EmTech Hong Kong is where technology, business, and culture converge. It is the showcase for the emerging technologies with the greatest potential to change our lives and an access point to the most innovative people and companies in the world. Most of all, EmTech Hong Kong is a place of inspiration—an opportunity to glimpse the future and begin to understand the technologies that matter and how they will change the face of business and drive the new global economy.
The Future of Technology. Today. Join us on 7-8 June 2016 for two days of intelligent conversation as we bring MIT Technology Review’s award winning editorial content to life.
The world’s most influential leaders and innovators are coming to EmTech Hong Kong. Get inspired and hear from those who are driving the next generation of technological breakthroughs and changing the world.
We are tapping the rich diversity of the tech community to gather experts who will give you the inside track on disrupting technologies and business approaches that are creating new markets and changing our society.
Who speaks at EmTech?
Mr Tsang spent his secondary school years in La Salle College in Hong Kong and Stuyvesant High School in New York City. He pursued his interest in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and went on to receive a Master Degree in Bilingual Education from Boston State College and a Master Degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Mr Tsang worked in the Boston Public Schools prior to joining the Hong Kong civil service in November 1982. As a member of the Administrative Service, he served in a number of posts in the Government. After reunification, he served as Director General of the London Economic and Trade Office, Commissioner of Customs and Excise, Secretary for Planning and Lands and Permanent Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands (Planning and Lands).
Mr Tsang was appointed Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology in August 2003. He chaired the successfully concluded World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in December 2005. He was appointed Director of the Chief Executive’s Office in January 2006 and has been serving as Financial Secretary since 1 July 2007.
Mr Tsang is married with two children.
Financial Secretary
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Mr. Wong Ming-yam, BBS, JP is currently the Chairman of Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI). He is also the Director and Non-executive Director of a number of technology companies. Prior to this, he was the Senior Vice President of Royal Philips Electronics. Devoted to promoting innovation and technology, and public service, Mr. Wong has served as a member of several Government Boards and Committees in the past 30 years. He was a member of Innovation and Technology Fund Vetting Committee, and a member of Assessment Panel of Small Entrepreneur Research Assistance Programme (SERAP) of Innovation and Technology Commission, Council Member & Deputy Chairman of Hong Kong Productivity Council, and Director of Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation. At present, he is the Chairman of the CreateSmart Initiative Vetting Committee of Create HK, Ex-officio member of the Advisory Committee on Innovation & Technology of HKSAR Government.
Chairman
Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI)
Steve Chu, Chief Strategy Officer of HiSilicon and Vice President of Huawei, has 19 years of experience in the field of communication, semiconductor and investment. He holds B.Sc and M.Sc degree from Xi'an Jiaotong University, under the guidance of Chinese Academy of Science Fellow, Zheng Nanning.
Steve holds several international patents and is a pioneer in China and the World's modern mobile communications and microelectronics. He was one of the key person in charge of China’s first commercial base station project; he led the development of World’s first SDR broadband base station prototype; he released China's first WCDMA+GSM smartphone chip solution and world's first TD-SCDMA smartphone chip solution.
Steve is also an innovator and created Huawei incubator that pioneered in several fields in high-speed rail communication, e-health and new energy. Moreover, he established an experienced investment team which succeeded in completing dozens of semiconductor investment and acquisition projects in China, UK, Belgium, Israel and Singapore.
Recently, Steve initiated the successful formation of joint venture among four international parties: SMIC, Huawei, IMEC and Qualcomm, and was received by Chinese president Xi and His Majesty King Philippe of Belgium at the signing ceremony.
Vice President, Huawei Technology
Chief Strategy Officer, HiSilicon
Wei-Ping Huang received his bachelor’s degree in electronics from Shandong University in 1982 with provincial and national honors. He earned a master degree in 1984 from the University of Science and Technology of China and a Ph.D degree in 1989 from the MIT both in electrical engineering.
Dr. Huang has held faculty positions in University of Waterloo, Canada (assistant professor in 1989, associate professor with tenure in 1992, and professor in 1996). He was a professor at Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McMaster University, Canada from 1999 to 2013. He also worked at Nortel (Canada) and NTT (Japan) and served as consultants for several companies in North America and Asia. He founded Apollo Photonics Inc. in 1995 to commercialize his academic research in modeling and simulation of photonic devices and integrated circuits. The company was acquired in 1999. He then went on to co-found Ligent Photonics Inc., a joint venture with Hisense Co for development of optical transceivers. The company (now Hisense Broadband Multimedia Technologies Inc.) is a leading global supplier of optical transceivers for access, wireless and cloud datacenters with over 500 million USD in 2015. He is now Chief Scientist of Hisense Electric Co. and Chairman of Qingdao Hisense Broadband Multimedia Technology Co.. He also serves as the dean, School of Information Science and Engineering, Shandong University.
