By David Li, bostonese.com
Cambridge, Mass. – In the afternoon of October 6, the MIT-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (MIT-CHIEF)’s Launch Ceremony of 2012 annual conference was held at the Marriott Hotel in Kendal Square near MIT campus. The organizing team announced this year’s forum topics and the latest progress. The registration website was officially launched, with the opening day, November 16, of this year’s forum exactly 40 days away.
Group picture after the launch ceremony.
| MIT, world’s top university for 2012/2013, edged Cambridge University in UK and Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. in the QS World University Rankings recently. MIT was ranked the world’s top university in 11 of 28 disciplines ranked by QS, including all five in the “engineering and technology” category: computer science, chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Co-president Rui Li mentioned in the launch ceremony that MIT CHIEF would bridge the innovations in science and technology of MIT and the huge need and market of China. |
Hailed as an important milestone in MIT’s engagement with China, the second MIT-CHIEF Annual Conference will be held at MIT Stata Center from November 16 to 18. This is the first endeavor of Chinese students and scholars from MIT and other universities in greater Boston to build a large-scale multidisciplinary platform between China and US in the context of technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. The three-day conference consists of keynote speeches, panel discussions, a business plan contest, and technology showcases. The featured business plan contest has already received approximately 160 project submissions, from China, the US, Ireland and India. After the first round competition, there were 25 teams entered the second round, competing for the total cash prizes of $20,000.
Mr. Yasheng Huang, a distinguished professor from MIT Sloan School of Management, made a short opening speech in the launch ceremony. He said: “MIT can play an important role of helping China’s transformation from labor-intensive to technology and innovation based economy, and MIT-CHIEF is the perfect platform to cultivate such transformation.”
Compare to last year’s conference, this year’s conference will address more topics, which includes this year’s most popular topic– “big data”. In the “Education for Innovation” panel, Prof. Yasheng Huang will discuss the education and fostering an innovative culture in the China with Mr. Zhu Qingshi, the founding president of South University of Science and Tech.
| Other invited speakers and panelists include top scholars, entrepreneurs, policy makers, investors, and industry experts. Confirmed speakers for this year include Ed Roberts (Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management and Founder/Chair of MIT Entrepreneurship Center), Liu Tianwen(Chairman and CEO, iSoftStone), Charles Fan (Senior Vice President of R&D, Vmware), Allen Song (Managing Director, SoftBank), Shilian Jia (Advisor, GSR Venture Capital), Steve Papa (CEO, Oracle Endeca) and many others. |
Besides speeches and panels, MIT-CHIEF also adds technology show box and career fair to benefit the community, if you are entrepreneurs that looking for a stage to get exposure, or students and professionals that looking for a new position, don’t miss this great opportunity.
The registration website is mitchief.org/register. Working professional can get 10% discount if registering before October 19.