On October 28, 2016, Prof. Robin J Batterham, former President of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, was present at the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Lecture and held a vivid speech on innovation and opportunities for the energy sector in China. The lecture was presided over by Academician Liu Ke.

Lecture

Prof. Robin J Batterham once served as the President of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Chairperson of Committee on Energy Research and Technology under International Energy Agency, former Chief Scientist of Australian Federal Government, Associate Fellow of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Engineering and US National Academy of Engineering. Also, as a reputed pipe organ player, he held several solo concerts in Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Australia, America, Canada, Italy, etc.

In the speech, Batterham explained the nature of innovation. Innovation, especially the disruptive one, is a slow progress. “From the aspiration to the commercial maturity, decades may be cost.”, he took several examples on his view. To achieve disruptive innovation, the traditional and old technology and model have to be destroyed and the new ones have to be proved effective and advanced, all of which need time and capital investment. Therefore, innovation is a progress of spiral escalation.

Questions & answers

Facing various profound and complicated questions, Batterham gave reasonable and well-founded answers. His strict logic thinking and rich knowledge base earned massive applauses of the audiences.