Global Innovation Exchange – New UW + Tsinghua University of Beijing Campus in Seattle Area filming

Last week I did some freelance camera work with CCTV covering the major announcement of the opening of the Global Innovation Exchange (CCTV is similar to a Chinese BBC).  One of the most prestigious universities in China is joining with the University of Washington to run a graduate institute in Bellevue that will focus on technology and innovation. The partnership with Tsinghua University of Beijing — sometimes called the MIT of China — will mark the first time that a Chinese research university has established a physical presence in the United States. The program will be based in the Spring District of Bellevue in the rezoned and redeveloping Bel-Red Corridor. The GIX as it will be known, will start with a few dozen students in fall 2016,  and could grow to 3,000 students in a decade.

“Both Tsinghua and UW faculty will teach, in English, and the students will earn a master’s degree over 15 months. They’ll be charged with tackling great problems of this era: sustainability, health, inequality, environmental issues, transportation and clean energy, to name just a few. Technology isn’t just about engineering and science anymore.” In remarks, a Microsoft person described the partnership as “a way to grow higher education in Seattle, which is “at a disadvantage” when compared with other U.S. cities that are tech-innovation centers, including Boston, New York, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles. All of those cities have at least two major research universities; Boston has four. Seattle has one.”

We shot interviews with WA Governor Jay Inslee, the head of research for Microsoft, and the presidents of both Universities, that all played across a variety of CCTV programs.