Alumnus CEN Bangjie (Timothy)
- Bachelor of Social Sciences (Psychology, 2022)
- Founder of Zidian Technology Co., Ltd.
- Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Award (2020)
Zidian Technology Co., Ltd. (Zidian Technology) was founded by alumnus Cen Bangjie (Timothy) and his team in 2019. It is a local start-up company incubated by the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) of the University of Macau (UM). When Timothy was still an undergraduate student at UM, he and his team developed an indoor device with an air disinfection technique. With the assistance of the industry-academia service platform of CIE, they finally transformed the technique into air disinfection products and established a technology company. In 2020, he also won the “Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Award” in its first edition. He believed that entrepreneurs should focus on doing their projects, cultivate a macroscopic mindset, and take a flexible and creative approach to overcome difficulties during the entrepreneurial process.
Timothy won the “Outstanding Young Entrepreneurs of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Award” in its first edition
Entrepreneurship Journey Begins in the Alma Mater
The team introduced its air disinfection device to the visitors in CIE
Timothy has been passionate about physics and the high-voltage electrostatic field since high school, hoping to develop an innovative invention that benefits human health and creates value for society. However, he chose to study psychology at university, since he believed that psychology could help him to understand human behaviour, motivations and meanings behind their thoughts. Led by the intention of “Creating values for the society”, he had finally blazed a path to entrepreneurship. In 2019, as a freshman at the University, Timothy noticed that CIE, which serves as a National Co-working Space, could assist teachers and students in implementing their creative ideas into products through the industry-academia support platform. Thus, he and his team decided to join one of the incubation teams of CIE and established “Zidian Technology”. He also thanked the support from his family and stated, “My family members who have proficient knowledge in physics, had provided us many useful advices during the air disinfection technology development process. Later, our team developed a product prototype based on this technique and brought it to CIE.” Since then, CIE has become his “Leader” for his start-up to step into the market.
Timothy expressed, “Through the guidance and training provided by CIE during the incubation process, our team was equipped with the business knowledge of administration, taxation, law, marketing, and financial management, transforming us from a research team that was initially ignorant about business operations into a start-up company within just a year of establishment.” In addition, CIE also provided a platform for the incubation teams to participate into the entrepreneurial competitions, recommending them to join various competitions to gain more experience and support from the investors. Timothy admitted that the success of the team would not have been possible without the support of the Alma Mater. CIE had allocated many resources and guidance to assist the start-ups to enhance the commercialization process of the research achievements.
The team won the award at “Bank of China Trophy One Million Dollar Macao Regional Entrepreneurship Competition 2019” for the first time
CIE as the Cradle of Industry-academia Collaboration
As one of the start-up incubation teams of CIE, the “Flash™ Invisible Air Disinfection Device” is a collaborative project between “Zidian Technology” and CIE. Led by the “Super Compression Purification Principle” and the Air-ClearV® air disinfection technique, the device is capable of killing 99.99% of viruses and bacteria in the air without generating any ozone and radiation, providing an air disinfection solution for commercial places without causing any harm to the human body. It has won several entrepreneurial competition awards, including the 3rd runner-up at the “‘Parafuturo de Macao’ Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition”, the National Silver Award at “The 6th China International ‘Internet+’ College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, National Competition” and “China Youth Science and Technology Innovation Award”. These achievements have further enhanced recognition of Macao’s innovation and technology sector. At present, this air disinfection technology has won 13 patents (including those being approved and pending), it also holds several product certifications and disinfection product permits issued by the certification institutions in Switzerland, Mainland China and Macao respectively. As the product’s target market is commercial users, Timothy admitted that it had a high demand for disinfection products in the market during the pandemic outbreak, and the medical-grade disinfection standard “Flash™ Invisible Air Disinfection Device” has been widely used in hotels, medical operation rooms and public places (e.g. Kiang Wu Hospital and Macau Science Center). This demonstrates the University’s achievement of promoting the industry-academia collaboration to serve the society.
The device has won several entrepreneurial competition awards
Macao’s Technology Brand Tapping into the GBA Market
Born and raised in Macao, Timothy has the ambition to make contributions to the society and promote the development of the industry, attempting to promote air disinfection devices and technology beyond Macao in order to make contributions to the public health and disinfection fields. Zidian Technology’s production plant is currently located in Foshan, Timothy stated that they are actively exploring partnerships and collaborations with the companies in the GBA to develop other air disinfection and purification products suitable for small-sized enterprises or home users. The company is making efforts to bring Macao’s technology brand to the GBA market, integrating the resources and advantages of the GBA to further promote Macao brands and technological innovation, protecting public health and eliminating the impact caused by the virus on the society, as well as allowing the public to share the achievements of industry-academia collaboration.
Flash™ Invisible Air Disinfection Device
Entrepreneurial Tips
In view of his personal growth and the development of Zidian Technology, Timothy advised entrepreneurs who choose the path of industry-academia should identify their entrepreneurial intentions and goals, fully utilize the resources provided by the incubation platforms to optimize and promote their projects. For instance, through participating in different entrepreneurial competitions, they will be able to gain more experience, connect with the professionals in the industry and obtain the experts’ opinions to adjust the team’s development plan. “Hard work always pays off, and gold will glitter forever”, Timothy uses this motto to encourage young people to have the courage to try and accumulate experiences to strive for success.
