As the curtain rises on 2024 and the New Year bells chime, nine U-Corp projects, which began in the autumn of 2023 and lasted for more than six months, successfully concluded. During the past half year, nine vibrant teams not only collaborated with numerous enterprise partners to establish strong partnerships but also honed their innovative research capabilities and cutting-edge corporate insights through field research and team interactions. This experience has not only deeply influenced their future career development but also accumulated valuable experience in integrating theoretical knowledge with practical application. On January 27th, members of the nine project teams gathered with enterprise representatives to jointly discuss and share how they turned their inner ideals into tangible actions, guiding them towards their respective distant horizons.
U-Corp@NICE 2035: Within Compact Bounds, Lies Limitless Potential
The U-Corp@NICE 2035 project is an innovative collaboration between DKU students and the NICE 2035 Team from Tongji University, dedicated to building a sustainable shared space. The core objective of the project is to enhance the participation and social impact of the NICE 2035 community through the design of creative business models. Team members deepened their understanding of the project direction through an extensive literature review, combined with field studies, on-site observations, and in-depth interviews with Tongji University students, local residents, and international community members. Together with the representatives of the NICE 2035 Community, they explored a series of practical and sustainable community operation strategies aimed at introducing more innovation and attracting community participation. During the six-month exploration, the project team challenged traditional fundraising methods and proposed diverse fundraising approaches, including fashion shows, community activities, and sports charity events, providing viable new directions for raising basic funds for the community. Additionally, they proposed suggestions for improving existing space utilization and membership management systems to optimize the community’s operational model. The project’s highlights include proposing a series of innovative business models aimed at enhancing community profitability, social participation, and influence. This includes creating a bag design studio that integrates aesthetics and environmental concepts, commercial cooperation to convert waste into resources through environmental technology, improving recycling stations for second-hand goods utilization within the community, and developing shared workspaces and creative cooking spaces, among other projects, which promote the combination of local innovation and sustainable development. Leveraging the resources provided by U-Corp and NICE 2035, the team conducted intensive brainstorming sessions, optimized business plans, and explored various sustainable resource acquisition methods, from community donations to partner outreach. The project not only deepened the concept of green entrepreneurship in the community but also showed the power of Generation Z in creating an environmentally friendly and sustainable urban shared space.
U-Corp@Laotu (Documentary): The Rhythm of the Land: Exploring Rural Communities
Participants from the U-Corp@Laotu (Documentary) project, alongside social enterprise Laotu and the U-Corp team, ventured into remote villages in Wolong, Sichuan, to document traditional Tibetan villagers’ oral expressed culture and local stories. They captured moments of traditional Tibetan culture’s evolution in modern society, emphasizing villagers’ unique voices and experiences, rather than echoing official narratives. Through in-depth communication with Tibetan residents and the Qiang Community, they gained a profound understanding of local views on environmental protection measures and cultural inheritance in Sichuan, as well as their inner emotions and expectations. Through this documentary, team members hope to dispel misunderstandings and stereotypes about the gradual disappearance of traditional culture, and to showcase the authentic memories and attitudes of the Tibetan community towards nature, religious beliefs, customs, and linguistic changes amidst modernization and commercialization. This is a journey of seeking roots, aimed at authentically showing the profound concern of Tibetan indigenous people for cultural heritage and environmental coexistence from the most genuine perspective.
U-Corp@Laotu (New Media): Cultivating an Antique Modernity by Leveraging the New Media Powers
The U-Corp@Laotu (New Media) project aims to explore the infinite potential of integrating natural science with art and humanity. Leveraging new media technologies, they cleverly blend biodiversity and traditional folk songs, aiming to promote both nature conservation and traditional cultural heritage while exploring paths for harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. Through literature reviews, product case studies, and field investigations, the U-Corp@Laotu (New Media) team adopted anthropological research methods and utilized professional equipment such as cameras and recording devices to collect valuable data on ethnic customs and local biodiversity in four different ethnic villages in the Wolong Nature Reserve.
