MIT HK Innovation Node Kickstart 2016

Issue
Western students lack exposure to the “world’s factory” and this part of the world that is becoming increasingly where innovation happens. 
Asian students aspire to work with the minds of “the best university in the world”.

Proposition
MakerBay was the home of MIT Innovation Node “Kickstart” hackathon in 2016, a place where MIT and Hong Kong students can collaborate, invent and prototype their visionary ideas. From the website: “MIT Kickstart is a unique hardware mini-accelerator program for bold and aspiring university entrepreneurs.”

MIT Kickstart is a unique hardware mini-accelerator program for bold and aspiring university entrepreneurs. Twelve MIT students and twelve Hong Kong-based students will work alongside each other and be taken from idea to impact, bringing together design thinking and rapid prototyping in a truly unique entrepreneurial experience.

The creation of MIT’s Hong Kong Innovation Node was announced in November 2015, where MIT President L. Rafael Reif described his vision of adding innovation to the traditional roles of teaching and research in the education of their students. Its focus on cultivating the innovation capabilities of their students, increasing opportunities and accelerating the path from idea to impact – working together with alumni, affiliates and friends in the community helped galvanize the region’s innovation ecosystem. By bringing MIT to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to MIT, the Innovation Node is deepening MIT’s links to enhance the Institute’s presence in the Pearl River Delta as an important gateway for MIT in China.

The Hong Kong Innovation Node is building long-term values by enriching the educational experiences of MIT and Hong Kong students in key areas of innovation practices including entrepreneurship, making, and rapid scale-up of prototypes. In accordance with the mission of the MIT Innovation Initiative, the Hong Kong Innovation Node will educate the next generation of global innovators to take their ideas to impact by building a community of students, entrepreneurs, universities, businesses, and others, consistent with the MIT philosophy of Mens et Manus, Mind and Hand, for the benefit of all.