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Looking forward to this week’s trip to Asia

Call it an itinerary of opportunity. This week, I’ll travel to Taiwan to attend the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) Asia Conference in Taipei to give the AUTM Conference keynote address on innovation and entrepreneurism in higher education based on the UW’s great success in commercialization.

In 2013, the UW had a banner year, placing us among the top five schools in the United States for startup formation by producing a record 17 new companies through our Center for Commercialization (C4C). The UW is first in the number of licenses issued as well as first in different types of licenses, such as biotech, metadata, etc. And we intend to top our record in the coming years, thanks to 80 robust projects in the startup pipeline through our C4C New Ventures Program. I’m pleased to share our success story at the AUTM Conference and to strengthen our connections in Taipei.

During our visit, we are honored to accept the special invitation of Taiwan’s Ministry of Education to visit National Taiwan University, National Chung Hsing University and National Chiao Tung University.

I especially enjoy connecting with Huskies whenever I travel, and I am especially looking forward to the personal visits and receptions with our strongest supporters, Husky alumni, partners, family and friends in Taipei and, also in Tokyo, Japan.

The UW delegation expects to make inroads in key partnerships that will benefit the UW, our state and our world. As a first-tier world university, it is incumbent upon us to be engaged with our international partners so that we can extend the extraordinary work of our faculty and students to places where it can do the most good.

Accompanying me are Vice Provost of Global Affairs Jeff Riedinger, Vice Provost for the UW Center for Commercialization Linden Rhoads, Chair of Electrical Engineering Vikram Jandhyala, Associate Chair of Research for Electrical Engineering Jenq-Neng Huang, and Director of International Advancement Ray Li.

In the coming days, I’ll be posting updates of my journey on this blog and Facebook page. I invite you to follow along and help us spread the word about the progress the UW is making with our partners in Taiwan and Japan. Go global Huskies!