HKUST Annual Report 2022-2023

22 23 ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER in Action record 942 interns from HKUST and disbursing HK$20 million, contributing to over 22% of the total funding for all Hong Kong universities. Industry collaborations also provided numerous internship opportunities. This combination of guidance, real-world experience, and our student-focused programs makes our graduates highly desirable to employers. In 2023, HKUST ranked 29th globally in the Emerging/Times Higher Education Global University Employability Ranking and 3rd in Greater China. Fostering an Entrepreneurial Mindset For students aspiring to launch their own businesses, HKUST’s robust entrepreneurship and start-up ecosystem provided substantial support throughout 2022-23: This year, our flagship HKUST-Sino One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition 2023 drew a record 234 teams from the HKUST community, the Mainland, and abroad. Allegrow Biotech Ltd. received the Platinum Award for its affordable artificial cell cultivation technology, enhancing accessibility to cell therapy for autoimmune diseases and cancer. The team will compete in the 2023 Grand Final against winners from Beijing, Foshan, Guangzhou, Macao, and Shenzhen. The annual event also introduced the Sustainability Impact Awards this year, a new honor dedicated to recognizing outstanding performance in the areas of ESG. HKUST members’ interest and strong entrepreneurial capabilities were also on display at Hong Kong Techathon 2023, where they constituted 38% of the 945 participants. The event, jointly organized by HKUST, eight other local universities and Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, provided a week- long platform for programmers, engineers, designers, marketers, and entrepreneurs to develop ideas and prototypes and pitch for seed funding and incubation. Ten HKUST teams won a total of 11 awards for their novel projects, the most for an individual institution. Advice and Experience-Sharing MentorHUB@HKUST, a platform fostering real-time feedback and timely results for early-stage start- ups, enabled mentors and mentees to seamlessly connect. In 2022-23, MentorHUB drew 24 mentors and over 460 mentees from 177 start- ups across 10 sectors and industries. Work Space theBASE serves as a dynamic co- working space and multifunctional area for meetings, demonstrations, and events, fostering idea exchange, team-building, and networking. Key events over the year included S t a r t up Runway 2022 , I n f o Day@theBASE 2022, and various entrepreneurship talks. Business Know-How and Promotion The Entrepreneurship Center ran 29 workshops covering idea generation, business planning, marketing, finance, and legal issues, among others. Together with the Office of Knowledge Transfer, it also supported the participation of over 70 start-ups in 10 diverse exhibitions to showcase the companies and connect with investors.