ZJU-CSE holds Cyber+ Innovation Camp

CSE held a 20-days long Cyber+ Innovation Camp at the south side of Taihu Lake, South Taihu New District, Huzhou in August. More than 20 young talents from Zhejiang University, Tsinghua University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Lund University attended the camp to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Among them, some have rich experience in innovation and entrepreneurship competitions and have numerous invention patents, some are starters with huge entrepreneurial dreams, some are hands-on experts in science and engineering, and some are planning and design experts.

Prof Chao Xu, made a warm welcome to all attendants. He expressed that the Cyber+ Innovation Camp is the first step of entrepreneurship. We will provide a high-quality platform and rich entrepreneurship resources for every student, and cultivate and lead more young entrepreneurial talents.

Centering on the theme of “Cyber+”, the Camp gathered an excellent STEM+B mentor group. 13 technical experts, business elites and entrepreneurial celebrities were invited as lecturers, 6 Principle Investigators with ZJU Huzhou Institute were invited to give technical guidance, and 2 business mentors provided full guidance. In addition, the Camp has gathered support from 23 research centers with ZJU Huzhou Institute. With the support of mentors, students could learn experiences from top scholars and experts, apply cross-contextual knowledge, found industry bottleneck, to make each brilliant idea finally fall into reality.

The Camp courses comprised of 3 parts: entrepreneurial thinking, entrepreneurial growth and entrepreneurial cultivation. The courses involves business analysis, product design, customer seeking, risk control, business proposal writing skills, financing skills and professional techniques. Apart from the courses, the Camp agenda involves entrepreneurship experience sharing, group discussion and project roadshow.

As an important part of this Cyber+ International Science and Technology Innovation Camp, we successfully connected with several overseas renowned technical experts to give lectures online. Among them was Dr. Shi Guanya from the California Institute of Technology. As a senior scholar in the field of machine learning and control, he gave a lecture entitled Neural-Control Family: Safe Agile Deep-learning-based Robotic Control in Dynamic Environments. The lecture focuses on machine deep learning and the modeling application of neural networks in real-world non-stationary nonlinear environments.

In addition, Dr. Zhang Yanliang, chief scientist from Weston Robert Company in Singapore, gave us a class on "Using Robot Toolbox to Accelerate the Landing of Hardware Products" based on his years of development experience in the field of mobile robots. This class gave us a glimpse into the cutting edge of hardware and software development for robotic deployment.

Throughout the 20 days, students firstly took part in the Renhuang Mountain hiking activity. Students were invited to climb the mountain to appreciate the beauty of Huzhou ecology. By Taihu Lake, the students watched an intelligent equipment flash mob which presented the integration of beauty and technology. In Huanglong Cave, the students also watched “machine detectors” performing an underground space autonomous exploration action, which presented the real-world application of technology.

During the camp the students also visited a 3D printing technology enterprise in Deqing. The enterprise is founded by Tianrun Chen, a Gen Z rising star from Zhejiang University. During the visit, Tianrun Chen introduced the company and shared his entrepreneurial experience.

At the project roadshow on the last day of the camp, students present their scientific innovation achievements and works. Experts and researchers from Talent Center of South Taihu District, Jinfu Equity Investment, Mizuda Group, and Incubation Center of ZJU Huzhou Institute served as judges, evaluating each roadshow project from five aspects: feasibility, innovation, team cooperation, market development prospect, and on-site performance. Finally, “Jicanghai - the Pioneer of Intelligent Sanitation and Cleaning of Beach Wetland”, “Tianma Dual-Purpose Exploration Robot for Open Space”, and “The Fourth Generation of Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Solution” stood out, followed with a short ceremony.

During the roadshow, Xinjiang Zhu, from the Party Group of Huzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, expressed his satisfaction and appreciation for the holding of the Cyber + Innovation Camp, and actively encouraged students to stay in Huzhou for innovation and entrepreneurship, so as to contribute youth strength to accelerate the city construction of low-cost entrepreneurship and high-quality life. Shuming Shao, Section Chief from the Talent Center, South Taihu New District, introduced university students’ employment and entrepreneurship polices in South Taihu New District. Wei Zhang, assistant dean with ZJU Huzhou Institute expressed high expectations to students, and he said that “I hope you can keep a clear mind in the pursue of scientific innovation, follow scientific methods, uphold the spirit of seeking truth from facts, and wish you a steady and long journey in the future”.

Within 20 days, students had a fulfilling and challenging start-up time. Although the camp was brought to a successful conclusion, the students' journey in science, technology, and innovation has just started. We believe that as long as their original aspiration and dreams remain unchanged, the students will have bright future in entrepreneurship.