Today on the show, we meet Cesar Harada — a French-Japanese inventor, entrepreneur and environmentalist who has been living in Hong Kong for the past three years.

He’s the kind of guy that sees a problem and builds a solution for it from the ground up. And the makerspace in the industrial east end of the city that he built, called Makerbay, is a pretty good example of this.

Show notesMakerbay: www.makerbay.org/Cesar Harada: www.cesarharada.com/

Also Read: Vietnam’s Moonwalkers remind us why we got into startups in the first place

0:49 – Cesar’s pet project, autonomous sailboats, which led to the origins of Makerbay2:20 – The projects of Makerbay, running the gamut of 3D imaging technology to mobile-controlled open source telescopes3:50 – Cesar explains Makerbay’s focus on local problems and how its inventions have positive societal impact4:55 – “Thinking globally, acting locally” when trying to save Hong Kong’s endangered coral reefs6:25 – Makerbay’s invention will save marine biology researchers time and money

Also Read: The glorification of Silicon Valley in Asia and why it happens

8:13 – The importance of free Internet to social R&D and the reason why Cesar chose Hong Kong over Shenzhen9:20 – Hong Kong as an interesting hybrid – has the freedom of the west and also the wisdom and industrial power of the east11:04 – Cesar, a designer by trade, is also an engineer and scientist and explains how these various disciplines helps him with his work13:09 – What’s my identity? I’m an inventor, environmentalist and entrepreneur

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Photo by Iris Leung.