The first level our 2021 Urban Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition has been completed. A majority of seven of our Alliance members to include Tampere University, the University of Coimbra, Western Sydney University, the University of Padua, Durban University of Technology, Guangzhou Medical University and Guangzhou University submitted 34 Online Semi-Final Competition entries. This number of entries is more than double last year’s number of entries.

The 2021 Urban Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition is comprised of three levels which include (1) the In-School Preliminary Competition, (2) the Online Semi-Final Competition, and (3) the Final Competition which will be held virtually or in-person to coincide with the Annual Alliance Conference in Sydney, Australia. Final Competition teams will be competing for prize money awards of almost 300,000 RMB.

This year’s Online Semi-Final and Final Competition judging panel includes the following members:

· Chair: Professor Yi-Chen Lan from Western Sydney University

· Deputy Chair: Professor Vivian Tam from Western Sydney University

· Professor Alexandra Aragao from the University of Coimbra

· Professor Fabrizio Dughiero from the University of Padova

· Dr. Taru Pilvi from Tampere University

· Professor Mansi Wang from Guangzhou University

· Dr. Ricky Shi-wei Lee from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)

· Dr. Xiang Gao from Guangzhou Medical University

· Professor Magnus Sundstedt from Linkoping University

This judging panel will meet online on May 17 and May 19 to deliberate their selection of the twelve semifinalist winners which will be forwarded to the Final Competition. All semifinalist winners, unless the team notifies the finalist competition committee otherwise, will automatically be entered into the 7th China International College Students “Internet +” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition which is the world’s largest innovation and entrepreneurship competition for college students.