Asian EDVentures Competition 2026: Advancing Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education

With the support of five other units from EdUHK, the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology (MIT) hosted the three-day Asian EDVentures Competition 2026 from 26 to 28 May 2026. The summit featured a series of expert industry talks, immersive visits to Hong Kong’s leading technology hubs, and exciting startup pitches. Bringing together over 100 student innovators from ten collaborating Asian universities, the event aimed to foster students’ innovation and entrepreneurship to address pressing social and educational challenges across Asia. It also sought to equip student teams with a global mindset for future ventures and to establish an Asia-wide innovation and entrepreneurship platform for university students.

On the first day (26 May), speakers from key players in the innovation industry—including Amazon Web Services (AWS), ByteDance/BytePlus, Microsoft, IBM, UBTech, Bridge AI, and Robotic Artisan—updated the audience on the latest technologies their companies are developing, and offered insights into innovation and entrepreneurship education. In addition to keynote speeches, roundtable discussions with judges and mentors were also held on the opening day. Topics covered included various approaches to entrepreneurship education, the application of robots in innovation education, and the use of technologies to support special needs education.

On the second day (27 May), participants visited Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks (HKSTP) and Cyberport, Hong Kong’s leading innovation and entrepreneurship incubation hubs. At HKSTP, they joined a guided tour of the Experience Centre and learned about successful innovation cases. During the visit to HKSTP, two representatives from EdUHK’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and Research (CEAR) shared knowledge-transfer projects supported by the University. The visits to HKSTP and Cyberport gave students a clearer understanding of how these technology hubs support startups, spur innovation, and turn knowledge-transfer projects into practice.

The competition concluded on the third day with the Final Pitches and Award Ceremony, where over 100 students representing 19 teams from ten universities presented their innovation projects. These projects aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4), which promotes universal and equitable access to quality primary, secondary, technical/vocational, and higher education, along with equity and inclusion, youth literacy, and global citizenship. EdUHK President Professor John Lee Chi-kin gave a closing speech at the ceremony and presented certificates of appreciation to the judges as well as the AWS Championship Prize to the winning team.

After listening to presentations, the judging panel provided constructive feedback to student teams, including potential pathways for commercialization. Winning projects were selected based on innovativeness, feasibility, team capability, and social impact. Galgotias University’s team “Tacto” received the AWS Championship Prize for their “Braille for digital age”, a tactile block-based product that enables visually impaired children to learn coding. EdUHK’s team “FunMa” was awarded the Best Pitch Award for their personalized and interactive mathematics learning app.

At the award-presentation ceremony, Dr Fridolin Ting Sze Thou of MIT, Chairman of the Organising Committee of the Asian EDVentures Competition 2026, remarked that over the past three days, students learned from industry leaders about the latest innovation trends, deepened their understanding of SDG4-related innovations through peer exchange, and strengthened their entrepreneurial mindset. He added that the conference served as a valuable internationalisation-at-home opportunity: a chance for EdUHK students to engage internationally without leaving campus.

“The event successfully brought industry experts, academics and future innovators together for a meaningful exchange of ideas. I would like to express my special thanks to all our collaborative partners from the nine other universities across Asia, industry partners and sponsors, the Hong Kong Teaching Excellence Alliance (HKTEA) and our colleagues from MIT, Vice President (Research and Development) Office, Knowledge Transfer Sub-office, Student Affairs Office, Global Affairs Office, and Centre for Pre-incubation and Outreach, all of whom helped make the event a great success. Together, we witnessed the rise of the next generation of leaders in education technology,” he said.

Results of the Final Pitches:

List of collaborating universities: