On September 11, 2026, Ke LIU, Dean of the School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) and a foreign fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, hosted the SUSTech-TCL Innovation and Entrepreneurship Lectures. He gave a talk titled “What Silicon Valley Teaches Us on Innovation — Applied to Energy Transition and Startup Opportunities in the AI Era,” where he explored innovation development logic and energy transformation trends from a global industry perspective combined with local practices.

Ke LIU Delivered a Keynote Speech

As a globally renowned energy expert, Ke LIU has held key positions at multinational companies such as ExxonMobil, UTC, and General Electric. After returning to China, he led several major domestic and international research projects, achieving remarkable results in hydrogen energy, clean coal utilization, and large-scale energy storage. He has won numerous domestic and international science and technology awards and major industry honors. In 2015, he was elected as a Foreign Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE).

Highlighting the value of innovation in today’s era, Ke LIU pointed out that the core of social competitiveness lies in cost advantages and irreplaceable innovation capabilities. In the age of AI, where tools are increasingly abundant, the core of innovation is building effective innovation mechanisms and culture. Top universities play a crucial role in the development of regional innovation clusters. Stanford University, leveraging its model of industry-academia-research integration, laid the talent and technology foundation for the development of Silicon Valley. Besides the foundational role of universities, Silicon Valley’s progress also depends on several key factors. First, the continuous iteration of technology transfer and talent pipeline development. Second, a mature venture capital ecosystem acts as a crucial bridge for technology to reach the market. Third, a diverse and open talent acquisition culture that values breakthrough innovation, using a competitive environment to select creative groups. Fourth and lastly, a flat organizational structure that maintains efficient information flow, ensuring effective and dynamic innovation decision-making.

Regarding the energy transition in the AI era, Ke LIU believes that the rapid development of the AI industry will drive continuous growth in electricity demand, creating broad opportunities for building new power systems. Clean methanol fuel has the advantages of being environmentally friendly, economical, and easy to store and transport, and can be widely used in transportation, ports, and distributed power generation, providing practical solutions for port city pollution control and electricity supply in remote areas. Additionally, Ke LIU shared models for integrating the photovoltaic industry with agriculture and ecological management.

Lecture Venue

As the lecture ended, Ke LIU encouraged the students of SUSTech to keep their curiosity and critical thinking, focus on real needs amid the wave of AI and energy transformation, turn technology into valuable results, and make tangible contributions to society.