For many startups, seeing their ideas come to fruition in the market can be a long, challenging process. MIT wants to help students expedite that process with an "Innovation Node" in Hong Kong.
MIT announced the collaborative space on Monday, in an effort to give students and faculty resources to move ideas from lab to market more quickly. The MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node is slated to open next summer, according to an article from the MIT News Office.
MIT's decision makes sense, since a crop of coworking spaces where startups can grow have been popping up in Hong Kong over the past few years. Cyberport is an information and communications technology (ICT) hub that serves startups and entrepreneurs. In May 2014, the company partnered with Microsoft Ventures to help with funding support, technical training, business mentorship and joint marketing promotion. Past Cyberport internship programs have also linked students to Shanghai ICT companies such as IBM, Microsoft and Cisco.
Other Hong Kong coworking spaces include CoCoon, which companies have to apply to in order to access its resources and incubation program, and Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation, which has laboratories and technical centers with professional support services.
At the Node, students, faculty and researchers will have access to various opportunities and will be able to work with Hong Kong-based students and faculty, MIT alumni, entrepreneurs and businesses.
The Node will facilitate internships for students at companies based in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and along the Pearl River Delta, through China's MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives program. There will also be educational programs, workshops and innovation-focused events. Students can also take part in "action-learning" activities through the MIT China Lab, which pairs MIT's business students with students from China's top business schools.
Future plans for the Node include creating a "makerspace," a facility with advanced tools and materials for invention and prototyping. MIT's Cambridge campus is currently in the process of building a new makerspace, which the university says will be linked to the Node's planned makerspace.
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