Tsinghua University holds entrepreneurship challenge

A startup team focusing on using robots to improve people's lives won the top prize on Saturday at this year's Tsinghua University's President's Innovation Challenge.

Ten entrepreneurship teams presented their projects - with many relating to artificial intelligence - in front of an expert panel, and after rounds of discussion, the experts finally gave the top honor to MegaRobo Technologies Co Ltd.

Huang Yuqing, a Tsinghua University MBA student and founder of MegaRobo, said his team had the simple idea of using robots to change people's lives and the world.

He said that robots will help relieve highly-educated and high-quality personnel from inefficient and repetitive work.

President's Innovation Challenge was initiated by Tsinghua University's x-lab in 2013. Hundreds of teams apply for the challenge every year, but only 10 teams make it to the final competition.

x-lab offers Tsinghua students and alumni a platform to conduct teamwork cooperation and collaborative innovation. It greatly echoes the popular national campaign of mass innovation and entrepreneurship.

The letter "x" in "x-lab" signifies the "exploring unknown" and "cross-disciplinary collaboration" approach incorporated across multiple academic disciplines. The word "lab" denotes experiential-learning and teamwork.

"x-lab is a good platform to promote cross-discipline communication and idea exchanges. It can greatly inspire students to start their own business, and encourage them to be innovative and creative," Yang Bin, vice-president of Tsinghua University, said.