Intel International College Student Challenge: Entrepreneurship Changes society and life

The Intel International Challenge Award this year is Chile's miner's Health indicators monitoring project Chen of Tsinghua Wastewater Treatment Project (right) and Zhang Yi (right), Tsinghua University of Economics and Management (third) introduction of Tsinghua Entrepreneurship Project Silicon Valley entrepreneurial mentor Steve F. Blank for students in the world to talk about entrepreneurship in the early 20 Chen wearing a brand-new fitted black suit, calm and calm to sit in front of the media talk, although the face also has the traces of acne, but can see, this Hunan boy's mature temperament is not faking, but a kind of self-confidence reflected from the heart, It just doesn't seem to fit his age. In fact, although it is only a graduate student of Tsinghua University materials department. But he also has another entrepreneur's identity--Beijing weak water Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. CEO. Still, the cuffs of his starched suit were hung with black labels. "Just bought a suit?" He stared blankly, looked down at the label, picked it down, nodded "hmm", and saw no embarrassing expression on his face. The suit was a specially prepared outfit for the Intel International College Student Entrepreneurship Challenge (IGC). The young Tsinghua students already have their own unique water treatment technology, with chemical reagents to help domestic factories to deal with and recover heavy metal industrial wastewater, in the solution of domestic water pollution environmental problems, and to their own companies to bring income and profits. In the sorrows of each autumn, the University of California, Berkeley, brings together dozens of students from around the world, the Intel International Challenge sponsored by Intel and the University of Berkeley. This is the nineth year. In this competition, the student team from China has always had a beautiful winning record, and in the past few years, almost every year has been the figure of Tsinghua students. Intel, the main symbol of Silicon Valley, is built on constant technological innovation, while education is the driving force behind innovation's continued development. Intel's investment in education is beyond the reach of other companies in major technology companies, which invest $100 million a year in the global education industry, both in their heyday and in the face of challenges, not just for technical research and development in colleges and universities, but also for quality training for teachers in secondary and primary schools. To encourage students to innovate, Intel sponsors two innovative entrepreneurial competitions each year: the International Grand Prix for high school students (ISEF) and the international Challenge for higher education. While the theme of the competition is technological innovation, the judges ' focus is not only on high technology but on how to use innovation to help solve specific problems in countries and even around the world, which is the main focus of the Intel Venture Innovation competition. Last year's prize winner was a new rural stove project from India that, although seemingly without much technical content, effectively solved the fuel safety problems of hundreds of millions of rural residents in India. According to Intel, the international Challenge, founded over nine years ago, has worked with 300 universities worldwide to generate more than 125,000 entrepreneurial projects through various entrepreneurial initiatives. Come to Berkeley's entrepreneurial project, are the essence of fine. This year's international challengeA total of 18,000 applications from 60 countries were received, and in the last 20 countries in California there were 28 project teams, with three teams of mainland China being the most populous country. In addition to the Chen sewage treatment project, there are indoor positioning programs from Sichuan and the intelligent School and nursing homes project from Shandong University. The project of Shandong University is worth mentioning, they are free to install the camera and the surveillance equipment for the school or the nursing home, then the parents and the child through the handset, the tablet or the computer and so on client, can monitor to own child and the old person in the school and the nursing home in real time. Sun Hua and Zhao Chunhu, a participant at Shandong University, said they had conducted a 11-month pilot service at a primary school in Zaozhuang, costing 168,000 yuan to install 46 cameras and surveillance equipment. A total of more than 80% of parents are willing to pay a monthly fee of 50 yuan to pay attention to their children's specific activities in school. It looks like a winning project, where future projects will be divided into income from schools and nursing homes, and schools with the equipment are more likely to be trusted by their parents. Behind this innovative model is the video acceleration and coding technology developed by these students. At present, there are 95 Zaozhuang in 1400 primary and secondary schools. But the Chinese team has been slightly disappointed that this year, China's three projects have not embarked on the final podium. The final prize for 50,000 dollars was the mining workers health