Even before the COVID pandemic, there was an increasing awareness of the need for universities to act as innovation hubs, providing leading expertise, resources, and programming to support young entrepreneurs and catalyze the formation of new companies. Now, with the immense changes brought about by the pandemic, there has never been a greater need for university-supported entrepreneurship to play a leading role in mobilizing knowledge into useful and timely solutions, creating new opportunities, and promoting sustainability and resiliency.
In this talk, Chau will discuss the growing importance of entrepreneurial education in the university setting, the pivotal role of digital technologies in providing this education and fostering entrepreneurship, and some examples of student-driven entrepreneurial ventures that have already made an impact in addressing new challenges due to COVID.
Keynote
Dr. Ken Chau
Associate Professor at the School of Engineering | UBC Okanagan
Dr. Kenneth Chau is an associate professor at the School of Engineering at UBC Okanagan. His research interests include advanced applications of nanotechnology, wearable sensor technology, digital innovations for social change, and student entrepreneurship. Dr. Chau's research has been published in premiere scientific journals including Nature. He has won multiple teaching awards and has directly contributed to the formation and growth of three student-founded technology-based startup companies: VO2 Master, Happipad, and BanditVR (now known as weshowup).