He is internationally known for his contributions and expertise for photonic devices and integrated circuits. He has authored and co-authored over 300 research papers and holds 7 US patents. He was elected as a Cheung Kong Scholars by Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China, and Li Ka Shing Foundation, Hong Kong in 2000 and 1000 Talent Award by Chinese Government in 2013.
Chairman
Qingdao Hisense Broadband Multimedia Technologies
Vitalik is the creator of Ethereum. He first discovered blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies through Bitcoin in 2011, and was immediately excited by the technology and its potential. He cofounded Bitcoin Magazine in September 2011, and after two and a half years looking at what the existing blockchain technology and applications had to offer, wrote the Ethereum white paper in November 2013. He now leads Ethereum's research team, working on future versions of the Ethereum protocol.
Co-Founder
Ethereum Foundation
Tim Swanson is currently Director of Market Research at R3CEV. He worked in East Asia for more than six years and is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a visiting research fellow at the Sim Kee Boon Institute at Singapore Management University and is a graduate of Texas A&M University. He is the author of three books.
Head of Market Research
R3-CEV
Sean O’Sullivan is founder and Managing Director of SOSV. Sean got his entrepreneurial start as a founder of MapInfo, bringing street mapping technology to personal computers. MapInfo went on to become a $200 million public company with over 1,000 employees. In another startup, he and George Favaloro from Compaq invented the term “cloud computing.” Sean has continued as a visionary entrepreneur and investor, creating and supporting a range of businesses, humanitarian and educational endeavors, including JumpStart International, CoderDojo, Mathletes and Khan Academy.
Sean graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1985 with a degree in electrical engineering.
Managing Director
SOSV
Esben H. Østergaard is Chief Technology Officer at Universal Robots and is responsible for the enhancement of existing UR robots and the development of new products. He holds a Ph.D. in Robotics.
Esben H. Østergaard is one of the inventors behind the UR robots. During his years from 2001 – 2005 as researcher and assistant professor in robotics and user interfaces at University of Southern Denmark, he created the foundation for a reinvention of the industrial robot. In 2005, this led him to found Universal Robots together with two of his research colleagues. Since then, Universal Robots has taken about 30 patents on the technology of the robot. Besides his work as CTO, Esben H. Østergaard is participating in national research projects and he is also an external examiner at several universities in Denmark.
Earlier in his career, he worked as research scientist at USC Robotics Labs in Southern California and also at AIST in Tokyo as a visiting researcher. During his studies in Computer Science, Physics and Multimedia at Aarhus University in Denmark, he focused exclusively on robotics and became world champion in his hobby; robot football in 1998.
CTO & Founder
Universal Robots
Bénédicte N. Nolens is Senior Director and Head of Risk and Strategy (R&S) of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). Bénédicte joined the SFC in 2012 to establish a new, centralized unit, overseeing risk identification and related strategic planning.
In 2013, R&S published a report entitled "G-SIFI Trends in Risk and Risk Mitigation", setting out best practices in risk governance and risk culture. In 2015, R&S published a second report entitled "Asset Management: Looking Forward", setting out risk and strategic trends in asset management, including trends in e-platforms and other innovations in the fund distribution channel.
During the course of 2015, Bénédicte was appointed as a member of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Market Experts Group on Asset Management, as a member of the Hong Kong Financial Service and Treasury Bureau Fintech Steering Group, and also as the Vice Chair of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) Committee on Emerging Risks (CER), which issues an annual IOSCO Risk Outlook report. Starting March 2016, Bénédicte oversees the Fintech Contact Point of the SFC.
Before joining the SFC, Bénédicte was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse and an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs. Bénédicte holds an LLM and MBA (high honours), and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1998. In January 2016, Bénédicte was a recipient of the China Daily Asian Women Leadership Awards at the Asia Financial Forum (AFF), recognizing women who are agents of change in their societies and role models in entrepreneurship, innovation, charity and the empowerment of women.
