On June 25, 2021, the "Cambridge Alumni Salon on Innovation and Entrepreneurship" was successfully concluded at the Nanjing International Health Area Science and Technology Innovation Centre. As a brand event for the special session of Jiangbei New Area during Nanjing Tech Week 2021, the Salon is fully supported by the Jiangbei New Area Management Committee and is jointly organized by Cambridge Nanjing Centre, Jiangbei New Area Central Business District Construction Management Office, and Nanjing Western Returned Scholars Association. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Alumni Network Jiangsu- Zhejiang and Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Alumni Network Shanghai participated in the event organization.

Luo Qun, member of the Standing Committee of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee and deputy secretary of the Jiangbei New Area Party Working Committee, delivered a welcome speech. Chen Chanmei, member of the Jiangbei New Area Party Working Committee and deputy director of the Jiangbei New Area management committee, and leaders from Nanjing Jiangbei New Area Science and Technology Innovation Bureau, Nanjing Jiangbei New Area Central Business District Construction Management Office, Cambridge University Press, and Cambridge Nanjing Centre, attended the event. After the Cambridge alumni delegation visited the Jiangbei New Area Planning Exhibition Hall and the Jiangbei New Area Central Business District Planning Exhibition Hall in the morning, more than 60 guests from relevant departments of Nanjing and Jiangbei New Area, Cambridge Chinese alumni groups, domestic universities, and venture capital institutions gathered at the Nanjing International Health Area Science and Technology Innovation Centre, together with dozens of Chinese Cambridge alumni participating in the event through online live broadcast. The guests discussed the nearest future focused on the achievement practice, path exploration and mechanism construction of the alumni group's innovation and entrepreneurship in the new era.

Taking the alumni activity as an opportunity to deepen the communication between the two parties

With the theme of "Urban Innovation under the New Development Pattern", this year's Nanjing Tech Week focuses on "new stages, new ideas, new patterns, and new journeys", adhering to the concept of "co-creation, sharing, and win-win" to boost the development of science and technology and improve industrial quality and efficiency.

Intellectual resources of talents are an inexhaustible driving force to promote urban innovation, and the alumni group is a valuable key to unlock the intellectual resource pool of talents. Nanjing is an important city of scientific education, and it has a unique advantage in giving play to the role of alumni groups. On the occasion of the Nanjing Tech Week 2021, as a bridge for exchanges and cooperation between Nanjing and Cambridge, Cambridge Nanjing Centre hopes to help Jiangbei New Area build an international innovation and entrepreneurship model highland under the new development pattern through large-scale alumni activities.

At the beginning of the salon, Luo Qun, on behalf of Jiangbei New Area, expressed his gratitude to the guests from all walks of life participating in this event. He said that as the only national-level new area in Jiangsu Province and the location of the Nanjing area of the Jiangsu Free Trade Zone, the New Area has significant advantages in the "dual-zone" linkage. Thanks to the optimization of the system and mechanism and the creation of an innovative ecology, this land of livable and business-friendly innovation closely integrates the innovation chain with the industrial chain of "two cities and one centre", and has taken the path of innovation and development belonging to the Jiangbei New Area; as a science centre leading the world, Cambridge University has cultivated a large number of outstanding alumni who have influenced the world. The Cambridge Nanjing Centre is the first science and technology innovation centre established by the University of Cambridge outside the UK since its establishment 800 years ago. He hopes that the Centre will become a model for Cambridge University’s global development and a model for innovation in China, and more and more Cambridge alumni would settle in this hot land of Jiangbei New Area.

Daping Chu, Tenured Professor of Cambridge University, CEO and Academic Director of Cambridge Nanjing Centre, systematically reviewed of the work results on alumni of the Centre. Since 2021, the Centre has connected with nine alumni companies and successfully assisted two of them to hold roadshows and land in Nanjing. One of the alumni companies has settled into the Centre.

Professor Daping Chu said that Nanjing and Jiangbei New Area have created a good atmosphere for the development of alumni work in terms of policy support, talent scale, and industrial layout. The Centre will continue to play a pivotal role in connecting with Cambridge alumni, continuously improving independent scientific research capabilities, and providing alumni and other talents with a good life and work guarantee. It will explore and improve the business incubation mode of entrepreneurship, enhance the sense of belonging and cohesion of the Centre among alumni groups, and realize the integrated development of " Centre + city + alumni".

Chen Chanmei, on behalf of the Centre, accepted the original academic books donated by Cambridge University Press from James Pan, Asia Academic Publishing Director of Cambridge University Press. 

