On October 23, 2016, Cheng Qijia, a graduate from Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), led his LUXimus team to the “Most Tech-Driven Startup” Award in IDEASINC #startingUP 2016.

Started in 2009, IDEASINC evolved from a startup competition for students at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to a startup accelerator program open to every youth in Singapore. IDEASINC has become a new symbol of startup in Singapore, as well as an influential startup competition in Singapore and Southeast Asia. 

Cheng Qijia is no strange to SUSTech’s students. On September 18, 2016, he was invited for a speech at the opening ceremony of SUSTech. He was enrolled by SUSTech in 2011 and studied for a PhD degree at NTU after his graduation in 2015. When he was an undergraduate, he won in the Electronic Engineering Creativity Challenge hosted by the British Embassy in China and founded LUXimus.

IDEASINC #startingUP 2016 attracted nearly 200 teams. After two rounds of competition, the top 40 teams and 12 finalists were announced. The winners of three awards (Most Socially Impactful Startup, Most Innovative Startup, Most Tech-Driven Startup) were selected in the final. As one of the few B2B startup entries (for business purposes), LUXimus led by Cheng found its way into the final to grab the “Most Tech-Driven Startup” Award and win 10,000 Singapore dollars in prize money, getting a lot of opportunities of being funded by the Singaporean government and attracting attention from many VC companies.
The entry of Cheng’s team was an independently developed intelligent light control system. The system can automatically adjust lighting intensity according to the flow of people and luminosity detected by the sensor, to save energy and electricity charges for users. Also, users can control lights and lighting intensity in different areas through tablet PC. A similar system needing new electric wire network used to cost much, but the system is practical and can be flexibly installed on the existing network to save much money and trouble.

Referring to this award, Cheng said he made a Freescale intelligent car when he was an undergraduate at SUSTech. Hi-Fi sound system, thermostat, semiconductor defect system and other units all laid the groundwork and accumulated experience for his success. Now NTU has created a good platform and rich resources for him to make his creativity into reality just as he did at SUSTech. Speaking of his future, he said, “SUSTech is promising, I expect to be accomplished in academic research and entrepreneurship, and work with SUSTech more, this is my best return to my Alma Mater and Shenzhen.”