dual-Use Highly Reliable Fiber-Optic Communication Chip” won the first prizes in the start-up group (groups of projects valued at less than 100 million yuan) and the developing group (groups of projects valued at more than 100 million yuan), respectively.
Featuring a large-scale and high-level brand, the competition was organized by Beihang University and BIT. Beihang Investment Co., LTD., which takes “developing core technology for China and supporting innovative enterprises that lead the future development of the nation” as its mission, makes full use of the competition as a platform to seek worthwhile high-tech innovative start-up projects. The competition effectively aggregates and shares the global cutting-edge technologies and links Beihang’s scientific and technological achievements with the world’s innovation resources.
Reported by Zhao Wei
Reviewed by Yu Min
Edited by Jia Aiping and Xiong Ting
Translated by Xiong Ting