This is the first time that Cambridge University Press has donated a large number of original academic books to domestic strategic cooperative institutions in recent years. After 8,000 kilometers of long-distance transportation, this batch of precious academic resources was finally placed in perfect condition on the bookshelves in the Centre.

Nan Ma, Senior Associate Director - International (Asia), University of Cambridge Development and Alumni Relations, expressed his gratitude to Jiangbei New Area for supporting Cambridge alumni activities. He shared on the situation of Chinese Cambridge alumni. As of April this year, his department has maintained contact with 3861 Chinese alumni and 15 alumni organizations. The alumni group shows a geographically concentrated distribution in the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen and the eastern region, and the age structure has a distinctive feature of young people under the age of 35 years old as the main body. Dr. Ma said that this has won a good foundation for the alumni group to actively participate in innovation and entrepreneurship and give back to the alma mater and the society after graduation.

Learning from practice and sharing the fresh experience of Cambridge innovation and entrepreneurship

In the core part of the Salon, several young alumni from the University of Cambridge vividly shared their practical experience in innovation and entrepreneurship in Nanjing.

Deng Yuanbo, CEO of Nanjing Reavis Technology Co., Ltd., Co-PI of Centre, and Ph.D. from University of Cambridge, shared his entrepreneurship with the topic of "a new generation of in-vehicle human-computer interactive terminals". As the first talent entering the “Haizhiwan” and the winner of the 2021 "Win in Nanjing" Overseas Talent Entrepreneurship Competition Finals, Deng Yuanbo introduced that the core members of Reavis are all from the University of Cambridge, and the team has developed a new head-up display (HUD) technology, which is widely used in a variety of vehicles, can effectively improve the safety and intelligence of driving. Previously, it has cooperated with the CRRC to develop the world's first rail transit W-HUD product. The team has now landed Nanjing.

How to use artificial intelligence technology to better respond to the aging trend of the population? Shen Yiling, the founder of Nanjing Tenoke Medical Technology Co., Ltd. and an alumna of Cambridge University, responded with the theme of "Foreseeing Health-Vascular Plaque Vulnerability Assessment to Prevent Cerebral Infarction and Myocardial Infarction". She said that under the strong support and guidance of Nanjing's innovation and entrepreneurship policy, and relying on more than 20 years of technology accumulation in the Cambridge R&D Centre, Tenoke Medical, which was established less than four years ago, has achieved outstanding results in the primary prevention of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases using medical imaging AI, and has successfully entered the stage of clinical verification and industrialization.

Wang Jianpu, executive vice president of the Advanced Materials Research Institute of Nanjing Tech University, winner of the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund, Changjiang Distinguished Professor, and PhD from Cambridge University, analyzed the development trend of next-generation display technology. Starting from the challenges facing future display technology, he pointed out that perovskite light-emitting diodes using metal halide perovskites as raw materials can meet new display requirements such as high efficiency, high brightness, and flexible wearability, and have broad prospects.

As the first science and technology institution established by the University of Cambridge outside the UK, the Centre also undertakes the important mission of introducing and coordinating the high-quality resources of the Cambridge system. In the Cambridge Innovation and Entrepreneurship sharing session, James Pan, Asia Academic Publishing Director of Cambridge University Press, with the theme of "Stick to Tradition and Brave Change", explained that Cambridge University Press has promoted the spread of science and technology with high-quality academic publishing in the past 5 centuries. With a fine tradition of innovation, and active actions in embracing modern digital technology, publishing models and distance education, the CUP has been committed to providing a solid guarantee for global scholars and researchers to innovate through innovative and multi-dimensional service models.

The salon reached a climax in the roundtable session of "The Role of Alumni in Technological Innovation". Focusing on the main elements of alumni's innovation and entrepreneurship, Shang Zhenbai, deputy director of Jiangbei New Area Science and Technology Innovation Bureau, Jin Ding, deputy general manager of Nanjing Innovation Investment Group, and Tang Feng, COO of Nanjing Reavis Technology Co., Ltd., had  a lively discussion on the sub-topics of how colleges and universities strengthen the communication mechanism between alumni and their alma mater and the construction of innovation and entrepreneurship platforms, how the government exerts its effectiveness to stimulate alumni motivation, how employers select high-quality alumni projects, and how alumni groups themselves exercise entrepreneurial ability.

As a supporting platform for Cambridge University's comprehensive cooperation in China, the Centre will continue to serve as a "connector" between Cambridge and China, an "amplifier" for technological driving force and an "accelerator" for innovation and entrepreneurship, and promote the introduction, training and service of talents including alumni groups, contributing to the construction of the innovative city of Nanjing.