SAN FRANCISCO, April 30 (Xinhua) -- An innovation and technology summit held in the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday called for greater openness, diversity and inclusiveness in future innovation-oriented technology amid a globalized world.
The 2019 Global Innovation and Future Technology Summit (GIFTs) featured a wide range of topics including future technology, smart cities and diversity in innovation, with an aim to improve the quality of life for people worldwide.
Hosted by Z-Park, a professional innovation platform hailed as China's Silicon Valley, the summit brought together global leaders from education, industry, innovation, government, investment and science sectors to share their insights and solutions on these topics.
"The GIFTs conference focused on global collaboration and groundbreaking innovation, and it is what we want to provide to the whole community," Ella Li, senior director of investment at Z-Park, told Xinhua.
"Z-Park as a professional platform is dedicated to providing global acceleration services to local innovation communities with integrated solutions for cross-border development," she said.
Tsu-Jae King Liu, dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), who is known for her innovations in semiconductor devices and technology, underscored the importance of diversity and inclusiveness in the university's success.
In a globally connected society, international partnerships are "a valuable mechanism by which we can give our students and professors experience in developing intellectual proficiency and inter-cultural competency," Liu said in a keynote speech.
She stressed the role of international partnerships in transforming the culture of engineering to educate inclusive leaders in a diverse global society.
Among the international partnerships since the College of Engineering was established, she said, the most prominent one is the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute.
"Dozens of UC Berkeley's professors teach at the institute and hundreds of students are trained in information technology, design, health and well-being, as well as energy and environment," Liu said.
"We really are in the business of transforming lives ... the innovations that come out of our multi-disciplinary research groups really are intended to have a positive impact on society to transform life for the better," she said.
Wei Luo, chief operating officer at Z-Park, said Tuesday's summit aimed at having the latest scientific achievements and thoughts about trends in industry and investment shared by the attending leaders benefit the whole society.
As the VIP guests have said at the forum, globalization helps break the barriers between countries for dialogue on a more open basis, he said, adding that China and the United States, as the two largest economies in the world, should expand and enhance their cooperation amid increasing globalization.
