School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship

I. Overview

In order to further strengthen innovative and entrepreneurial talent cultivation, build a multi-level three-dimensional innovation and entrepreneurship education system, and implement the plan for promoting innovative and entrepreneurship education, Guangzhou Maritime University established the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in May 2016, set up an Expert Committee for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in February 2017, and adjusted the institutional settings of School in October 2019 with a dean, a vice dean, and a department of innovation and entrepreneurship. These measures are intended to integrate innovation and entrepreneurship education into a whole process of talents cultivation, and improve students’ innovative and practical ability to a large extent.

As a coordinating department of the university, the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship takes the responsibility of coordinating resources from both inside and outside sources of the campus for the practice of innovative and entrepreneurship education, cultivating professional talents, applying the innovation and entrepreneurship education into actual practice, and striving to expand and give full play to the social function of the university in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship, so as to better integrate the talents cultivation with the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The school is mainly responsible for the work related to innovation and entrepreneurship education, including the design and practice of innovation and entrepreneurship education courses, the organization and management of innovation and entrepreneurship competition for college students, declaration of innovation and entrepreneurship projects for college students, and the construction and management of the university business incubator base.

Through years of efforts, the school has been recognized as "E-station for Employment and Entrepreneurship of Guangzhou Colleges" by Guangzhou Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and is also a vice chairman member for China-ASEAN Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Alliance of Universities. The business incubator base of Guangzhou Maritime University has been recognized as the demonstration base for innovation and entrepreneurship in Guangzhou. The school has built a team that consists of more than 50 professionals from inside or outside the university and has constructed a "three-stage progressive" curriculum system for employment and entrepreneurship education, including courses such as "career planning", "innovative thinking", "entrepreneurship foundation", "guidance for college students' employment" and other specialized innovation and integration courses. The school has also established a number of innovative and practical platforms, consisting of 4 centers for engineering technology development of Guangdong province, 6 centers for engineering technology development of universities in Guangdong, and more than 10 school-level scientific research and development platforms jointly supported by “the government, schools and enterprises”. It has built innovation and entrepreneurship practice bases including university business incubators, robotics maker space, Beidou navigation maker space and 4 innovation and entrepreneurship education practice bases sponsored by the Guangzhou Education Bureau's innovation and entrepreneurship education project. In terms of student competition awards and project initiation, the school has been approved with 30 projects of city-level concerning innovation and entrepreneurship education, 45 projects of national level and 160 projects of provincial level under the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for College Students. It won the third prize in the national competition of China "Internet+" College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, two second prizes and six third prizes at the provincial level. In addition, the school gained three excellent prizes in the "Winning in Guangzhou" Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and obtained one grand prize, two first prizes, seven second prizes and 18 third prizes in the "Challenge Cup" Guangdong Provincial Competition.

II. Faculty

The main administrators of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship are the dean and the vice-dean. The school has set up a department of innovation and entrepreneurship, with a section chief and a teaching secretary. In order to better promote innovation and entrepreneurship education, the school offers suggestions to the student association "Innovation and Entrepreneurship Association" in carrying out students' innovation and entrepreneurship activities.

Dean: Lv Youjie, male, born in March 1972, PhD, associate professor of mechanical engineering in Guangzhou Maritime University, is appointed as the dean of School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He is mainly engaged in teaching and scientific research in the fields of mechanical and electrical engineering, mechanical design theory and other related fields, as well as the management and research work related to innovation and entrepreneurship education of the school, and has participated in various training on innovation and entrepreneurship education at all levels. So far, he has published more than 20 papers and has presided over or participated in more than 20 research and teaching projects at all levels, among which five of them are closely related to innovation and entrepreneurship education. Besides, he has obtained 6 authorized utility model patents and has compiled 4 textbooks as the chief editor or deputy chief editor.

III. Facilities

The business incubator base of Guangzhou Maritime University was recognized as “the demonstration base for innovation and entrepreneurship in Guangzhou” in 2012. It mainly consists of three parts. The first part is maker space, which has been already composed of the robotics space and the Beidou navigation space. The second part is the innovation and entrepreneurship practice base for students funded by provincial and municipal innovation and entrepreneurship education projects. It includes a students' innovation and entrepreneurship practice base which focuses on exploring methods for energy saving, emission reduction and safety supervision of ships. It also contains a UPS-connected shore power innovation and entrepreneurship platform for intelligent emission reduction, an innovation and entrepreneurship practice base for researching the unmanned ship and ship intelligent manufacturing technology, and an innovation and entrepreneurship base platform which is intended for research concerning new energy and electric propulsion for ships, etc. The third part is the innovation and entrepreneurship incubator base located in the north of the campus. The base is mainly used for the university’s entrepreneurship team to register companies and carry out entrepreneurship practice. It is a comprehensive innovation and entrepreneurship training base integrating office, project incubation, negotiation and guidance services, providing guidance, legal advice, policy support, financial consultancy and other services. So far, a total of 58 teams have settled in the base, and 34 teams are still in process in the base. In order to effectively manage the innovation and entrepreneurship incubator base, the university has introduced various regulations, including Guangzhou Maritime University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Incubator Base Selection Measures(Trial), Guangzhou Maritime University Entrepreneurship Project Incubation Management Measures(Trial), and Guangzhou Maritime University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Incubation Base Management Regulations(Temporary).

In order to give better instruction to the student teams for innovation and entrepreneurship, the university has established a team of entrepreneurship advisers, which is formed by more than 70 experts through on-campus training and off-campus employment. Off-campus majors are invited to carry out seminars. Experts in finance and law are hired to provide financial and legal consulting services for the student teams.