Innovation Matters

#13 China - Afke Schaart: Gender Equality and Global Impact at Huawei

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 15:00:00 +0800

Welcome to the 13th episode of Innovation Matters, a podcast organized by the Netherlands Innovation Network. In this episode we’ll talk to Afke Schaart. This podcast episode is broadcasted from Shanghai, China.

Afke Schaart is the Senior Vice President and Head of Global Impact at the headquarters of Huawei in Shenzhen and the most senior foreign national currently working at Huawei. She previously worked in local and national government, at KPN, Microsoft and the GSMA (or the international association of telecommunications companies). The release of this episode coincides with February 11th, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Women are still under-represented in the tech industry worldwide, occupying just 12% of jobs in cloud computing, 15% in engineering, and 26% in data and AI. In this episode, we also dive deeper into topics such as achieving gender equality.

#12 CHINA: Researching Stem Cells and Women in Science

Fri, 24 Dec 2021 05:00:00 +0800

My guest today is Professor Gu Ying, she works at BGI in Shenzhen, China. She is Deputy Director at BGI-Research, China. She has a background in Oncology and Biotechnology and a PhD in Molecular and Developmental Biology.

In the second half of our episode, we have an open conversation about the position of women in academia in China, the opportunities and the challenges.

#11 TAIWAN: Photonics Research in Taiwan and the Netherlands

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 18:00:00 +0800

Photonics is the technology that focuses on the generation, transport, and detection of light waves and light particles, also called photons. Photonic solutions are a response to the growing need in the areas of communication, food production, living comfort, industrial digitization, and health.

In this episode, we invited two professors from Taiwan and the Netherlands. To discuss the development situation of photonics in the two areas. During the discussion, they also mention the more possibilities of light in the coming years.

We believed you will learn a lot about photonics and optics from their sharing! Enjoy!

Prof. Ching-Fuh Lin from National Taiwan University
He is the founding Director of Innovative Photonics Advanced Research Center (i-PARC) and a joint distinguished professor in the Graduate Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics, Graduate Institute of Electronics Engineering, and Department of Electrical Engineering at National Taiwan University. His major research area is in photonics, including photonics sensing techniques, Si-based photonics, organic-inorganic composites for light emission & sunlight harvest, broadband semiconductor lasers & optical amplifiers, integration of photonics and electronics.

He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of SPIE, Member of Asia-Pacific Academy of Materials, and a member of OSA.

Prof. Herman Offerhaus from University of Twente
Prof. Offerhaus research aims at the exploitation of optical phase to enhance optical processes. He is involved in projects aimed at the detection of pathogens in blood through phase-coherent nonlinear (CARS) spectroscopy, the phase-locking of laser diode arrays, the spectral phase-shaping of ultra-short pulses and the generation of phase-coherent plasmon fields on metal-dielectric interfaces. All projects concern the development of physics and technology to (real) applications. Most projects involve cooperation with other (international) research groups or companies.
Specialties: Lasers, short pulse laser, nonlinear optics, CARS spectroscopy, holography

#10 TAIWAN: The Light of Innovation in Chip Making

Sat, 31 Jul 2021 22:00:00 +0800

ASML is in the leading position in the chip manufacturing process. The key to having such success is to use the power of innovation, or “open innovation.” In this episode, we invited Boudewijn Sluijk, Director of Strategic Marketing from ASML, to share how they think about open innovation within the company and at the industrial scale.

Our modern life is driven by chips. Chip manufacturing is known as “semiconductor industry,” a highly technology-integrated industry in which innovation plays a vital role.

About our guest speaker:
Boudewijn Sluijk, Sr. Director of Marketing, ASML, has been a senior member of ASML’s strategy team since 2014 with a focus on long term technology developments.

Boudewijn has worked in various marketing functions at ASML since 1998. He started ASML’s Market Research department in 2003. He had the honor to introduce ASML’s TWINSCAN product line at SPIE 2001
Boudewijn graduated in Physics from Leiden University

Special thanks to Karen Lo, Head of Communications, Asia, ASML.

