He often shuttled between several cities, took a suitcase with one hand, and was busy with replying to work affairs. This may have become the routine status of Dr. Nie Yongzhong, the founder of the Western Horse FATRI (West Horse).
His first impression of people is rational, rigorous and good at thinking, but if he talks deeply, he will find the other side of his sensibility. This may be the change brought by many entrepreneurial experiences.
As a serial entrepreneur, Dr. Nie Yongzhong is not only the introduction of Class A talent in the “Shuangbai Project” of Xiamen, but also the leading talent of the Ministry of Science and Technology. This technical background just gave Dr. Nie Yongzhong a lot of advantages in the entrepreneurial road. He said: “To make high-end technology Businesses that don’t understand technology don’t work.
It is also such a technical advantage that Westerners who focus on the research and manufacture of MEMS chips and high-end sensors can quickly occupy a place in technology-intensive high-tech companies.
A dream about the future
Dr. Nie Yongzhong worked for MEGGITT, the world's largest sensor manufacturer. In this company, despite holding high salaries and working with the most advanced technical talents, he always felt that his own research in the field of sensors could not be a sensor for China. It is particularly regretful that manufacturing companies are contributing. This idea has also been urging him to leave MEGGITT.
In the era of Internet and Industry 4.0, sensors have achieved rapid development. Although there are tens of thousands of types of sensors worldwide, domestic companies still focus on low-end and mid-range markets, and relatively high-end products are almost all produced by foreign companies. At the core of the high-end sensor core technology and production is still in a relatively weak position.
It was exactly this situation that Dr. Nie Yongzhong was determined to start a business. In 2011, he founded the only company in the country that could independently develop high-end sensors. This company relied on its own core technology and quickly developed a variety of products. Bring the domestic sensor technology to the international leading level.
Although due to personal and family reasons, Dr. Nie Yongzhong could not continue to accompany this company, but this entrepreneurial experience has given him a lot. 'I personally is a perfectionist, I want to achieve the ultimate in doing one thing. Although the company's entrepreneurial road was successful, it still did not meet my expectations. ' Dr. Nie Yongzhong adjusted himself and embarked on the second venture road.
Three years later, Dr. Nie Yongzhong formed a team. Most of the team consisted of high-level talents with a master's degree or above. They once again made efforts in the field of sensors.
He established Xirenma (Xiamen) Technology Co., Ltd., focusing on providing core intelligent technology solutions for mankind, focusing on innovations and breakthroughs in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) chips, high-end sensors, etc. Dr. Nie Yongzhong believes that 'humans' History has gone through four industrial revolutions. In the fourth smart revolution, the most iconic event was Apple’s replacement of Nokia. Apple’s mobile phone became a representative of the intelligent revolution because of the development and progress of sensors. It is the core technology that promotes the fourth industrial revolution. '
Westman's core technology and industry chain includes: sensor layer (based on MEMS technology), transmission layer (based on NB-IoT, 5G technology), cloud and application layer.
Micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) technology is the core technology in the field of high-end manufacturing. It is a key core technology for informationization and intelligence. It has a wide range of applications in micro-energy, test and measurement, environmental monitoring, bio-statistics, security and security. MEMS sensors have features of miniaturization, low cost, low power consumption, high reliability, high precision, high integration, and high performance. They can be applied to cutting-edge technologies, the automotive industry, medical and health monitoring, wearable and portable systems, smart phones, etc. Various civil fields.
In the second venture, Dr. Nie Yongzhong's dream is to apply high-end sensors to more intelligent fields, research and develop and manufacture advanced technologies and products for improving the human environment, health, and safety to make the world more intelligent. He admits: 'Our company's The logic is very clear, everything that Westerners do is modeled on people or creatures to implement all the perceptual functions of smart hardware.
Dr. Nie Yongzhong explained that 'in our interior we will call the sensor a neuron. The neuron is the basic unit that constitutes the structure and function of the human nervous system. The reason why the sensor is likened to such an important unit in the human body is that the western horse is established. The strategic goal, which is to create the machine nervous system, is what we are currently doing towards this goal. '
As early as the establishment of Western Horse, Dr. Nie Yongzhong had established the ultimate strategic goal. From the beginning of the company's founding in 2015, the company has established a strategic framework of 'One Brain and One Wing'. The Future Advanced Technology Institute , MEMS chip and sensor manufacturing center, two application directions - health care, artificial intelligence integration.
Future Institute of Advanced Technology possesses well-known researchers in many fields in China. It is dedicated to the research of micro-nanotechnology, molecular biology technology, new sensing technology, artificial intelligence, and modern instrumentation. The artificial intelligence division focuses on sensors. Technology, functional material technology, signal processing technology, artificial intelligence algorithms and modern communication technology simulation animals, human nervous system.
