Tech incubator ready to create more innovators

"Innovation is all about 'what is new', and the key is to dare to think differently," said Microsoft's Harry Shum.

Shum, executive vice-president at the tech giant, leads Microsoft's AI and Research Group.

He is also actively involved in educational innovation as one of the five board members of the Global Innovation Exchange (GIX), a partnership between major research universities and innovative corporations to develop leaders in innovation.

The two founding partners of GIX are the University of Washington and Tsinghua University, with support from Microsoft.

The idea of the model was born in 2012, and the partnership between the two universities was created after Microsoft President Brad Smith visited Tsinghua University in Beijing.

"We started working on this five years ago, and it was based on the sense that future education would need to bring people together from different countries," Smith said. "Some of the problems of the world are global problems, issues like climate, (and) don't respect boundaries. If we are going to make progress in solving these problems, we have to find new ways to work together. "

Smith said "it was a reflection of Microsoft's long-standing research work in Beijing, our relationship with Tsinghua University. I felt that of all the universities in the world, it could bring more to this kind of international partnership, really the kind of partnership the world needs, than any other institution.

On Sept 14, GIX announced that it had been joined by eight more Academic Network members and five Industry Consortium members.

The eight members of the GIX Academic Network are: cole polytechnique fdrale de Lausanne, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Indian Institute of Science, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, National Taiwan University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Tecnolgico de Monterrey, and the University of British Columbia.

GIX Industry Consortium members include: Arm, Baidu, Boeing HorizonX and T-Mobile. Hainan Airlines has joined GIX as a valued partner providing travel support, fellowships and project support for students.

Academic Network members promote GIX to their students and connect faculty with relevant areas of research expertise.

Industry Consortium members gain access to the GIX community of faculty, inventors and learners and may submit projects for students in the launch phase of the curriculum.

GIX also celebrated the opening of its new home, a 100,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility in Bellevue, Washington.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said that the new GIX facility will be named the "Steve Ballmer Building" in honor of the former Microsoft CEO.

Microsoft provided $40 million in early funding. Under Ballmer's leadership, Microsoft was the first company to open a basic research facility in China, and the Redmond, Washington company now has a 20-year relationship with Tsinghua University.

Later this month, the GIX building will be occupied by the program's first two cohorts of master of science in technology innovation (MSTI from UW) degree students and dual degree students, which combines the MSTI with a master of engineering in data science and information technology (MEDSIT from Tsinghua) degree.

Half the students are from the United States and China. The rest hail from Canada, Estonia, France, India, Pakistan, Paraguay, Russia and Switzerland.

"We just 'opened the door' to the brand new GIX building," said Tsinghua University President Qiu Yong at the celebration ceremony. "I know we have opened the door to a level of cooperation that is unlimited by boundaries."

lindadeng@chinadailyusa.com