HKUST Annual Report 2024-2025

23 L E A R N I N G F O R L I F E SPEARHEADING ENTERPRISE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP Along with employability, we have long championed the entrepreneurial spirit among our students. The Greater Bay Area Learning Trip 2025, supported by the Funding Scheme for Youth Entrepreneurship in the GBA, took participants to multiple locations in Shenzhen to explore the University’s support for early-stage start-ups and the overall entrepreneurial landscape. The Asian Universities Alliance-HKUST Entrepreneurship Bootcamp 2024 showcased a broader regional engagement, bringing together over 40 students from 14 universities across Asia for a week at HKUST focused on social entrepreneurship, design thinking, pitching, and business modelling. The Division of Integrative Systems and Design also held an 11-day inaugural InnoBay Bootcamp to engage future technopreneurs in interdisciplinary collaboration. Our flagship HKUST One Million Dollar Entrepreneurship Competition expanded its regional footprint in 2024, hosting rounds in Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou, Foshan, and Shenzhen. This expansion was marked by several key achievements. The Hong Kong edition attracted 340 teams, a surge driven by the new international student track that drew participants from 15 countries and regions. In the Chinese Mainland, the Foshan round introduced a “New Quality Productivity” track, while the Guangzhou contest was integrated with the city’s own S&T Start-up Competition. A standout success story from the Shenzhen round was UMateria Technology Limited which, winning the Shenzhen regional event, went on to compete against 1,160 projects in the national Grand Final. The company has developed a giant electrorheological fluid for shock absorption, with applications in vehicle safety and other uses.