On Sept. 9th, Tsinghua•Philips Innovation Day was celebrated at Tsinghua University. With the theme of a “Healthy, Comfy and Quality Life”, a diverse range of innovative achievements resulting from cooperative projects between Tsinghua and Philips were exhibited as part of the Innovation Day. Yuan Si, Vice President of Tsinghua University, Kong Xianghui, CEO of Philips Greater China, Dirk-Jan van den Berg, President of Delft University of Science and Technology, Jan Reint Smit, Science Counselor from the Netherlands Embassy, and Shi Yigong, Dean of the School of Life Sciences of Tsinghua University all attended the opening ceremony.
Tsinghua and Philips have been cooperative partners since 1999, and have R&D collaboration in fields such as cardiovascular imaging, audio & video technology, IT, and intellectual property. The year 2011 is both the centenary of year of Tsinghua University and the 120th anniversary of Philips. In honor of such a special year, the “Tsinghua-Philips Innovation Day” was arranged with the aim of discussing how the university and the company could continue to work together in the future, to transfer their collaborative research achievements into production, and to further benefit society.
At the opening ceremony, Yuan Si and Kong Xianghui signed a research cooperation memorandum on behalf of Tsinghua University and Philips. The memorandum sets up a platform for long-term, comprehensive and strategic cooperation between the two sides. Yuan Si said: “The innovative cooperation between Tsinghua and Philip is win-win cooperation. Both parties can leverage their own strengths and have achieved many outstanding results while maintaining a close partnership. It establishes a new model for university-industry cooperation.” Shi Yigong also expressed his wish that cooperation between Tsinghua and Philips could facilitate the development of basic research and life science with Tsinghua’s research resource in engineering fields such as IT, materials sciences, and promote the training of innovative and inter-disciplinary talents.
A series of events, including an innovation forum, an innovation exhibition, a student innovation competition and Philips talent training program were held as part of the innovation day. In the morning, distinguished guests from university, industry, and government agencies all exchanged views on how a “healthy, comfy and quality life” could be achieved through interdisciplinary innovation and research cooperation. During the innovation day many research achievements were exhibited, including joint research achievements of Tsinghua and Philips in MRI, innovative achievements of Tsinghua in bio-chip technology, brain-computer interfaces, surgical navigation systems and tumor therapy, and also the latest innovative products of Philips, including automatic fall monitoring systems, smart lamps, and air analyzers. These innovative technologies will play useful roles to improve living quality in healthcare, lighting and other areas.