Senior Director, Head of Risk and Strategy
Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission
Charles G. Sodini received his Ph.D. degree from UC Berkeley and was with Hewlett-Packard Laboratories from 1974-1982. He joined MIT in 1983, where his current research interests are focused on medical electronic systems for monitoring and diagnostics. He is the co-founder of the Medical Electronic Device Realization Center at MIT.
Prof. Sodini was a co-founder of SMaL Camera Technologies a leader in imaging technology for consumer digital cameras and machine vision cameras for automotive applications. He was president of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society from 2002-2004. He serves on a variety of industry boards and is a Fellow of the IEEE.
Clarence J. LeBel Professor of Electrical Engineering
MIT
Dr. Kai YU is the founder and CEO of Horizon Robotics Inc. He is a recognized pioneer and leader in deep learning and artificial intelligence. He was the founder and Head of Baidu Institute of Deep Learning (IDL), the first and most established artificial intelligence R&D center in China industry. Dr. Yu is elected to China “Top 1000 Talents”, a prestigious group of technology leaders of the country.
Founder and Chief Executive at Horizon Robotics
Founder of Baidu’s Institute of Deep Learning (IDL)
Horizon Robotics
Dr. Andreas Kind heads the Shanghai Lab of IBM Research - China and coordinates the research agenda on Financial Services and Security in the emerging markets. He received a PhD in Computer Science in 1998 from the University of Bath (UK) and joined the Systems Research group at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory after working on multi-protocol routers at the Research Laboratories of NEC Europe (1998-2000). In his previous positions at IBM he led Systems Management Research in the Computer Science Department of the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory and the Systems Research Department at IBM Research -- China in Beijing. Andreas co-led IBM's 2015 Global Technology Outlook on Payments Innovation and Blockchain. His current focus is on Cognitive Finance and FinTech (incl. Blockchain applications). Andreas holds over 20 patents and authored and co-authored over 40 research publications.
Head of Shanghai Lab
IBM Research - China
Dr. Mike North, host of Discovery shows "Prototype This!," "In The Making," & "The Potentialists," and Science Show "Outrageous Acts of Science," is an undaunted, anything-but-mild engineer. Fusing science with media he opens doors to awe-inspiring experiences and radical paradigm shifts, whether teaching innovation at UC Berkeley, creating a more equitable planet as founder of ReAllocate, or making the impossible at North Design Labs.
Host
In The Making
Jason is elected as a Legislator this year. He is fully aware that Taiwan cannot thrive without cooperating with other countries. With this role, he is able to continuously work on innovation, sustainability, education, areas that are essential to Taiwan with more power.
In 2008 Jason co-founded The Big Questions, a consultancy focuses on social innovation and brings leaders from all fields to engage in conversations and actions for sustainable future. A year later he founded TEDxTaipei and has been serving as a TEDx Ambassador since 2011. Meanwhile Jason keeps learning. In 2013 he received scholarship from Amsterdam School of Creative Leadership. In 2015 he attended Executive Program at Singularity University.
Advisory Committee Member on Innovation & Education at Prime Minister’s Office, Executive Yuan
Taiwan Government
Denis Tse is the Managing Partner of Asia-IO Advisors Limited. Most recently he was the Head of Asia - Private Investment with Lockheed Martin Investment Management Company. He has 17 years of private equity direct and fund investment experience in Asia, having worked with J.H Whitney, CDIB Capital, and HSBC Private Equity (Asia), where he became the first Kauffman Fellow from an Asian venture firm. Denis is one of Chief Investment Officer "2014 Forty Under Forty", and was named one of "Asia’ 25 most influential people in private equity" by Asian Investor in 2013. He is the Chairperson of the Business Committee of the Advisory Council on Innovation & Technology to the Chief Executive of HKSAR. A Hong Kong native, Denis has an MBA from INSEAD and a BSc (Hon.) from Northwestern University.
Managing Principal
Asia-IO Advisors Limited
Dr. Chia-Peng Day is a Sr. VP/General Manager of the Foxconn Technology Group. He had received a Ph.D. from M.I.T. Dr. Day had worked at General Motors Manufacturing Development on early painting robot development, as a founding member and director of advanced robot systems at GM-Fanuc Robotics, and worked on automation systems at Rockwell Automation and manufacturing systems at Stoneridge Corp. before joining Foxconn.