From the current point of view, as long as it is an application technology that allows the machine to generate 'perceived', Western horses are researching and using Dr. Nie Yongzhong's words to describe, 'Where the operating system can be applied to the sensor, basically the Westerners are in the layout. . '
After spending 3 years, Nie Yongzhong led the team to basically build a common sensor-based neural operation platform. The developed system can be used for system solutions such as fault diagnosis, control, laser radar, and biochip, and is widely used in energy-related applications. Aviation, rail transportation, precision instruments, industrial automation, Internet of things and other fields.
'The Westerners should be the world's first universal operating system to be a sensor. After we have successfully developed this system, almost all the westerners applied to the sensor can solve it. ' Nie Yongzhong feels the achievements of the Western Horses in the past three years. Comforting, 'This is also the fruit of the team's hard work and gains over the past three years', and this consolation also made him more confident in the goals he was going to achieve next. This is also his first step towards realizing his future dreams.
The leader of the smart age
In 2011, he founded the only company in the country that can independently develop high-end sensors. The company relied on its own core technology and quickly developed a variety of products to bring the domestic sensor technology to the international advanced level.
In the rapid development of the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, driverless, medical and other industries, MEMS sensors have become the core and focus of the development of the sensor market. According to data released by the CCID Research Institute, 2016, the Chinese MEMS sensor market The scale was 35.92 billion yuan, an increase of 16.5% over the previous year. At the same time, in the 2016-2017 China Internet of Things Development Annual Report, high-end MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical-system) sensors will receive excess returns in the next 5 to 10 years.
Regardless of the market size or the profitability of the industry, high-end sensors have a huge blue ocean and imagination space. This is a vast market opportunity that belongs to Westerners.
The high-end sensor chips developed by Western Horse just make up for the vacancy in the market. Dr. Nie Yongzhong and the team established a common sensor operating system platform with powerful production capabilities and customization capabilities to meet the individual needs of customers. Dr. Nie Yongzhong frankly stated that the system was developed from 2018. After that, the marketization of westerner products has been gradually progressing. Currently, in the energy sector, companies in the unmanned area and in the medical field have successively customized western horse products. Some foreign companies such as Boston Power also found Western horses. , expressed willingness to cooperate.
'The sales orders in the first quarter have already reached more than 1 billion. ' Dr. Nie Yongzhong is confident in the market space. His goal is that in the next five years, sales orders for Westerners can reach 5 billion. 'Conservative estimates, only 2018 In one year, Westman's product sales orders can reach 150 million yuan.
These orders were almost achieved based on the accumulation of the underlying technology of the Westman for several years. The Westman team will develop and design matching sensor products based on different application scenarios. Sample cases will be prepared first, and sample case models will be presented to customers. Customers can perform simple application training to meet customer demand for sensor applications.
Some of these scenarios are based on the needs of customers for research and development and design, and some are the scenes discovered by the Westerners team. Dr. Nie Yongzhong believes that: 'The best entrepreneurs should be imaginative, be good at discovering the applicable in daily life. The scene, as well as the needs that can be solved. ' This is also the most fundamental reason that the Westerners team can continuously find out the MEMS sensor technology solutions in various fields.
Because Western Horse is in the initial stage, in terms of market positioning, Dr. Nie Yongzhong prefers to lower the cost of the product, but insists on producing the highest performance products. The purpose of doing so is to rapidly expand the market scale and provide more enterprises with high-end sensors. Chips and Technology Solutions.
Nie Yongzhong told reporters that in October 2017, Westerners completed a new 8-inch backward-compatible 6-inch MEMS production line and a high-end sensor sealing line with more than 6,000 square meters of high-grade cleanrooms in Quanzhou. Plant design and advanced MEMS production equipment. At present, the company has more than 200 employees, over 90% of whom are high-end R&D technicians in Beijing, Xiamen, Xi’an and Quanzhou. Meanwhile, they plan to have offices in many locations such as Frankfurt. .
In the investment of infrastructure and R&D technical personnel, Westerners has invested hundreds of millions of funds. In the future, Western Horse plans to invest 1-3 billion yuan to continue R&D product development and design of application scenarios.
Dr. Nie Yongzhong said: “Currently, the most challenging issue is how to find as many different areas of sensor application scenario solutions as possible. 'In his opinion, this is a challenge and an opportunity. Only by discovering more scenes can we continue to Satisfying the global users' perceptions of the sensor's language and continuously improving all aspects of people and things, he also hopes that the Westerners can become the leader of the intelligent era.
As the CEO of the company, for Nie Yongzhong, the western horse is his one-time pouring of high-end sensor technology from 0 to 1, and he has also studied business administration for several years.
Talking about life and work, he admits that he is not a person who loves life. He spends nearly all of his time on technology research and development. However, in order to be able to better place his company’s products, he is also forcing himself to come into contact with life. He loves life and is good at discovering the needs of consumers in all aspects of life. 'Only by discovering pain points, can we use the technology, equipment and products of Western Horses to improve human life.' In his expectation, ten years later, the Westerners will become China’s Tesla, made some contributions to change the human and the world.