The AIT Entrepreneurship Center has been launched to equip students and faculty with the spirit of innovation and start-ups.
The AIT Entrepreneurship Center was launched at the “100 Innovations X Entrepreneurs” conference on 27 September 2019 organized by AIT. The Entrepreneurship Center is envisioned to be a place for incubating young entrepreneurs and providing them with entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities for sustainable development. AIT President Eden Woon said: “I expect the AIT Entrepreneurship Center to be a breeding ground for future business leaders as well as a learning center, where AIT students, faculty, and alumni come to share their knowledge to create innovations and businesses with the ultimate goal of enhancing economic and social development. It will also be an inclusive center, reaching out to interested outside academic and business parties, and it will be the home base for our new Entrepreneurship Minor.”
Inaugural events organized by the AIT Entrepreneurship Center include a “ideas entrepreneurship camp” with student delegations from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and National University of Singapore and AIT. Then there was an expert talk by Ludovic Sinet of Good Tech Lab on “The Role of Science and Technology in Solving the World’s Biggest Problems” held on October 8, 2019; and a visit by a delegation from the National Innovation Agency led by its Executive Director Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana on October 7, 2019.
The AIT Entrepreneurship Center is located in a brand-new space in the AIT Enterprise Building on the AIT campus. The Center offers an “Innovation space” for co-working, a “Maker space” for prototyping and a “Support space” with experts helping in IP and business development. The Center supports next-generation entrepreneurs seeking to move their business forward along with social development. We invite national and regional entrepreneurs and support their collaboration with government agencies, the industrial sector, and organizations and partners. The Center’s activities and events will equip them with the entrepreneurial and innovative capabilities they need to stay ahead in the digital economy in both national and regional contexts. The Center has just started its work and will organize activities such as mentorship, hackathons, lectures, incubations, introductions to entrepreneurs and venture capitalists and its own business competition.
Furthermore, the AIT Entrepreneurship Center will provide many special benefits to both individual and corporate members. Privileges and opportunities for individual members include the chance to learn through design and training and having hands-on experience in workshops as well as opportunities to attend mentoring sessions and discussions with lecturers and invited experts from innovative industries. As regards privileges and benefits available to corporate members, the AIT Entrepreneurship Center will serve as a space with innovative ecosystems designed to strengthen academic-industrial collaborations and enhance economic and technological developments. Members can access a wide network of knowledge within AIT and benefit from becoming members of the AIT Enterprise Alliance.
President Woon added: “We have a terrific founding director in Professor Dieter Trau who is concurrently the Dean of School of Engineering and Technology. He is an accomplished academic, coming to AIT just three months ago from the National University of Singapore, with a number of patents and deep tech companies he founded or cofounded. My Vice President for Knowledge Transfer Dr. Naveed Anwar will oversee the entire operation. They are now developing the Entrepreneurship Minor which will be launched in August 2020.”