Data project of Chilean college students, who developed portable sensors to measure specific health indicators for workers such as miners, and to analyze the health risks of industrial workers by transferring data to clouds. In contrast to last year's Indian stove project, the country's title-winning Chilean project this year is also a social problem for emerging countries, but with the most popular wearable equipment and the technology innovation content. The winners, after all, are just a handful, and for these students from around the world, the Silicon Valley trip will be much more than the final. Many are the first to come to the United States, under Intel's organization to visit the two prestigious universities Stanford and Berkeley and to listen to lectures, visit the Silicon Valley International Incubator Accelerator Center Plug&play and Intel headquarters, can listen to the experience of entrepreneurs, can communicate with students in other countries. They are here to open their mind to successful entrepreneurs, as well as to reach a large number of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. Many of the students mentioned that whatever the outcome, the 5-day California trip was a Zheng. Zhang Yuquang, of Sichuan University, said the experience of the Silicon Valley innovation experience has brought a lot of inspiration to their entrepreneurial path. After listening to a talk with a co-founder of LinkedIn at Stanford University, he felt that he should streamline the entrepreneurial model and focus on development. In fact, the result is certainly not a point of concern. Tsinghua University Party Committee deputy secretary Szongkia from Beijing to Berkeley, no time lag tired rushed to the final scene to observe.In his opinion, it is not important for Tsinghua students to win prizes, and to learn the experience of cultivating entrepreneurial atmosphere abroad is the purpose of this trip. He even raised the question directly to Intel's executives in charge of the event that the tournament could be held in cooperation with Tsinghua University in the future. Of course, Intel chose Berkeley as a partner in the international challenge for many reasons. Both Berkeley and Stanford are Silicon Valley's two major academic innovation bases, with the world's top teachers and students, and Silicon Valley has gathered more than 60% of the U.S. wind investment, including Intel, Google, Apple and other technology giants. This intangible combination of entrepreneurial atmosphere has prompted global entrepreneurs to come to San Francisco, the small Bay Area to pursue their dreams. Szongkia admits that while Tsinghua may have the best entrepreneurial atmosphere in China, there is a gap between Berkeley and Stanford. But for the student Entrepreneurship competition, Szongkia has more ideas. Many of the entrepreneurial projects in the competition are in fact still in the very early stage of business planning, and even after the award of some projects, later development is silent, many students in the face of the choice of graduate employment, have abandoned the original idea of entrepreneurship, in turn more practical to embark on the conventional path of development. In the current domestic entrepreneurial upsurge, Szongkia has a sober thinking. The resources that Chinese students can gain from starting a business are far from being comparable to that of Silicon Valley, where they also face more technical difficulties than the US, and the simple impetuous encouragement for college students to start a business may not be so meaningful. Therefore, he is not too optimistic about the entrepreneurial prospects of undergraduate students, but also hope that Tsinghua students can more calm down to do academic research, in the possession of technical advantages and then engage in more basic entrepreneurial projects. Szongkia said Tsinghua University hopes to encourage entrepreneurship through a variety of supportive help on the basis of more calm and academic research. When it comes to student entrepreneurship, Zhang Yi, an associate professor at Tsinghua University, has his own ideas. Tsinghua has the best academic advantage in China, as well as the Tsinghua Entrepreneur Association, China's most abundant angel and venture capital support. Zhang Yi, referring to the subsequent development of the previous entries, said that Tsinghua encouraged students to start a business, but also focused on the future; perhaps some students later gave up their entrepreneurial choice, but this kind of entrepreneurial education will benefit them for life and perhaps start again at the right time in the future. Sprinkle the seeds of innovation, cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation to change society and the world, to solve practical problems, and this may be the main purpose of Intel's international Challenge. At the awards dinner, Chen no longer wearing the new suit, he sat quietly watching Chilean students take the prize. "Disappointed?" He did not nod or shake his head, or have no expression. "Nothing, my sewage treatment project has been operating to bring benefits, and this can solve the most practical pollution problem in China." This is more important. "Then do you consider going abroad?" "No, I will continue to do this project. Chen calmly said.