General Manager - Automation Technology Development Committee
Foxconn
Dr. Meikei Ieong is Chief Technology Officer of Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), responsible for the overall R&D strategy and execution. Prior to this, he held various leadership positions in leading technology companies, including Vice President of TSMC Europe B.V., R&D Director at TSMC, Taiwan, and senior manager at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY.
He holds a PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an MBA degree from the MIT Sloan Fellows Program at MIT School of Management. He has published more than 100 papers in journals and conference proceedings and more than 80 patents. His publication has been cited more than 8,900 citations.
Dr. Ieong has received many awards over his career such as IBM Master Inventor Award, IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award, and IBM Corporate Award. He is an IEEE Fellow in recognition of his leadership and contributions to Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) Device Technology.
Chief Technology Officer
Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI)
Yasheng Huang is the International Program Professor in Chinese Economy and Business and a Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also an Associate Dean at MIT Sloan School of Management.
Huang founded and runs the China Lab and the India Lab, which aim to help entrepreneurs in those countries improve their management skills. He is an expert source on international business, political economy, and international management. In collaboration with other scholars, Huang is conducting research on human capital formation in China and India, entrepreneurship, and ethnic and labor-intensive foreign direct investment (FDI). Prior to MIT Sloan, he held faculty positions at the University of Michigan and at Harvard Business School. Huang also served as a consultant to the World Bank.
His research has been profiled in many publications, including TheWall Street Journal, The Economist, Le Monde, as well as in numerous Chinese publications. In one of his many books, Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics (2008), Huang shows that private entrepreneurship, facilitated by financial liberalization and microeconomic flexibility, played a central role in China’s economic miracle. The book was selected by The Economist as a best book in 2008. He has also published in Chinese, including, MIT and Innovations (2015), The Transformation of Chinese Private Sector (2012), What Exactly is China Model? (Winner of the Blue Lion Prize for the best book published in 2011) and The Path of Big Enterprises (2010). A book on social innovations is forthcoming in 2016.
Dean for International Programs and Action Learning
MIT Sloan School of Management
Dennis Lo is the Director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his undergraduate education from the University of Cambridge, and his Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Oxford. Prof. Lo is a pioneer in the biology and diagnostic applications of cell-free nucleic acids. He discovered the presence of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma in 1997. This work has resulted in a paradigm shift in prenatal medicine, making prenatal testing safer for pregnant women and their babies. He has also spearheaded the use of circulating nucleic acids for cancer detection and monitoring, an area that is now commonly referred to as liquid biopsies for cancer. In recognition of his work, Prof. Lo has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and as a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, and has been awarded the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine in 2014.
Director, Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Gerald Wong is the President and CEO of CIG (Cambridge Industries Group). Mr. Wong received a BS and MS from M.I.T. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science IN 1985. He worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories for more than 15 years, with his last position as the Vice President of Lucent Technologies Optical Networking Group. In 2000, he founded Photonic Bridges, an optical Ethernet system company, which was acquired by Nokia Siemens Networks in 2005. Later that year, he co-founded CIG, which is now a significant player in the Telecom optical and wireless broadband customer-premises equipment industry.
CEO
Cambridge Industries Group
Professor Fiona Murray is the Associate Dean of Innovation at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Alvin J. Siteman (1948) Professor of Entrepreneurship and the Faculty Director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. She is the Co-Director of MIT’s Initiative for Innovation. She is also an associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
She is an international expert on the transformation of investments in scientific and technical innovation into innovation-based entrepreneurship that drives jobs, wealth creation, and regional prosperity. She has a special interest in entrepreneurship, the commercialization of science and the economics of entrepreneurship and innovation. She has done extensive work with entrepreneurs, governments, large corporations and philanthropists designing and evaluating the policies and programs that shape vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems: prizes competitions, accelerators, patent licensing rules and proof of concept funding programs.
Murray has taught and published extensively on fostering cultures that bridge scientific innovation and entrepreneurship, building effective entrepreneurial strategies for science-based businesses (in biotech and biomedical companies and recently, clean energy), and evaluating the commercial potential of novel scientific ideas. Closely tied to real world problems, Fiona works with public policy makers and entrepreneurs designing and evaluating the policies and programs that shape vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems: prizes competitions, accelerators, patent licensing rules and proof of concept funding programs.
Associate Dean of Innovation
MIT Sloan School of Management
As editor in chief, Jason Pontin is responsible for the editorial direction, media platforms, and business strategy of MIT Technology Review, including the rapidly expanding U.S. and international websites, the award-winning print magazine, videos, newsletters, business reports, and live events such as EmTech, the company’s annual conference focused on emerging technologies. He also serves as chairman of its international entrepreneurial network, MIT Enterprise Forum.
