From July 3-6, a delegation led by Zhou Yu, Director of Tsinghua’s General Office of Scientific R&D, composed of senior executives from BP, Hitachi, Toyota, Sony and Kone, as well as researchers from the International Joint Lab of Advanced Equipment Design and Manufacture, the School of Public Management, and the Department of Thermal Engineering travelled to Chengdu for a scientific-technological trip. During the trip the delegation paid visits to the Tsinghua Institute of Energy Internet, Siemens’ automated factory in Chengdu, the Jinping Deep Underground Lab, and the Yalong River Hydropower Station.
On the morning of July 5, the delegation first visited the planning library in Chengdu’s Tianfu New District, before moving on to the Tsinghua Sichuan Institute of Energy Internet, where a symposium was held, providing an opportunity for the delegation to hear about the research results of various teams at the institute. Director Zhou Yu and the enterprise representatives listened to a report by Vice Dean Liu Yi on the institute’s work. This was followed by active discussions on key issues, such as the application of energy internet and digitization, and joint incubators. The visiting representatives all said the visit had deepened their understanding of the institute, and that they hoped to reinforce their cooperation with it.
At the end of the symposium, Director Zhou Yu gave a concluding speech during which he pointed out that Tsinghua’s policy for establishing regional institutes is laudable, as a result of the severe challenges both in mechanism and system faced by such institutes, in accordance with China’s reform in its scientific research system. He emphasized that as the only regional institute in southwestern China, the Tsinghua Sichuan Institute of Energy Internet shouldered a great responsibility in the cooperation, by playing a role in promoting regional economic development, with benefits radiating to a wider area. He also added that the Tsinghua Office of Scientific R&D would continue to support the institute’s development in this endeavor, and that the UICC should continue to promote collaboration between its members and Tsinghua’s regional institutes, thereby providing a convenient mechanism for member enterprises to better understand newly developing situations and to find new opportunities. At the end of his speech he wished the Tsinghua Sichuan Institute of Energy Internet a smooth development, looking forward to a broadening of the research range covered by the institute, and to great success in the future.
In the afternoon, the delegation visited Siemens’ automated factory in Chengdu, where they listened to a detailed introduction of Siemens’ automated solution, followed by an inspection of the PLC assembly line.
On July 6, the delegation paid a visit to the Jinping Deep Underground Lab and to the Yalong River Hydropower Station. An informal, but thorough, introduction clearly revealed China’s enormous technological strength in hydropower construction, and deeply impressed the visitors, especially the foreign enterprise representatives.
[update:2017-07]