#9 TAIWAN: The Dutch Story Behind TSMC

Fri, 18 Jun 2021 20:00:00 +0800

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry. In this episode, we will be talking about the rising of the Semiconductor industry in Taiwan. We invite Prof. Mila Davids (the Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands) and Dr. ChunPu Lin (Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, Taiwan) to join us and share the story of TSMC and the story of the Semiconductor industry. In the last part of the episode, we also talked about the project that they are working on “The House of Taiwanese-Dutch Narratives”. If you’re interested in this project, you can contact Mila via emails<M.Davids@tue.nl> or contact IA in Taiwan <TAI-IA@nlot.org.tw>

Prof. Mila Davids
Mila Davids is an Assistant Professor in the History of Technology research group that is part of the section Technology Innovation and Society in the TU/e School of Innovation Sciences. Her areas of expertise include modern and contemporary history, history of technology and business history, social history and transitions, knowledge infrastructure and circulation, and innovation.
<M.Davids@tue.nl>

Dr. ChunPu Lin
Chun-Pu Lin is an Assistant Research Fellow of the Regional Development Study Center, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER), Taiwan. His areas of expertise include foreign direct investment, international business management, and Asian Business.

Innovation Matters is a podcast by the Netherlands Innovation Network, this episode is broadcasted from the Netherlands Office Taipei.
Hope you enjoy this episode!

#8 SINGAPORE: The tiger on the table - small and big medical data

Mon, 17 May 2021 14:00:00 +0800

Welcome to the eight episode of Innovation Matters podcast brought to you by Netherlands Innovation Network. Today, we are back with the researchers of Singapore National Eye Center. Last time we talked about the development of SELENA+ the AI tool to detect diabetes related eye disease and the impact of covid of digitalization in the health care sector in Singapore.

We are here with Professor Wong, Professor Tan and Professor Ting who are Ophtamologists at Singapore National Eye Center, and with Professor Liu, who is a computer scientist at A*STAR in Singapore. This episode focuses on challenges: patient and AI interaction, data availability, data sharing methods such as Federated learning and Singapore's outlook on international collaboration.

Contact information:
sin-ia@minbuza.nl
https://www.linkedin.com/company/netherlands-innovation-network-singapore/

#7 CHINA: Lab grown meat, a promising alternative

Thu, 06 May 2021 15:00:00 +0800

Nanjing leads China in Pushing cultured meat. In November 2019 scientists from Nanjing Agricultural University created China's first piece of cultured pork made of stem cells from the muscle tissue of pigs, a milestone in the industry.

In this episode we will talk to Dr. Ding's Shijie, associate professor at the Nanjing Agricultural University in China and CTO at a startup called Nanjing Zhouzi Future Food Technology. Or in English Joe’s Future Food. As part of the research team led by Professor Zhou Guanghong, Dr. Ding managed to replicate natural tissue growth in order to create China’s first piece of cultured meat. Minced pork. A breakthrough with great impact, given the fact that pork is a staple food in China.

After the establishment of Joe’s Future Food, the start-up received ¥20 million in financing from Matrix Partners China (经纬创投因). The funds are intended for the development and large-scale production of cultured meat and accelerating the application of related products.

We will talk with Dr. Ding Shijie and his scientific achievement. What are the current hurdles to produce on a large-scale and what will be the future impact?

#6 SINGAPORE: AI & Health

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 18:00:00 +0800

Singapore and The Netherlands both face an increasing pressure on the healthcare system, due to a rapidly ageing population. Digitalisation in general, and use of AI specifically, is one of the ways to address this issue. In this episode we will discuss the use of AI or artificial intelligence in health care in Singapore. Which types of AI are currently used and which ones are promising? What will be lasting impacts of COVID on the healthcare system? How do researchers, doctors and the private sector work together to develop solutions that improve treatments and are trusted by patients?

Guests are Prof Liu Yong of the A*STAR Institute for High Performance Computing. And Prof Wong Tien, Prof Daniel Ting and Prof Gavin Tan, who are ophthalmologists at the Singapore National Eye Centre. They are the team behind SELENA+ - one of Singapore's National AI projects to diagnose diabetic retinopathy - and bring their experience of the research as well as the clinical practice.

This episode is broadcasted from Singapore. To connect with the Innovation team at the Netherlands Embassy in Singapore, visit Netherlands Innovation Network Singapore or send us an e-mail at sin-ia@minbuza.nl.

#5 CHINA: The BugDrug Project

Tue, 09 Mar 2021 21:00:00 +0800

A large number of patients do not respond well to commonly used drugs. Some patients even suffer from side effects. In Europe alone, about 3.5% of hospital admissions are related to side effects of medicines. Many patients are not treated properly because they do not respond or respond poorly to medicines.