Mr. Pontin joined MIT Technology Review in 2004 as its editor and was named publisher in August 2005. From 1996 to 2002, Mr. Pontin was the editor of Red Herring, a business and technology publication. From 2002 to 2004 he served as editor in chief of the Acumen Journal, which he founded, covering the business, economic, and policy implications of discoveries in biotechnology and the life sciences. He has written for national and international publications, including the New York Times, the Economist, the Financial Times, Wired, and the Believer. He is a frequent guest on television and radio.
Editor in Chief & Publisher
MIT Technology Review
Dr. Ryan C.C. Chin is the CEO and Co-founder of Optimus Ride Inc – an MIT spinoff company based in Cambridge, MA that develops self-driving technologies that enable safe, sustainable, and equitable mobility access.
Dr. Chin was the Managing Director of the City Science Initiative at the MIT Media Lab (2012-2015). He conducted Smart Cities research in the areas of urban mobility, housing, energy, and big data analytics. He researched Autonomous Mobility-on-Demand (MoD) Systems – a network of self-driving, shared-use, electric vehicles (EVs). He developed EVs including the GreenWheel, RoboScooter, Persuasive Electric Vehicle, and the CityCar – a foldable, electric, two-person vehicle. Time Magazine named the CityCar the “Automotive Invention of the Year” in 2007. His research led to the MIT Press publication of Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century by Mitchell, Borroni-Bird, and Burns in 2010.
Dr. Chin advises industry and government agencies on Smart Cities innovations. He is a member of PCAST’s (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) working group on “Technology and the Future of Cities.” His MIT Professional Education course “Beyond Smart Cities” attracts global participants from corporate, public, and educational sectors. He frequently travels as a speaker at conferences like TEDx, MIT EmTech, and Smart City Expo. His op-ed articles have been featured in publications like the Guardian and BBC. His work has been exhibited at the Cooper Hewitt, Venice Biennale, and London Science Museum.
Dr. Chin has won awards for his research including the Katerva Award (2014) and the 100K Buckminster Fuller Challenge (2009). Esquire Magazine named him as one of the “Best and Brightest Innovators” under the age of 35 (2006). He received at MIT his PhD (2012) and MS (2004) in Media Arts and Sciences and a MArch (2000) in Architecture. He earned both his BCE and BSArch from the Catholic University of America (1997).
CEO, Optimus Ride and Former Managing Director, City Science Initiative, MIT Media Lab
Kent Larson directs the City Science Initiative and the Changing Places Group at the MIT Media Lab. Research is focused on developing urban interventions that enable more entrepreneurial, livable, high-performance districts in cities. His research team brings together architects, urban planners, computer scientists, and mechanical and electrical engineers to create an anti-disciplinary team to prototype and pilot test next-generation solutions for cities. Projects include advanced simulation and augmented reality for urban design, transformable micro-housing to make living in the creative heart of the city affordable for young professionals, and mobility-on-demand systems that provide practical and sustainable alternatives to private automobiles. Larson has established a network of living lab partner cities that includes Hamburg, Andorra, Taipei, Lisbon, and Boston. He and his researchers received the "10-Year Impact Award" from Ubicomp 2014: a "test of time" award for work that, with the benefit of that hindsight, has had the greatest impact.
Larson practiced architecture for 15 years in New York City, with design work published in Architectural Record, Progressive Architecture, Global Architecture, the New York Times, A+U, and Architectural Digest. His book, Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks was selected as one of the Ten Best Books in Architecture of the year by the New York Times Review of Books.
Director, MIT City Science Initiative and Director, Changing Places
MIT Media Lab
Dr. Kazerooni is a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as the director of the Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory. With more than 30 years of mechanical engineering experience and a doctorate degree from MIT, he is a leading expert in exoskeletons , robotics, control sciences, human-machine systems and augmentation, bioengineering, mechatronics design, intelligent assist devices, and power and propulsion. He has served in a variety of leadership roles in the mechanical engineering community and is notably the editor of two journals: ASME Journal of Dynamics Systems and Control and IEEE Transaction on Mechatronics. A recognized authority on robotics, Dr. Kazerooni has published more than 200 articles to date, delivered over 100 plenary lectures internationally, and is the inventors of numerous patents.
