On June 20, 2019, OUC-QDII Innovation and Entrepreneurship Practice Base was officially launched in Xingzhi Building of Ocean University of China (OUC). Director Fang Qizhi and Deputy Director Song Yuran of the Academic Affairs Office, and Director Song Dalei of the Innovation Education Practice Center of OUC, Chairman Claude Leglise, CEO Huang Yannong, and innovation and entrepreneurship mentor Huang Yinghan of QDII attended the launching ceremony, which was presided over by Director Song Dalei.
Song Yuran, Deputy Director of the Academic Affairs Office of OUC, said in his speech that enhancing the innovation and entrepreneurship education and cultivating top-notch innovative talents are an important part in breaking through the traditional education pattern and thoroughly implementing the innovation-driven development strategy. OUC has made many explorations and attempts in recent years. Especially since last year, the innovation and entrepreneurship education of OUC has been transforming from the Innovation 1.0 which centers on traditional technology development, and takes researchers as the main body and laboratory as the carrier to the Innovation 2.0 which focuses on users, relies on social practice and features co-innovation and open innovation. This attaches greater importance to industry guiding, achievement commercialization, and project incubation, and sets higher requirements for the cultivation of innovative talents.
In the same period, QDII also teamed up with OUC to hold a special training on the industry-university-research thinking and practice of Silicon Valley. Mr. Claude Leglise, Executive President of SRI International Innovation Center and Chairman of QDII, gave a special report on the famous innovation management method of Silicon Valley and the formation and development of numerous college innovation ecospheres in Silicon Valley, which attracted nearly a hundred teachers and students of OUC.
On November 20, 2018, QDII and OUC signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement on deeper cooperation in innovation incubation and training, mentoring for start-up projects, etc., with the aim to jointly cultivate innovative talents in marine science and technology by leveraging the innovation methodology of Silicon Valley and key technical innovations in the marine field, and to promote the commercialization of the university’s marine innovation achievements and the development of the marine innovation industry. The inauguration of the “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Practice Base” and the special training on the industry-university-research thinking and practice of Silicon Valley are essential parts in deepening the cooperation of the two parties.
Based on the Attic Spirit and Garage Culture of OUC, the two parties will continue to jointly cultivate innovative talents in marine science and technology by means of the innovation methodology of Silicon Valley. Through subsequent deep cooperation in project incubation, enterprises coaching, etc., and by virtue of the development mode of Silicon Valley and the key technical innovations in the marine field, the two parties will cultivate world-class high-tech innovative enterprises, improve the ecological environment of innovation and entrepreneurship for marine science and technology in cooperation with Qingdao Oceantec Valley, build the new city of marine science and technology of Qingdao Oceantec Valley, and finally contribute to cultivating the innovative talents of marine science and technology and develop a long-term mechanism.