Next, the project plans to conduct an in-depth analysis of the collected folk song materials and leverage the power of new media technologies to shift the focus to the protection of traditional folk culture. This shift signifies a fresh perspective on exploring how to maintain a dynamic balance between humans and nature amidst the wave of commercialization. Through this approach, the U-Corp@Laotu (New Media) team hopes to reveal the profound connection between nature and culture, offering new ideas and solutions to promote both ecological conservation and cultural heritage protection.
U-Corp@The Forum: Leading the Digital Identity Revolution: A Strategic Economic Outlook
In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, participants from the U-Corp@The Forum project are dedicated to exploring the evolving roles of Chief Information Officers (CIOs), Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), and Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) in digital strategy formulation and enterprise mission advancement, as well as how these roles collaborate effectively with Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs). Through close collaboration with the World Economic Forum, the team has access to rich industry research resources in the economic field, including cutting-edge industry reports and first-hand insights, enabling them to absorb profound insights into global digital transformation from management across various industries, thus expanding their industry perspective. This research allows the team to comprehensively understand the challenges, achievements, responsibilities, and obligations faced by digital leaders in driving digital native strategies and enterprise digital revolutions, laying a solid foundation for their career development in the digital age.
U-Corp@Impact Bread: Venturing into the New Energy Developments, Fueling Sustainable Impacts
With the continued global attention on sustainable development, the electric vehicle industry has become a focus industry due to its potential to mitigate climate change and lower reliance on finite natural resources. In this global context, members of the U-Corp@Impact Bread team conducted in-depth research on a key issue in the electric vehicle industry—battery recycling. They selected leading new energy enterprises such as Tesla, CATL, and BYD as research cases, evaluating the sustainability of their battery recycling programs and the effectiveness of their business models from different perspectives ranging from industry giants to emerging companies. Under the guidance of Assistant Director for DKU Innovation Incubator Li Fang and corporate mentors, the project team not only successfully assessed the environmental and sustainability aspects of various battery recycling schemes but also gained insights into the complexity of the circular economy and battery industry supply chain. Through a comprehensive literature review, they provided valuable business insights for investors in the new energy vehicle industry, helping them make wiser investment decisions. This research not only promotes cost reduction and efficiency improvement in the new energy vehicle industry but also provides important support for achieving the industry’s sustainable development goals.
U-Corp@Zhongyin LawFirm: Empowering Enterprises with Strategic Legal Risk Management Insights
Enterprises highly value foresight and management of legal risks, which has become a consensus among many companies. To comprehensively understand the actual situation of legal risk management among enterprises in Kunshan, the team of U-Corp@Zhongyin LawFirm utilized a combination of online questionnaire surveys and offline entrepreneur seminars to gather valuable first-hand data. Through close collaboration with various business partners and in-depth analysis of the data, they revealed potential legal disputes that different industries may encounter in their daily operations and the corresponding root causes.
With the support of U-Corp and Zhongyin Law Firm, the team members were able to engage in close communication with entrepreneurs through seminars, which not only helped them gain a more accurate understanding of the enterprises’ operating rules, risk management strategies, and the company’s legal awareness, but also provided rich first-hand materials for the final project report. The goal of the report is to inspire more entrepreneurs to delve into and understand the foresight and management of legal risks.
In addition, the team also paid special attention to practical operational issues from the perspective of entrepreneurs, such as cost control, brand image, and corporate reputation, thereby providing decision-makers with high-quality recommendations and in-depth legal policy insights. This comprehensive approach not only enhances enterprises’ understanding of legal risk management but also promotes deeper reflection on legal policies among enterprises.
U-Corp @ Huochai Box: Visual Communication Design for NGO Project: Supporting the Rural Education Development
Since its inception in 2017, Huochai Box has been committed to supporting rural education by donating educational resources and fostering corporate partnerships to help rural teachers and students develop and grow. The goal of U-Corp @ Huochai Box is to expand the social impact of Huochai Box through visual communication design and with the help of the dissemination of new media platforms. With the support of the U-Crop platform, project members gained a deeper understanding of the brand value of Huochai Box. Using graphic design and video editing, the project team created a number of promotional videos and two versions of the brand brochure, which vividly and effectively conveyed Huochai Box’s mission, social positioning, key activities and important initiatives. Through the novel medium of video, the members expect that this will not only expand the social influence of Huochai Box and let more stakeholders know about their work, but more importantly, they hope to convey to the general public the sense of social responsibility of non-profit public welfare organisations, to arouse every individual’s concern and support for rural education, and to contribute to the progress of rural education in China and the realisation of urban-rural education equality.
