Global Innovation Exchange (GIX) a new model of international partnerships

With a 40 million dollar start-up grant from Microsoft, Washington University (USA) and Tsinghua University (China) will establish the Global Innovative Exchange Institute in Seattle. GIX will be a graduate program focused on technology innovation for up to as many as 3,000 students. The model may be a precursor to a departure from U.S.A. universities establishing branches in other countries; this time the international partner comes to the U.S.A. with faculty and student exchanges going both directions, all intended to develop talent, research, and innovation capacity. Other locations that have toyed with a hub model in the U.S.A. are the University of California at Berkeley and the Cornell University and Technion Israel Institute of Technology campus in NYC.