MIT Announces An Innovation Hub For Students In Hong Kong

Hong Kong is to be the best-preferred location for a startup accelerator-style center of innovation from the famed tech-focused American university, MIT.

MIT today announced the launch of an 'Innovation Node' in Hong Kong.  This  collective space aims to join MIT community with a unique resort, including advanced manufacturing capabilities and other opportunities in Hong Kong and the neighboring Pearl River Delta, as reported by MIT News.

Set to launch next summer, MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node will convene MIT students, workforce and researchers to take a shot at various entrepreneurial and exploration ventures nearby Hong Kong-based students and faculty, MIT alumni, entrepreneurs ans businesses. By consolidating resources and talent, the Innovation Node aims to help students to learn how to move thoughts more quickly from lab to market.

It's no fortuitous event that MIT has picked Hong Kong. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the institute's president, Rafael Reif cited the city status as a financial center and its closeness to focuses of innovation as key reasons, according to Tech Crunch.

"Universities in Hong Kong are extremely solid and the city consists huge business mastery", Reif said. "In addition to that, you additionally have manufacturing infrastructure in Shenzen that can deal easily with little volume manufacturing".

Shenzen, The south Chinese city, rapidly being famous as the world's manufacturing hub is a key part of all this system.

The aim is to encourage a way for MIT and Hong Kong students to collaborate physically and virtually to drive ideas towards commercialization. For example, medical devices, robotics, and sensors could be prototyped on MIT campus or at the node, tested in Hong Kong regions and have little amounts produced in Shenzen, MIT explained in a blog post.

The future plan for the Node include creating a 'maker space', a facility with cutting edge apparatuses and materials for development and prototyping. MIT's Cambridge ground is right now in the process of building a new maker space, which the university says will be linked to the Node's planned maker space, according to Mashable. 

An accumulation of MIT community situated in Hong Kong will guide the center and help coordinate programs. A few alumni are also among the gathering that provided startup financial for the project.