Tsinghua and MIT Sign Urban Innovation Agreement

Yang Bin, Vice President and Provost of Tsinghua University, visited Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on September 16th. During the visit, he met with Martin Schmidt, MIT Provost and Richard Lester, MIT Associate Provost for International Activities, and signed an agreement, the MIT-Tsinghua Future City Innovation Connector (FCIC).

“The rich academic intellectual resources and active entrepreneurship ecosystem at both universities have huge potential to land its impact in Chinese cities,” Yang Bin said. “MIT-Tsinghua FCIC will build a broad partnership with local city and industries to scale up its impact. It is of great significance to universities, local governments, and industry leaders.”

 “The MIT-Tsinghua Future City Innovation Connector will become the new starting point of a series of engagements between MIT and Tsinghua in entrepreneurship, education, and urban research,” Schmidt said.

FCIC will draw upon the work of MIT professors and labs to identify innovative concepts and technologies that could be implemented in China. Its founder and faculty director is Siqi Zheng, the Samuel Tak Lee Associate Professor of Real Estate Development and Entrepreneurship, in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning and its Center for Real Estate. Zheng also holds a visiting professor position at Tsinghua University.

MIT and Tsinghua University have developed extensive formal collaborations in recent decades, across a range of areas involving their shared commitment to research, education, and the support of entrepreneurship.

By Guo Lili