U-Corp@Youngsters: Navigating Challenges Together, Each Spark of Compassion Ignites Hope
U-Corp@Youngsters is the first long-term project successfully incubated by U-Corp. Since its establishment, Youngsters have been committed to bridging the gap between DKU and rural schools, promoting the development of rural charity work. The team mainly contributes to charity work by collecting materials, supporting educational projects, and organizing campus charity activities. This semester, in collaboration with Xuying Elementary School in Anhui Province, Youngsters launched the “Dream Plans.” With strong support from U-Corp, they successfully carried out a series of innovative activities, including online English courses, Halloween activity booths, and letter exchanges. These diverse activities transcended spatial and temporal constraints, conveying care and warmth to rural students and teachers. The Youngsters team firmly believes that through continuous charitable efforts, deeper emotional connections can be established between urban and rural education, advancing the realization of educational equality. Looking ahead, Youngsters hope to continue innovating teaching support models and exploring new forms of empowering rural education through new media platforms such as podcasts, allowing more DKU students to participate in this wonderful journey of heart-to-heart dialogue.
U-Corp@Apple (iOS Club & iCreate Club): Interweaving Technology with Art: A Creative Confluence
U-Corp@Apple (iOS Club) is the first innovative club incubated under U-Corp, focusing on software development using the Swift language. Since its inception, the club has been dedicated to organizing diverse software development and related activities, attracting students from different backgrounds and age groups to participate. By designing various programming activities, iOS Club aims to provide a creative resource and activity platform for both novice programmers and experienced developers, inspiring their innovative potential in the field of iOS technology. In the past semester, iOS Club collaborated with DKU Comp-Sci Club to successfully host an AI Innovation Hackathon, aiming to encourage participants to solve artificial intelligence problems in education, health, and the arts through programming skill cultivation and product prototype development by providing resources and guidance.
U-Corp@Apple (iCreate Club) is dedicated to discovering potential artists and designers within the DKU community. This semester, they have successfully organized several activities, including a mobile photography competition showcasing Kunshan features, a digital illustration field event in collaboration with Suzhou Center Apple engineers, and a project encouraging creative storytelling across multiple Apple platforms. These activities provide a highly supportive and friendly environment for beginners, where participants can freely explore various creative works within the Apple ecosystem, promoting mutual inspiration and enhancement of creative thinking.
Looking ahead, both clubs plan to expand inter-university cooperation and collaborate with more renowned universities and partner colleges to elevate club activities to new heights. This cross-university collaboration will enable club activities to extend beyond campus boundaries, providing members with broader opportunities for innovative activities and workshops, as well as access to cutting-edge industry perspectives and resources. This not only provides participants with opportunities to learn and master new skills but also potentially allows them to engage in in-depth discussions with industry experts, exploring together the future trends of the technology industry.
From a small beginning to a fruitful end. In the past six months, we have witnessed the tireless efforts and innovative results of nine U-Crop teams, who have collaborated with numerous partners, exploring together, continuously innovating amidst challenges, and thriving through perseverance and finally delivered a satisfactory answer to their U-Crop journey in 2023. This year, U-Corp has dared to reform upon the foundation of diversified projects, introducing innovative practice initiatives with different operational cycles, and actively integrating premium resources from within and outside the campus to meet the increasingly diverse training needs of students and businesses. The successful conclusion of the U-Corp projects in Fall 2023 is not the end, but the starting point of a new journey. Looking ahead to 2024, U-Corp will sketch out a more magnificent and diverse project blueprint, pooling together richer internal and external resources. The future U-Corp students will continue to enjoy the steadfast companionship and support of InE, as they embark hand in hand on a broader future, co-creating new chapters.
