Technology firm founder, Purdue alumnus to speak on campus

Kong Kat Wong
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —Kong Kat Wong, entrepreneur and co-founder of Xiaomi, one of China’s leading technology firms, will speak at Purdue University on April 9.

This Giant Leaps Series event will take place at 6:30 p.m. in Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall. The event is free and open to the public. “Giant Leaps Series: Global Tech Innovator Kong Kat Wong” will be moderated by Arnold Chen, managing director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship.

Wong co-founded Xiaomi in 2010 and most recently served as vice president responsible for the development of Xiamo’s MiTalk and MiCloud business. Before founding Xiaomi, Wong worked as the principal development manager for Microsoft China for 13 years, where he oversaw product development for Microsoft’s business server. He received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Purdue University in 1996.

Xiaomi, which creates technology products such as smartphones, laptops and mobile apps, has experienced great success since its founding in 2010 and is currently the world’s largest IoT platform for smart hardware and the fifth-largest cellphone brand. Xiaomi started to expand globally in 2013, and now sells its products to many other countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and India.

This is one of many events celebrating Purdue’s sesquicentennial, 150 Years of Giant Leaps. This yearlong celebration is highlighting Purdue’s remarkable history of giant leaps, while focusing on what giant leaps Purdue can take to address the world’s problems. Wong’s talk coincides with one the themes of the celebration’s Ideas Festival, “Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms and Automation: Balancing Humanity and Technology.” 

Writer: Jaclyn Lawmaster, jlawmast@purdue.edu

Media contact: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu