Students gain hands-on business experience in XJTLU’s Technopreneurship Summer School

Nearly 90 students from across China and overseas recently took part in a four-week Immersive Technopreneurship Summer School at XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang), gaining practical skills in market research, ideation, prototyping, and business modelling.

The course leverages the innovative education model of the Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Hub (EEH) and its Exploration, Innovation, Transformation and Challenge pedagogy to bring students a hands-on experience that can shape their future trajectory.

“It’s not just sitting in lectures,” said Dr Bo Zhang, an Assistant Professor at EEH. “Based on real industry cases, such as for Starbucks and Rokid, we teach students technical skills and business thinking.”

Participating students are required to develop and pitch products, and at the end of the course enter their business idea into a mini XJTLU Global “Dream-Chasers” Entrepreneurial Competition. This year, the final challenge saw 13 teams present a wide variety of business solutions.

Academic staff judge the students’ projects

Team Chemistry, which included members from Norway, Finland, Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom, stood out for its project “Ground Zero”, which proposed a way for Starbucks to increase sustainability by using 3D-printed reusable cups made from coffee grounds and biopolymers.

Team Chemistry receives its award

“We learned about not only entrepreneurship and technology but also how to work with different cultures and a lot about China. It was a wonderful experience,” said Beth Schratz.

Computer science student Karina Shalia, whose team focused on the development of amphibious turtle robotics, said that the four-week experience taught her much about Chinese culture and how to build a business in China. “I liked our lessons a lot because they were very useful and related to real-world practice,” she said.

Field trip to the Humble Administrator’s Garden in Suzhou

Dr Khalid Akhal, an Assistant Professor at EEH, said the summer school aims to advance students’ knowledge of entrepreneurship or technology while providing practical training, such as in using AI coding to create apps.

“They now have a 360-degree perspective on business modelling. That’s what we bring,” he added.

By Jiayan Ji

Edited by Staff editor

Photos provided by Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Hub