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October 3, 2016

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Home » City specials » Ningbo

Tech fair draws smart innovations

By Chen Xian | October 3, 2016, Monday | Print Edition

SEAMUS Curran, chairman of Houston-based Integricote Company in the United States, visited Ningbo recently to exhibit the company’s water-repellent nano coating materials at the Ningbo High-tech Trade Fair.

He poured water on coated fabrics which remained dry at the fair. Tang Yijun, acting mayor of Ningbo, showed interest in his products and asked whether these coating materials are harmful to the environment. Curran said these are environmentally friendly materials and can dissolve automatically.

Tang suggested that Curran find a Ningbo partner to promote his products in China. Curran said he was looking for cooperation opportunities here and hoped to use nano coating materials to protect Ningbo’s heritage buildings, such as the centuries-old Tianyige Museum.

The high-tech trade fair, as part of the 11th Ningbo Talent and Tech Week from September 24 to 28, presented 400 high-tech projects. It also featured a financial service and business consulting zone in the fair. About 1,200 companies and research institutes participated in the fair which saw agreement deals signed, worth a total of 166 million yuan (US$25 million). A composite material technology was the most expensive.

An innovation seminar was held after the fair with 12 American scientists and innovators demonstrating 40 new technologies and inventions.

“The United States has an advanced ecosystem for innovation and a vast pool of talent resources. Ningbo is advanced in China in manufacturing and new materials industries. We hope the two sides can find opportunities for cooperation and mutual development,” said Yan Xiaohong, director of the China Science and Technology Exchange Center.

At the seminar, Chinese and American companies signed eight agreements for cooperation in medicine, electronics, new energy, new materials, and environmental protection sectors.

Ningbo is attracting talented professionals from around the world in an effort to upgrade local industries and develop the smart economy. In August, the city became the first in the country to pilot the “Made in China 2025” initiative and develop an innovative and competitive manufacturing sector for other cities to emulate.

Smart economy which is characterized by the use of smart technologies in manufacturing and all aspects of people’s life is the goal of Ningbo.

The city held the 2nd Brilliant Ideas Power Ningbo Competition during the Talent and Tech Week, highlighting smart products and applications for daily life.

A hexacopter developed by Ehang, a Chinese drone maker, won the top prize in the competition. Called “Flying Eye,” the hexacopter provides people with virtual reality aerial views as if seen by a bird. Other winning products include 3D printers, robots, a yogurt machine and a smartphone-connected guitar.

The Ningbo National University Science Park, the competition organizer, has become a smart technology center and an incubator of smart products that may change people’s life. Winners in the competition will be offered free workspace in the park and other resources to start their businesses. They can receive up to 10 million yuan in loan and 1 million yuan in angel funding. Outstanding projects are exempted from space rents for three years.

The park has attracted a number of frontier research projects to Zhenhai District where it is located, including LKK Design, one of the most influential industrial design companies in China. Jia Wei, who founded LKK Design in Beijing 10 years ago, established a new company LKKER in February this year in Ningbo, which provides an open platform for industrial designers and customers to meet and trade.

“I will devote the next 10 years to the construction of LKK Group and I think everybody can become a designer in the future. They can create a design anywhere and anytime and earn money with it. I believe the best thing about smart technology is that we all feel liberated,” Jia said.

“Smart economy in my view is imagination economy. What really changes our way of living is not high-tech innovations like space rockets, but our imagination about future living, realized by science and technology,” he added. “We made investment in a three-color sensor company recently. I think manufacturing companies like this one need as much investment as high technologies,” Jia aid.

Ningbo


 

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