The global innovation leadership program for graduate students adds new members Vulcan, Harman, Roobo, and Lung Technologies who work directly with students on launch projects
BELLEVUE, Wash (April 26, 2019) — The Global Innovation Exchange (GIX), a collaboration between major research universities and companies from around the world to develop leaders in innovation, is pleased to announce the addition of four new Consortium members for 2019: Vulcan, Harman International, Roobo, and Lung Technologies. This is the first year two startups — Roobo and Lung Technologies — join the group. They join last year’s Consortium members Microsoft, T-Mobile and Nintendo who are part of the Consortium again this year.
Founded by the University of Washington and Tsinghua University, with initial support from Microsoft, GIX represents a new model of experiential education and practice focused on developing leaders in innovation who work collaboratively on solving local and global challenges.
Consortium members gain access to the GIX community of faculty, inventors and learners, and may submit projects for students in the launch phase of the curriculum. The goal shared by this member network is to forge connections and foster long-term relationships leading to technical exchange, co-invention, and collaboration. The announcement comes as the second cohort of GIX students in the Master of Science in Technology Innovation (MSTI from UW) degree begin the launch project phase of their coursework this spring. To view GIX student-industry launch projects from last fall, please click here.
The eight members of the GIX Academic Network remain the same: École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Indian Institute of Science, Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology, National Taiwan University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Tecnológico de Monterrey, and the University of British Columbia.
“The GIX program provides Harman a great platform to access a global talent pool for future technology leaders, to establish partnerships with major research universities on joint development of cutting edge technology, and to further advance Harman innovation and technology on consumer products, hence improving people’s lives and benefiting humanity,” said Sharon Peng, VP, global engineering, Lifestyle Audio at Harman International. “This collaboration also reinforces Harman’s core values on innovation and collaboration.”
“Vulcan is excited to join the GIX Consortium and thrilled to work with the 2019 cohort on innovations in health technologies,” said Omer Rosenbaum, senior director engineering, Impact at Vulcan Inc. “We can’t wait to start our collaboration with a group of eager young minds, getting fresh perspectives, energy, and enthusiasm and solving some of today’s emerging technology challenges.”
“Roobo’s mission is to make learning accessible and affordable to everyone through AI and robotics,” said Jeff Xiong, chairman and CEO of Roobo. “With its global perspective and cross-disciplinary approach, GIX is uniquely positioned to collaborate with Roobo to realize this goal. With educational robotic technology still in its infancy, there is a need for innovation in this space, including voice and image recognition, emotion detection, adaptive learning algorithms, and AI-enabled content generation and delivery. We see this collaboration between Roobo and GIX as an opportunity to work with both faculty and students in helping to define the future of education.”
About the Global Innovation Exchange (GIX)
Launched in September 2017, GIX is a new model of experiential education and practice to develop leaders in innovation. It collaborates across cultures and countries to address local and global challenges. Starting with its project- and team-based graduate degree programs, GIX will grow to include a broad array of innovation experiences for students, executives, and working professionals. Founded by the University of Washington, Tsinghua University, and Microsoft, GIX is a global collaboration between leading academic and cross-sector partners.