Partnering with Macquarie University, HKUST Entrepreneurship Center has launched its very first Sydney-Hong Kong Ideation Exchange Program from July 9 to July 21.
Together with their peers from Macqurie University, 10 UST students were chosen to have the opportunity to spend one week in Sydney, one week in Hong Kong, and a day in China to examine new market entry, scaling up, and prototyping in those places. Students also had to apply what they learned from the tour to put together a pitch helping Small-Medium sized Enterprises digitalizing their businesses.
The tour was kicked off by a campus tour and a visit to the Cochlear Headquarters at Macquarie University. The company manufactures cochlear implants, bone conduction implants, acoustic hearing implants and provides a range of support services for the recipients of its products.
Cochlear Headquarter at Macquarie University
To understand better about the startup scene in Sydney, our students visited the Sydney Startup hub, a globally significant innovation centre that cements the city's role as Australia's startup capital. The tour was greeted by representatives from Optus. Our students got the chance to present their ideas for the very first time and got some valuable feedback from their peers and the representatives.
Representatives from Optus
The Ideation Exchange Program also composed of multiple lectures given by renowned scholars at Macquarie who shared their views on different aspects on entrepreneurship.
The final pitch marked the end of the Australia part of the tour.
The Hong Kong tour began with exploring the labs at UST and discovering topics ranging from Robotics, BioTech, to Big Data.
Following the lab visits, four UST alumni were invited to share with our students their startup journey, products/services offered by their companies, challenges faced, and experience working for a startup.
Alumni Sharing Session at the BASE
Students also visited Hong Kong Science Park (HKSTP) to learn more about the startup ecosystem and resources available in Hong Kong while by visiting the Hong Kong Productivity Council’s Innospace, they tested out some of the equipment available such as full-body 3D scanners, VR equipment etc.
Visit to Hong Kong Science Park
One of the highlights of the Ideation tour includes a day trip to China. Students explored the topic of manufacturing and prototyping through their visits to the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Youth Innovation & Entrepreneur Hub, Foxconn Manufacturing Plant, and BYD Automobile Manufacturing Plant in Shenzhen.
China Day Trip
On the last day of the program, students met with two seasoned mentors/entrepreneurs graduated from UST to get some very useful advice for their projects. The teams incorporated their knowledge about the startup atmosphere in Hong Kong into their pitch and presented once again at the grand finale at Pico Tower in Wan Chai. The grand finale marked the end of this fruitful program.