In this episode, Claire Selbeck talks to Professor Fu. As a recipient of the ERC Consolidator Grant, Dr Jingyuan Fu offers a solution to this problem by changing the bacteria that live in the guts of humans. Professor Fu researches whether the effectiveness of medicines can be improved by making adjustments to the whole of micro-organisms in the gastrointestinal system (intestinal microbiome). Besides her project, we will also speak about her background in academia, the ERC Consolidator Grant and the Organ-on-a-chip Initiative.

#4 CHINA: Plant-based proteins

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 10:00:00 +0800

China consumes 28 percent of the world's meat, twice as much as the U.S. The U.S. already has advanced available products such as Beyond Sausage and the Impossible Burger. In China, a variety of mock meat products have long been available because of the country's Buddhist roots. Buddhists eat a partially or fully vegetarian diet. However, this industry has not yet begun producing the so-called 2.0 plant-based meats; products that are attractive not only to vegetarians but also to meat eaters. I will talk with Doris Lee of GFIC, the independent partner organisation of the Good Food Institute Asia-Pacific (GFI APAC) that is focused on accelerating the alternative protein revolution in mainland China. We will talk about Chinese consumers and their habits, the most prominent Chinese R&D players in the alternative protein industry and future developments.

#3 CHINA: Intellectual Property Rights

Wed, 23 Dec 2020 10:00:00 +0800

Formally, intellectual property rights have been acknowledged and protected in China since the 1980s. In 2001, China became a member of the world trade organization. A premise of this was that China had to address some international concerns about its IPR system.

Despite of this, some concerns remain. President Trump has repeatedly called out China for theft of intellectual property. In various reports on doing business in China, such as the 2016 China Business Climate Survey Report of the American Chamber of Commerce, IPR is still seen as a challenge to doing business.

At the same time, there are signs that IPR is not the biggest issue at hand anymore. After all, Chinese companies are also getting more and more innovative and require protection. Since 2019, China filed the most patents via the World Intellectual Property Right Patent Cooperation Treaty, taking over the US.

The German Chamber of Commerce did a survey on the biggest challenges for foreign companies active in China. They found out that Intellectual Property Rights Protection was a challenge for 30% of respondents. This was only the sixth concern, and a lot less than for example Human Resources, with 70%.

To discuss intellectual property rights in China, we'll be speaking with Reinout van Malenstein. He is senior counsel at HFG Lawyers in Shanghai. He has been a lawyer both in China and in the Netherlands, after studying law in Utrecht and in Beijing. He is fluent in Chinese and legal Chinese. Next to his position at HFG, he is also vice chair at the European Chamber Intellectual Property Working Group, and secretary of the China team at Marques.

#2 CHINA: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) - 3 innovative scientific approaches

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 19:00:00 +0800

In this episode we will continue to talk about AMR, this time with three researchers, who all tackle the AMR problem from a different angle. We will talk to Dr. Sam Linsen, a Dutch researcher who started Squared Ant in China, a business focusing on antibiotic residue, testing and data gathering in order to map the extent of the problem worldwide. Then we will talk to Dr. Nathaniel Martin, Professor in biological chemistry at the Leiden University. With his research group, he tries to understand bacteria at a molecular level in order to be able to design new antibiotics and develop new molecules that will block resistant pathways bacteria have developed. Our last guest is Professor Arjan de Visser, evolutionary biologist at Wageningen University, who is working on models to predict evolutionary pathways. By understanding the determinants of evolution he tries to get insights in why bacteria evolve resistance.

#1 CHINA: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) - introduction from CN and NL

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 12:00:00 +0800

The world is fighting two pandemics at the same time – COVID19 and the silent pandemic of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR occurs when bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, making their infections harder to treat. In Europe, approximately 25.000 people die every year because of drug resistant infections. It is estimated that AMR will kill an extra 10 million people globally by 2050.

In this episode we will talk with Dr. Maarten van Dongen of the European platform AMR-insights and Dr. Yonghong Xiao, professor of infectious disease at the Zhejiang University and co-writer of China's national AMR action-plan. We will talk about the scope of the problem, which industries are involved in the issue, the most important strategies in halting AMR and in which fields we should collaborate internationally.