On July 1, 2016, Professor Jack Hu, Vice-Chancellor of University of Michigan (UIM), paid a return visit to Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) after President Chen Shiyi visited University of Michigan in May this year. President Chen Shiyi, Vice Presidents Tang Tao and Wang Jixiang and Lu Chun, Chief Operating Officer received the guest. Directors from the Office of Global Engagement, Department of Biology, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Beijing Institute of Collaboration and Innovation USA also attended the meeting.

During the meeting, Vice President Tang Tao introduced the overall conditions and the latest development in scientific research and cultivation of graduate students of SUSTech. The head of the Office of Global Engagement elaborated the status quo of SUSTech, the internationalized school-running features of SUSTech and the current cooperation of the research program with UIM. Vice-Chancellor Jack Hu spoke highly of the globalized school-running practices of SUSTech and hoped that further cooperation in scientific research would be carried out between the two universities.

Both sides exchanged views on joint research institutes, cooperation on scientific research programs, joint cultivation of doctoral students as well as potential cooperation initiatives.

At 4 p.m., SUSTech, UIM and Front Capital held a signing ceremony on the joint construction of Demonstration Zone for Unmanned Vehicles. The three sides will conduct further cooperation in areas like unmanned vehicles and intelligent vehicles. Qiu Xuan, deputy director of Shenzhen Science, Technology and Innovation Commission, Vice President Wang Jixiang, Vice-Chancellor Jack Hu and Wang Lejing, co-founder of Front Capital, attended the ceremony.

Vice President Wang Jixiang said that SUSTech and UIM would jointly construct a Center for Unmanned Vehicles and Demonstration Zone for Unmanned Vehicles in Shenzhen, so as to enhance industry-university-research collaboration, further promote the research on unmanned vehicles and intelligent vehicles and foster industrial chains in these areas.

It is reported that in May 2016 in Detroit, Hu Chunhua, secretary of Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and mayor of Shenzhen Xu Qin witnessed the signing of memorandum on the Michigan-Shenzhen Trade, Investment and Innovation Cooperation Center (Michigan-Shenzhen Center) and the plate unveiling ceremony of the Center. SUSTech, UIM, Beijing Institute of Collaboration and Innovation and Michigan-Shenzhen Center signed a four-party memorandum of understanding. The Demonstration Zone for Unmanned Vehicles is the first of its kind in the Michigan-Shenzhen Center. It will accelerate the research and development of unmanned vehicles and intelligent vehicles, test the practicability, promote technological innovation, push the development of standards for unmanned vehicles and strengthen China’s international influence in these areas.