13 IN FOCUS but also from around the world. From the experience gained from this venture, Prof. Li launched the Hong Kong X-Tech Startup Platform in , together with Sequoia Capital China founding and managing partner Neil SHEN and Prof. CHEN Guanhua of the University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area have a great chance to be the next start-up powerhouse, according to Prof. Li. “We did a lot of benchmarking, with incubators in Silicon Valley, Beijing, and other places. Our estimate, con rmed by suppliers and chipmakers who provide support here and elsewhere, was that we are ve to times faster when it comes to iteration and probably one-tenth or one- h the cost. That is our competitive edge.” What lies ahead To inspire the even younger generation, Prof. Li is now starting a secondary school with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math (STEAM) near the University’s Clear Water Bay campus, together with the Shaw Foundation, which runs the prestigious annual Shaw Prize for the sciences. He foresees automation and robotics as a positive way to deal with economic and social challenges arising from aging populations. There will also be more machines to add convenience and improve quality of life overall. “We are already working on areas such as construction, autonomous driving, and logistics. So you won’t see a sudden switch to a di erent way of living. But, a er a while, people will not remember what life was like before such products were available.” Going places In postgraduate studies with Prof. Li Zexiang, DJI drone company founder Frank Wang continued to work on his autopilot and establishing his business. He used his early unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to conduct aerial surveys and damage assessment following the devastating Sichuan earthquake in and one year later succeeded in sending the rst unmanned autonomous vehicle to overfly and take aerial footage of Mount Everest. In , a er attending a US product show, the young entrepreneur was asked by an American aerial cinematography company to design a new kind of gimbal, a device for keeping an instrument level in a moving aircra , to stabilize camera shots from the air. “We then saw many customers were buying the gimbal and autopilot together with a GoPro camera to create their own drone for aerial photography. DJI decided to build all-in-one consumer drones and to go it alone. We would establish our own brand name and channels,” said Prof. Li, who is chairman of DJI. “It was a lot of learning for engineering students, but Frank Wang was not afraid to do anything.” Hong Kong Macau Shenzhen Zhongshan Foshan Dongguan Huizhou Guangzhou Zhuhai Greater Bay Area Designs on the future: Prof. Li sees automation and robotics as a way to improve overall quality of life. Prof. Li and then postgraduate student Frank Wang, founder of DJI, preparing for the early drone test ight over Mount Everest. Recently Prof. Li and Frank Wang received the prestigious IEEE Robotics and Automation Award for their unique contributions to the development and commercialization of civilian drones, aerial imaging technology, robotics engineering advancement, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
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