China Day 4: Visit Suzhou to meet local governments, universities and makerspaces
China Day 4, took us out of Shanghai on the bullet train, this time to the picturesque & vast city & surrounding area of Suzhou to meet local governments, universities and makerspaces. You get a real sense of China past & present in Suzhou, and we were on our way to visit the very latest spaces of creative & technological innovation.
Our day started with a visit to the impressive campus of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, founded in 2006, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool is the largest international joint venture university in China, a partnership between Xi'an Jiaotong University and the University of Liverpool.
Students can enjoy the best of both worlds in China & the UK by studying for 2 years in each country (optional), there is clearly huge benefits which come out of this mutually beneficial exchange between the two creative cities/universities which makes for an exciting learning experience for all involved.
We were treated to a lovey traditional lunch in the local govenment offices, hosted by the Rock Maker FabLab
Lunch was followed by an exhibition tour of the Suzhou industrial park xingcheng district cooperative economic development zone, and were introduced to the many innovation design & manufacturing projects and enterprises thriving across the industrial park.
In the heart of the Suzhou industrial park is the Rock Maker FabLab, a really inviting space, well designed, equipped and welcoming environment, the visit here was one of the highlights of my week.
Eva Wu, Rock MakerSpace manager introducing us to the space. I liked the fact the the Rock Maker identity was prominent although was also a FabLab and part of the Fab Foundation network.
The maker space is sponsored by North Bridge 3D printing filament/material manufacturer, an interesting & useful partnership.
The OD&M project team at the Rock Maker FabLab
At the end of the day we were invited to dinner & presentations by our hosts and local Innovators & educators.
The OD&M project team:
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SUZHOU
Suzhou has population of 10.6 million, although the second-tier cities, the economic development is significant. The economy GDP has reached 1.97 billion Euro in 2016, ranking 1st in Jiangsu province and the 7th in domestic range. Because of the outward development model which is manufacturing export goods, the economics of Suzhou city is booming. In the past ten years, through the government investment, the development of production-oriented manufacturing, electronics, and some mechanical and industrial products makes the rapid economic and social development. In recent years, due to the transfer of cheap labor market in Southeast Asia, many labor-intensive foreign factories moved out of Suzhou, in the national innovation and local government policy support, the Suzhou economy is quietly transition. Government investment in domestic and international tertiary industry giants, and actively encourage the development of individual and private economy, and vigorously strengthen scientific research and development and independent innovation activities. Has been admitted and will stay in a large number of IT industry, mobile Internet giant company also continue to emerge a large number of young new entrepreneurs and teams. Suzhou, the corners of the world are constantly emerging spontaneous innovation and fan movement. Because of the sharing of open resources (such as the Internet, open source platform, etc.) and the popularity of technology tools (such as 3d printers, CAD software, computer numerical control machine tools, etc.), these tiny forces eventually developed into a well- Fablab) Hackers spaces and world-renowned businesses and new economies (such as opendesk, Terras) are all benefiting from this open design and manufacturing. New business methods, application tools and organizational structure of this business model to promote the traditional economy to the new economic development model of the transformation of the largest energy.
The key to this model of open design and manufacturing is knowledge sharing and open learning. It also continues to influence the environment and patterns of education, and the ability of innovation to become sustainable development must also have appropriate education and training new ways to support and nurture. Start, business, education, the three constitute a triangular body, interrelated and mutual influence. And the construction and development of this triangular ecosystem must require more exchanges and cooperation with each other. The European delegation will visit Suzhou, which will promote the close ties between Suzhou Chuanghang, enterprises, universities and governments to help the establishment and sustainable development of this ecosystem. The trip will also build Europe and Suzhou The development of more in-depth cooperation projects to jointly enhance the entire open design and manufacturing environment, promote cross-border innovation, and promote the healthy development of Suzhou's new economy.
I will be posting each day this week, reflections on the other days of activities in China, visiting other maker spaces, Innovation centres, new tech cities, universities and local governments:
Day 1: China, Shanghai Learning Mobility, Intro & Visit with our hosts at Tongji University
Day 2: China, Hangzhou visits with local government, incubators, Universities & enterprises
Day 3: Internal workshop - Towards the co-design of the OD&M Training
Day 4: Suzhou. All day long visits to local governments, universities and makerspaces.
Day 5: Institutional meeting with Tongji Dean and University Professors. Focus group for Impact (Internal activity) Wrap up and next steps & experience Shanghai
