The Technion’s story has been intertwined with Israel’s for more than a century, from laying the foundations for a new nation to shaping its future.
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Jordan Fung Tsz Chun was just 9 years old when he tried to teach himself coding. But he wasn’t happy with the online tutorials, so he did what few people three times his age would: he launched a startup to help fix the problem. A few years later he started another company. And today, at age 17, he is a freshman at Technion International, the international school of the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.
“Israel is a very nice place, and they’re also very nice people — innovative people, known for their startup ecosystem,” the Hong Kong teen recently said in an interview with The Times of Israel. “I thought studying at the Technion would be a good idea.”
Mr. Fung’s first startup, GLMET, was an online learning platform and community that provided instruction and support to people learning how to code. He closed the non-profit in 2014, and a year later founded Pedosa Innovation, based on a pet project building smart eyeglasses, packaged in a 3D-printed case. At the time, he had already developed six Android and iOS apps that were available on Google Play and iTunes. His company has since grown to more generally address the Internet-of-Things, or the interconnection of computing objects, including a variety of high-tech wearables.
In 2017, Mr. Fung was one of 60 teenagers worldwide to participate in Israel TeenTech. During the eight-day event, he visited tech companies around Israel and learned about the Technion. While he had previously considered going to business school, he came to see that startups required expertise in both business and technology.
So at age 16, the same year he was selected to the “Hong Kong 30 Under 30,” he earned a scholarship to the Technion. He is studying mechanical engineering, focusing on robotics, which includes hardware, software, and artificial intelligence. “This is where the future is trending, and I’m really looking forward to the new opportunities,” he told The Times of Israel.
Technion International offers four-year undergraduate programs leading to bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering, with a minor in environmental engineering or construction management, and mechanical engineering. The undergraduate programs include a 4.5-month, pre-university boot camp in math, physics, and Hebrew. All classes are taught in English with an option to transfer to the Technion’s Hebrew track.
Technion International also offers an Exchange Program that partners with 200 schools around the world, including the Technion’s own Guangdong Technion Israel Institute of Technology in China; accredited summer school programs for both undergraduate and postgraduates; and a Graduate School with a variety of master’s and Ph.D. programs in English.
Photo courtesy of Jordan Fung.