Tech giants Huawei and Tencent were born in Shenzhen, which has become a cutting-edge research and development center in south China's Guangdong Province. Throughout the past four decades of reform and opening up, it has been a pioneer in en-couraging hi-tech innovation and incubating the groundbreaking research of entrepreneurs. With more young talented people pouring in, the hi-tech industry and the academic environ-ment are ushering in an era of transformation.