Sunway University Partners UC Berkeley to Develop World-Class Entrepreneurs

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Sept. 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunway University recently signed a partnership agreement with the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) of University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in Silicon Valley to develop Sunway University's entrepreneurship programmes. The partnership, the first for SCET with a Malaysian university will encourage bi-directional information exchanges, in areas of Entrepreneurship and Technology between Sunway and SCET.

Dr Elizabeth Lee, Senior Executive Director of Sunway Education Group, signed the agreement with Dr Ikhlaq Sidhu, Founding Director of SCET, UC Berkeley.

"The partnership is an impactful milestone for Sunway University in its aim to develop world-class entrepreneurs who will bolster the sustainable economic development of Malaysia. With this partnership, our students and faculty will have access to some of the world's best knowledge, on-campus resources, and unprecedented networking opportunities in the heart of Silicon Valley," said Dr Elizabeth Lee.

"Our students will have the opportunity to participate in experiential learning courses and workshops, using the latest teaching methods from one of the best universities in the world when it comes to entrepreneurship and technology education -- all of which will help them achieve their ambitions to be game-changing entrepreneurs and innovators," she added.

"We welcome Sunway University's partnership with us as we look forward to enhancing the diversity of thought and opportunities to the School; a catalyst for further innovation. Sunway University's development of a robust entrepreneur development ecosystem -- from education programmes to its incubator, Sunway iLabs, to eventual funding by Sunway Ventures and Sun SEA Capital is indeed unique, and we look forward to contributing to their ambition to develop world-class entrepreneurs," said Dr Ikhlaq Sidhu.

With the agreement, Sunway University's faculty and students will be able to collaborate and access SCET's research projects and training programmes, engage with SCET's faculty and students, participate in SCET events held in the UC Berkeley campus. Sunway and Berkeley students will have the opportunity to work together on projects and start-ups.

Annually, SCET will sponsor two visiting students, scholars or professors from Sunway University to be based at the high-end collaboration space in SCET, UC Berkeley to exchange knowledge and for workshops, such as the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship (BMoE) bootcamp, a holistic teaching and learning approach that enables engineers to be more entrepreneurial; and the Silicon Valley Innovation Leadership programme.

The agreement also provides Sunway students with an opportunity to attend a three-day SCET entrepreneurship and innovation intensive bootcamp at Sunway University, Malaysia.