Great Minds and Entrepreneurial Spirit
Claire Chan
Final Year Student, Dual Degree Program in Technology Management
Founder of Sensbeat
During my four years at HKUST, I have been provided with opportunities that I would never have even thought about at high school. In studying at HKUST, I have had the chance to travel the world for different conferences and competitions on topics ranging from technology to human liberation. I have met and talked to world leaders, studied in another top global university, founded “HKUST Great Minds” to spread the power of ideas, and participated in voluntary work on the other side of the world. Crucially,HKUST also helped me to meet a group of talented people with similar interests, which is how we came to create our emotion-sharing app called Sensbeat.
Original co-founders Leo Wong, Ben Chan and Conrad Lo initially established Sensbeat following a meeting amongst themselves in the Library.But word quickly spread at HKUST. I joined the team soon after,along with other members,as Sensbeat began to gain more recognition.
Why join a start-up enterprise? I believe people at HKUST are special. We are passionate and courageous. HKUST has also provided a great deal of support since Sensbeat was formed. Sensbeat is currently focused on sharing emotion through music. Our professors have been very willing to share their experiences and networks to help us, and we have been able to gain knowledge from their research in relevant areas, such as music pattern recognition and other interesting subjects. This process of seeking knowledge has been really enriching, and can only be done at university where people are generous and sincere in sharing their passion.
I am glad to see that HKUST has been increasing its efforts to promote entrepreneurship, through the Entrepreneurship Center and activities such as the Venture Entrepreneurship Festival. For a student start-up, such support can be decisive. With the ecosystem HKUST is trying to create, I believe that we all have a higher potential to succeed. Sensbeat is now close to being launched publicly and we are all very excited about making HKUST proud and, eventually, Hong Kong proud.
About The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) (www.ust.hk) is a world-class research university that focuses on science, technology and business as well as humanities and social science. HKUST offers an international campus, and a holistic and interdisciplinary pedagogy to nurture well-rounded graduates with global vision, a strong entrepreneurial spirit and innovative thinking. HKUST attained the highest proportion of internationally excellent research work in the Research Assessment Exercise 2014 of Hong Kong’s University Grants Committee, and is ranked as the world’s best young university in Times Higher Education’s Young University Rankings 2019. Its graduates were ranked 16th worldwide and top in Greater China in Global University Employability Survey 2018.
