MAD Travel Fellowship was initiated by Ma Yansong in 2009. Each year, the program will sponsor college and university students for their overseas traveling with their own research topics. During the past 7 years, the program has sponsored 35 students from universities across Mainland China for their international architecture travels to Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.

MAD believes it is only through travel – the visceral experience of interacting with, and being influenced by, different spaces – that one can begin to understand ideas of context and thereby gain a deeper insight into the practice of architecture.