On Jan. 16, the Tsinghua University Industry Cooperation Committee (UICC) held its annual exchange and commendation meeting in the Huaye Building, reviewing activities from 2017. Senior executives from a number of overseas companies, including Intel, Siemens, Shell, Toyota and Apple, as well as Tsinghua University faculty members providing backbone academic support in international scientific research cooperation attended the meeting to discuss their latest research progress and share their experiences in university-industry cooperation.
Xue Qikun, Tsinghua’s Vice President and Director of the UICC, gave a welcoming speech. In the speech he emphasized that following the objective of developing first-rate academic disciplines and constructing first rate universities, Tsinghua University had made great progress in academic development, talent cultivation and research innovation, and that the results of evaluations of undergraduate education and academic disciplines, as well as its progress in international rankings showed the prosperous development of the university. The year 2017 was also an important year for Tsinghua in pushing ahead with its global strategy: the first batch of students of the Schwarzman Scholars Project graduated in 2017, and the year also saw the establishment of the Global Innovation Exchange and the China-Italy Design Innovation Hub. During the process of promoting Tsinghua’s “global strategy”, the university looks forward to cooperating with more industrial partners to facilitate the cultivation of innovative talent, to make cutting-edge research progress and to solve challenges facing the world. During the exchange and commendation Dr. Ma Jun, the UICC’s Executive Vice Secretary and Director of the Overseas R&D Management Office, Office of Scientific R&D, introduced the new features and progress of Tsinghua’s industry-university-research collaboration and international scientific cooperation in 2017. The UICC has been gradually expanding its large-scale flagship project with international companies in more and more core domains, including cooperation with foreign universities and companies both home and abroad to co-establish high-end labs and to promote multidimensional cooperation, thereby achieving win-win partnerships through combined government – industry – university – research cooperation. Reviewing the past 21 years since the initiation of the overseas branch of the UICC in 1996, it can be seen that Tsinghua University and international industry have together made numerous and continuous efforts and explorations in talent cultivation, multidimensional research cooperation and transformation of academic and technological results, and that university-industry scientific cooperation has been continuously deepening over this period.
In the exchange meeting afterwards, representatives from Microsoft, P&G, Delta, BP, EMC, Intel, Saudi Aramco and Apple, as well as faculty representatives from Tsinghua University discussed the challenges and demands, as well as new ideas and new modes, of university-industry collaboration, as well as ideas for promoting the cultivation of innovative talent through research cooperation. Xue Qikun expressed his thanks to the international companies for their long-term support of Tsinghua University, adding that the exploration in frontier fields and talent cultivation was increasingly important to university-industry cooperation. In this regard he expressed his wish that the UICC partners could provide more opportunities for students to carry out mid- and long-term study projects and internships, as well as strengthening multilateral and multidimensional cooperation, in order to achieve still greater success in the research of key problems and in the exploration of cutting-edge fields.
At the meeting awards were issued by the UICC to outstanding international partners and contributors for industry-university-research efforts and international scientific cooperation. On behalf of Tsinghua University, Xue Qikun handed out awards to Intel, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Rio Tinto, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, BP, Siemens and Toyota, and issued certificates recognizing the high level contribution of key individuals in international college-industry cooperation to outstanding core members Hao Jiming, Wei Fei, Shuai Shijin, Yao Qiang, Li Zheng, Lin Feng and Liu Leibo.
Presently the UICC has over 150 domestic members, including Huawei, COMAC, First Auto Work, State Grid, China Telecom, Sinopec and CETC. The UICC also has over 40 overseas members, including famous international companies and institutions such as Toyota, Hitachi, Intel, Siemens, Toshiba, Sony, P&G, Microsoft, Samsung, KONE and EMC.
[update:2018-01]