In addition to his teaching work and research experience in a academia, Dr. Kazerooni is also an entrepreneur. In 2005, he founded Ekso Bionics (www.eksobionics.com), which went on to become a publicly-owned company in 2014 and now supplies medical exoskeleton (Ekso) to a great number of rehabilitation centers worldwide. He is the founder and chairperson of U.S. Bionics, a VC, industry, and government funded company that provides accessible, affordable exoskeletons for the industrial, medical, and military markets (www.usbionics.com).
Founder and CEO, suitX
Director, Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory
University of California at Berkeley
Vladimir Bulović holds the Fariborz Maseeh Chair in Emerging Technology and co-directs the MIT Innovation Initiative. He is the faculty leading the design and construction of MIT's new nano-fabrication, nano-characterization, and prototyping facility. He also co-directs the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center, one of MIT's largest sponsored research programs. He leads the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Laboratory (ONE Lab), which he developed as a unique open nanotechnology facility.
Prior to joining the School of Engineering leadership, Vladimir directed the MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL), which during his tenure grew to support over 700 investigators and $80M of research programs from across the Institute. His academic papers have been cited over 10,000 times, while his 60 U.S. patents and numerous patent disclosures have been licensed and utilized by both start-up and multinational companies.
A practicing entrepreneur, Vladimir is a co-founder of QD Vision, Inc., Kateeva, Inc. and Ubiquitous Energy, Inc. These start-ups presently employ over 200 researchers in the U.S. and a similar number of employees abroad.
Associate Dean for Innovation, MIT School of Engineering
MIT
Duncan has a diverse background in human factors research, industrial design, product development, manufacturing and business.
He took numerous products from first concepts through research, funding, design, development, manufacturing and assembly to final sales of the product.
He joined IDEO in October 2011 after spending a number of years back and forth between the UK and China working closely with manufacturers to launch the designs and products that he created under a start-up brand.
He is now Program Director at HAX where he’s been a mentor since its inception. Prior to co-founding his own business, he worked for two years as a Human Factors Research Associate at the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre, part of the Royal College of Art (RCA) in the UK.
One of his projects at the RCA, “grab it”, which looked at the everyday act of cooking and handling hot objects in the kitchen through a new and human-centered approach, was exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York in 2005. The product has since become part of the museum’s permanent collection before being taken into production under another start-up brand he founded.
Managing Director
HAX
In her 14 years at MIT, Kathleen has helped MIT Technology Review to redefine the magazine brand and to achieve success in a rapidly changing market. She has established several new lines of business in the United States as well as in Asia, Europe and Latin America. She leads events, sales and international licensing for MIT’s media company as well as the global team of the entrepreneurial support organization, the MIT Enterprise Forum.
She has been a long-time judge for the MITX awards and a distinguished juror for Lemelson-MIT prizes, also known as the “Nobel Prize for Innovators.” She sits on the board of the MIT Enterprise Forum and she was awarded the 2009 Folio: 40, which recognized the most innovative and influential people in magazines.
President
MIT Technology Review
Cesar Jung-Harada is a French-Japanese environmentalist, inventor and entrepreneur based in Hong Kong. Founder of MakerBay (Hong Kong MakerSpace for Social and Environmental Impact), Scoutbots and Protei INC (Ocean Robotics). Cesar is dedicating his life to explore and protect oceans with open technologies. Protei is a shape-shifting sailing robot, a wind-powered maritime drone that is aimed at collect ocean data or transport equipment. Cesar is a Former MIT Project Leader, TED Senior Fellow, GOOD 100, IBM Figure of Progress, Unreasonable at Sea Fellow. Cesar believes that nature, human and technology can thrive in harmony.
Founder & Director
MakerBay
Rex Sham is Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of Insight Robotics where he is responsible for technology and innovation strategy and leads the company’s engineering teams. He has also prototyped hardware and software solutions for Insight Robotics’ current core technologies and co-authored two patents. Prior to Insight Robotics, Rex had extensive experience in the field, undertaking research on the topic at Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and Hong Kong University and developing Hong Kong Robot, a popular robotics interest website. He received a B.S. in Computer Science from CUHK.
Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer
Insight Robotics
Manav Gupta is a technology visionary, strategist and serial entrepreneur. Having spent the past decade to developing tech and startup ecosystems in China, he is familiar with the hurdles hardware companies face in getting products that drive deep consumer engagement to market. Prior to Brinc, Manav was CEO and co-founder of FabriQate, an award-winning mobile innovation company based in London.
