"I grew up in Zhuzhou, Hunan, in central China. At 17, I left home to study product design at Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, where I started researching wearable hardware. In my third year, I interned at Microsoft Research Asia, where I helped scientists turn lab prototypes into products that people could actually use.One project explored whether a watch screen could be touch-sensitive - before the Apple Watch even existed. That inspired my graduation project: a line of smart backpacks."
"One of my professors encouraged me to pursue academia, saying China needed more people developing a homegrown design discipline, rather than continuing to follow practices imported from foreign institutions. But I was curious about how large companies scale and how their management methods drive tens of thousands of people to innovate. I wanted to approach things from a market perspective."
Born in Zhuzhou, Hunan, he left home at 17 to study product design and research wearable hardware. An internship at Microsoft Research Asia involved turning lab prototypes into usable products and inspired a graduation project of smart backpacks with location tracking, video recording, and extended phone power, which received national TV coverage. A professor suggested academia, but curiosity about how large companies scale and market-driven product development led him toward industry. He worked at Baidu on smart bicycles, self-driving cars, and smart glasses, grew frustrated by abandoned projects, and later left Big Tech to found Ropet, making AI-powered robotic pets.
Read at Business Insider
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