The Technopreneurship track is intended for

students interested in pursuing a

technology based business innovation
leading a career of technology based
entrepreneurship.
The track emphasises immersive
experiences as a Technopreneurship Study
Mission (TSM), a related internship, and
requires students to identify and develop
their own technology based business
innovation. The track is offered in
collaboration with SMU Institute of
Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE). For
suitable projects, IIE shall be able to help
students start a company based on their
innovations and raise funds from
government agencies such as SPRING or
from private sources.

The Technopreneurship Study Mission

objectively allows students to understand
the entrepreneurship landscape of many
successful start-ups and companies.
Overall, it also allows students to identify
the internship possibilities with the host.

Technopreneurship Study
Mission Schedule
See the TSM wiki's main page here
Term

Destination

2014-15 Term 1

Silicon Valley

2013-14 Term 2

South Korea

2013-14 Term 1

Europe

2012-13 Term 2

South Korea

2012-13 Term 1

China, Europe, Vietnam

2011-12 Term 2

South Korea

2011-12 Term 1

China, Europe, Vietnam

2010-11 Term 2

China, India

2010-11 Term 1

Vietnam

2009-10 Term 1

Israel

Technopreneurship Study
Mission: Europe 2013

TSM Europe had 14 students and a teaching

assistant, and spent two days in Belgium,
two days in France, and three days in
Germany.
The first day of the trip was spent in Ghent,
Belgium, the capital and largest city of the
East Flanders province. The second day
began with a presentation at iMinds, by Jan
Coppens. The group's time at Ghent
concluded with the end of eight
Euratechnologies company discussions.

The team then travelled onwards to Munich,

Germany. The following two days were
spent engaged in presentations to MBS
companies.

Technopreneurship Study
Mission: Europe 2012

TSM Europe had 14 students and a teaching

assistant, and spent two days in Belgium
and two days in Germany.
The first day in Belgium was a visit to
iMinds, the ICT research lab and incubators,
one of the four national applied research
labs funded by the Belgium government.
The students got to interact with about a
dozen companies, where they shared their
own assessment of a companys Strength,
Weakness, Opportunities and Threats and
suggested how the companies could plan
their growth, including growth in Asia. A
number of these presentations were
extremely well received. The team spent
the next day at Leuven visiting iMEC,

another national lab focused on

semiconductor and related technologies.
We had very lively exchanges with the
different stakeholders. Professor Desai was
asked to present on SMU, the
Technopreneurship track, and TSM. His
presentations were well received. It was not
just hard work, the team also had a lot of
fun, including activities like a boat ride on
the river in Ghent. They also had an
opportunity to see first-hand the university
at which our President Professor Arnoud De
Meyer studied. The students also visited
some historical sites and enjoyed the food,
beer and the chocolates. Some of the
companies incubated by iMinds were
gracious enough to offer our students
internships.
The visit to Germany was primarily focused
on Munich. Munich Business School played

host to our visit. The team visited some

exciting companies such as Payon and
Bonayou to understand the state of
entrepreneurship and venture climate in
Munich. The group also visited the BMW
manufacturing plant. There they were
amazed by the level of automation and
technology used in the production of BMW 3
series cars. We were surprised to learn that
despite producing a few hundred cars every
month there were rarely two cars of the
same kind produced at that plant. The
team also happened to visit one of the
largest natural Gas distribution companies
in the world where they were given some
useful insights into the art of project
management by one of the C level
members of the company.
The team came away very inspired by the
quality of innovation and the dedication of

the entrepreneurs and some of them chose

to think seriously about starting their own
companies.

Technopreneurship Study
Mission: Vietnam 2010

Nineteen SMU students from across the

different schools visited IDG Ventures
(Vietnam) and ten other companies over a
week from the 5th to the 10th December
2010. This visit gave the students a firsthand introduction to the technopreneurial
activities in Vietnam. All the ten companies
were investee companies of IDG Ventures
Vietnam which is the dominant early stage
venture capital company in Vietnam for
Technology Media and Telecommunication.
The companies visited ranged from web
aggregators to a company that allowed
Vietnamese to invest in gold using Internet.
The visit resulted in internship opportunities
for the technopreneurship track and other
internships from nine of the ten companies
visited. The team was also extended a joint
venture opportunity by two of the
companies.

The students found out that Vietnam

adopted a fast follower model. Given that
Vietnam has 85 million people, a number of
them young and Internet Savvy, such a
model works for them. Many of the
founders were experienced people either
within Vietnam or from countries such as US
who chose to return to Vietnam sensing the
rising tide of opportunities. The visit
energized several students into thinking
about starting their own companies. Three
of the students were very surprised that
IDG ventures invited them for a dinner
meeting upon hearing their proposed
business idea. Such immediate response
was not expected and welcome with
pleasure.
The students also got to visit Cuchi tunnels
in Ho Chi Minh city to get an appreciation of
the history of Vietnam.

The highlight of the visit was the final

dinner where the students had an
opportunity to spend significant time with
the CEOs of the different companies they
visited and learn more through informal
interaction.

Technopreneurship Study
Mission: Israel 2009

When we think of science and technology,

the countries that often spring to mind are
Japan, Germany, and the United States.

Twelve students embarked on a trip to visit

Israel's buzzing technopreneurship scene.
Israel in fact ranks fourth in the world in
scientific publications, and counts IBM,
Microsoft, Intel, HP, Cisco, Google among its
list of technology heavyweights that have
opened up R&D and regional business
centres in Israel.
Over the weeklong trip, students had the
opportunity to meet professionals from a
wide spectrum of technopreneurship
activity: venture capital firms, start-ups,
research institutions, and government
agencies. For the pre-trip class projects, the
students worked in groups to present an upand-coming start-up and propose a new
business idea. The highlight of the trip was
when the students met some of the
entrepreneurs from these start-ups; the
students finally got to quiz the

entrepreneurs on their experiences, and

even pitch their business ideas in person.
The projects became more meaningful and
vivid, and made for an inspiring learning
experience
Entrepreneurship is so ingrained in Israeli
society that it is the norm rather than the
exception. Various speakers attested to this
- the social environment is encouraging
when one embarks on an entrepreneurship
journey, and there is an established
infrastructure where entrepreneurs can get
both financial and administrative support.
This study mission also saw the burgeoning
of working relationships between the SMU
Institute of Innovation and
Entrepreneurship, and various Israeli
institutes.

Of course, no trip to Israel is complete

without paying homage to some of her
most famed sites. The students visited
several historical places of interest such as
Bethlehem, the Yad Vashem memorial for
the Holocaust, and the Western Wall. The
icing on the cake was without a doubt, the
rejuvenating dip in the Dead Sea.