Based primarily in Asia for most of his life, Manav has been deeply committed the past decade to growing tech and startup ecosystems in South China. An early proponent of IoT with a deep understanding of smart devices and their integration with the digital world to meaningfully transform how consumers live and interact, Manav works with startups, corporates and manufacturers from all over the world to meet market demand for connected devices and is familiar with the hurdles hardware companies face in getting products that drive deep consumer engagement to market.
Manav is active in the mobile ecosystem in South China and has organized a number of TEDx events, supported Web Wednesdays and helped launch Guangzhou’s first Mobile Monday. He has recently taken a similarly active role in HK to soon launch HK’s largest IoT event in 2016. He has been covered by Bloomberg, CNN, FT and a variety of other media outlets. Manav is also a regular speaker at global events including Shenzhen Maker Faire, AVCJ Summit in Beijing, Mobile Asia Expo in HK & Shanghai and Global App Summit in Dubai among others.
Founder and CEO
Brinc
Frank Verbeek is an autodidact with more than twenty years of experience in international business development positions within a Dutch multinational. He worked in South Korea and Hong Kong in the domain of healthcare in the emerging markets. Four years ago he followed his dream to become an entrepreneur and set up his own company, Gociety Solutions. Gociety’s goal is to substantially increase seniors’ ability to live longer at their homes independently and enable caregivers to organize remote care more efficiently. Frank’s ambition is to develop the "Tricoder" for seniors, to enable prevention, early diagnosis and continuous care. As a first step he successfully developed and brought to market the GoLivePhone, GoLiveAssist & GoLiveWear. Gociety Solutions uses a unique transparent working method, built on long term partnerships. It expands and diversifies through new collaborations.
CEO
Gociety
Danny Yeung serves as Chief Executive Officer and sets the business strategies along with the vision for Prenetics. Prior to joining Prenetics, Danny as Founding Partner/Investor at SXE Ventures led multiple investments in DNA Genetic testing companies. Previously, Danny had founded uBuyiBuy in 2010 which was subsequently acquired by Groupon. Prior to Danny leaving Groupon in early 2014, Danny served as CEO of Groupon East Asia, having scaled the business to a size of over USD $130m annually, overseeing a staff of 350 and being highly profitable. Danny’s entrepreneurial journey started at the age of 25 when he ventured into franchising Hong Kong award-winning dessert chain Hui Lau Shan into USA. After exiting Hui Lau Shan, Danny successfully ventured into hospitality furniture and executed multi-million dollar projects with MGM City Center, City of Dreams Macau and Venetian. Danny is currently a Founding Partner at SXE Ventures, Board Member at Parabase Genomics, Limited Partner and Mentor for 500 Startups. Danny received his BS in MIS from the University of San Francisco. Danny’s life motto is “Play Hard, Work Harder”.
CEO
Prenetics
Jeeva Wireless is revolutionizing the way devices communicate by providing Wi-Fi, ZigBee and Bluetooth transmissions at 10,000x less power than the best solutions currently on the market. Shyam is the recipient of a 2015 National Science Foundation Career Award and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. He was named among MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in energy for his groundbreaking work on ambient backscatter, which enables battery-free devices to be powered using ambient wireless signals.
Co-Founder, Jeeva Wireless
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington
Mr. Eric Chen is the founder of Vitargent (International) Biotechnology Ltd. Established in 2011, Vitargent aims to be a world leading platform to provide innovative testing solutions and certification to enhance the safety of everyday consumer products (e.g food, drink, cosmetics) and to protect the environment. It has successfully signed up with the world’s largest cosmetics groups, F&B conglomerates, leading testing labs and government departments. With the firm support of these groups, the technology/protocol is being developed as regional and international standards.
He invests and advices on a number of international tech companies and VC Funds including iNetwork Ltd (Israel-Focused VC fund), WI Harper (Silicon Valley VC fund), Pebbles Interface (an Israel VR company, acquired by Facebook in 2015), Sanguine Biosciences Inc (an US Healthcare/IT company) and Geneformics (Israel data compression technology company).
