A new entrepreneurship program in Beijing is bringing young innovators from universities across China and abroad closer to factory floors, supply chains and potential markets, as the city's development area steps up efforts to turn student ideas into viable hard-tech startups.

The inaugural XbotPark Beijing Sci-Tech Innovation Camp brought together 38 students from over 20 universities for a two-week program focused on robotics, artificial intelligence and intelligent manufacturing at the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, better known as Beijing E-Town.

Among them was Bi Xiaobo, a Chinese student at Imperial College London, who said the experience strengthened his resolve to return to China and start a business.

"The camp made me more confident about starting my own business in China," Bi said. "Here, I can source different robot components at affordable prices."

Unlike conventional entrepreneurship programs centered on classroom training or pitching, the camp took participants into factories and manufacturing facilities, where they conducted user research, crafted product concepts and worked toward developing prototypes.

The program, held from July 29 to Aug 14, marked the launch of the XbotPark Beijing base, a new platform jointly initiated by Beijing E-Town and a team led by Li Zexiang, a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and founder of XbotPark.

During visits to factories in E-Town, Bi said the area's high concentration of information technology, chip, software and advanced manufacturing companies gave him a clearer picture of how a robotics startup could move from an idea toward production.

For young hardware entrepreneurs, access to manufacturing is particularly important because developing a prototype is a critical step to bring a product to market.

At Beijing Brio-Tech Electronic Technology Co, one of the companies supporting the camp, participants were given access to facilities including CNC machining, 3D printing and circuit debugging equipment to build and refine prototypes. "What attracts entrepreneurs most is E-Town's commitment to long-term development," said He Jie, deputy general manager at Brio-Tech and a mentor at the camp.

By bringing together manufacturing facilities and resources across the industrial chain, E-Town can support startups through different stages, from proof of concept and rapid prototyping to small-batch trial production, testing and certification, He added.

That manufacturing capacity is part of a broader ecosystem E-Town is seeking to leverage to attract young entrepreneurs.

The area has gathered more than 800 key enterprises across the AI industrial chain, with the industry's output exceeding 100 billion yuan ($14.8 billion), according to the development area.

E-Town has also emerged as one of Beijing's major centers for robotics and embodied intelligence. It is home to more than 300 robotics and embodied intelligence companies and is the permanent venue of the World Robot Conference.

The 2026 World Robot Conference, which concluded on Aug 23, showcased new developments in robotics and embodied AI, with 44 new technologies and solutions unveiled during the five-day event.

Li Quan, deputy director of the administrative committee of Beijing E-Town, said the area's industrial ecosystem provided young entrepreneurs with opportunities to develop products alongside established companies and the ability to test technologies in real-world settings.

E-Town is building a full-stack developer community for embodied intelligence by bringing together leading enterprises, developers, manufacturing resources and application scenarios, Li said.

For Bi, however, the appeal comes down to something more immediate: whether a young entrepreneur can afford to turn an idea into a commercially viable product.

Beyond access to factories and components, he pointed to the availability of accommodation and living support for young entrepreneurs in the area.

Such support, he said, could allow young founders to spend less time worrying about costs — and more time turning their ideas into businesses.