He graduated from the City University of Hong Kong with a first class degree in Engineering and minor in Marketing, and earned his Master of Economics at the University of Hong Kong. Mr. Chen is the First Ever Forbes Asia “30 under 30” Winner (2016), Davos Innovation Pioneer (2015), Grand Prix Winner of the 43rd International Geneva Inventions (2015), HSBC Young Entrepreneur Awards (Asia) winner (2011) and a Hong Kong Jockey Club Scholar (2007). Mr. Chen is an enthusiast in sports - he had played baseball for China and is now playing badminton for a leading club in China.
Founder
Vitargent
Arthur Hayes worked as an equity derivatives trader in Hong Kong for Deutsche Bank and Citigroup for 5 years. Arthur was the head ETF market maker at both firms. In January 2014, BitMEX - Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange was formed. BitMEX is a P2P leveraged financial products trading exchange. BitMEX through the use of Bitcoin as collateral, allows anyone anywhere to access the global markets.
Co-Founder and CEO
BitMEX
Dr. Michael Sung is managing director for CarbonBlue Innovations, a leading tech transfer company bridging international innovation to China. He is an active mentor/investor as a partner in a number of accelerator and early-stage venture funds, focused in the space of robotics/automation, smart hardware, and sustainability technologies. Dr. Sung is faculty at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology focused on entrepreneurship and advises the HK/Shenzhen governments on intellectual property strategy, technology transfer, and commercialisation.
Managing Director, CarbonBlue Innovations
Adjunct Associate Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Dr Duncan Wong is responsible for developing strategic plans for ASTRI's Exploratory Research Program, with emphasis on high impact, emerging or inter-disciplinary technologies. He is also responsible for building and leading world-class R&D teams to conduct and implement the technologies. Some initial technology areas for consideration are advanced computing technology, cloud computing security, data-rich computing, big data analytics, and bio-informatics.
Information security and cryptography are his primary R&D interests, in particular, cryptographic protocols, encryption and signature schemes, e-payments, crypto-currencies, and anonymous systems. He has authored over 200 publications in cryptography and information security.
Dr Wong has served as a member including the chair of the program committee for over 90 international conferences in cryptography and information security. He is currently an editor of International Journal of Applied Cryptography (IJACT).
Dr Wong was granted the post of Hangzhou Qianjiang Distinguished Expert in 2011 for his expertise in cryptographic protocols and schemes.Director, Security and Data Sciences
Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI)
Rise of the Robots: Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and the Implications for the Enterprise
How intelligent systems are impacting businesses worldwide? Breakthroughs in AI open new frontiers for our connected devices to be smarter, weaving them seamlessly into our environments at home, at work, and on the go. At the same time, leading innovators are designing robots to interact more naturally—and safely—with humans in our existing environments, reimaging productivity for a future where man and machine work side by side.
Industry 4.0: New Frontiers for Manufacturing
3D printing and makers promise to democratise manufacturing. Robots, drones and nanotechnology are changing the world of manufacturing from factory to warehousing and even logistics. What will the factory of the future look like?
Future Cities: Rethinking Urban Environments
Older cities face aging infrastructure, while rapid urbanization has new cities under pressure to deliver sustainable services quickly. Around the world, cities are focusing on new technologies to prepare for dramatic population growth. Cities in the 21st century will account for nearly 90% of global population growth, 80% of wealth creation, and 60% of total energy consumption. It is a global imperative to develop systems that improve the liveability of cities while dramatically reducing resource consumption. Innovative transportation, energy breakthroughs, building solutions and sensing technologies will improve our lives.
FinTech: Cryptocurrencies, Blockchain and the Future of Money
Banking as we know it is changing. Incumbents are under aggressive pressure from disruptors to deliver faster, better and cheaper services. How are we going to bank and pay securely in the future and what will the future of money look like?
HealthTech: Technologies to Assist an Ageing Population
Explore the future of healthcare and how technology is improving our lives. From wearables to assistive robots, personalised medicine and even genome editing, the promise of better living through data is within reach.
For the first time in Hong Kong, MIT Professional Education brings its expert faculty to help professionals innovate beyond the future, the MIT way. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the mind and hand learning from MIT faculty. This one-day immersive workshop will explore holistic models for high-performance urban living through lectures and integrated group exercises, and is led exclusively by MIT experts Dr. Kent Larson and Dr. Ryan Chin. All participants will receive an official MIT certificate upon workshop completion. Register for the Workshop*.
*Please note: Registration for the workshop does not include access to the main conference on 7-8 June. Register for the conference here.
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Join us in leading the conversation with the businesses and people working on the emerging technologies that will change our lives.
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