On April 27th 2017, President Chen made a formal visit to Columbia University, and was warmly welcomed by the institution’s leadership. Columbia University Dean John Coatsworth, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Mary Boyce, Executive Vice President Shifu Chang, Director of Biomedical Engineering Andrew Laine, Professor of Biomedical Engineering Guo Xiangdong and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering attended the meeting to hold discussions. Vice President Wu Chuanyue, and Associate Vice President, International Affairs and Chief Operating Officer Lu Chun accompanied the President to participate in the visit.

Chen Shiyi was presented souvenirs from John Coatsworth

Coatsworth extended a warm welcome to Chen Shiyi and gave a brief overview of Columbia University’s present situation. Coatsworth highly appreciated SUSTech’s philosophy, development and vision, and said he was impressed with the remarkable achievements the university made in just a few years. He expressed his appreciation for the two universities’ joint work projects in the field of biomedical engineering, and expressed support for deeper relationships. He said he hoped that working alongside SUSTech will spark innovation and progress in research and bear fruitful results.

Chen Shiyi then took over to give an introduction about SUSTech and the city of Shenzhen, and said that collaborative research projects in biomedical engineering would be very promising, to explore medical and engineering research and education projects, joint training and undergraduate collaborations in international education programs.

During the talks, Coatsworth accepted the invitation of President Chen to a second visit to SUSTech to further discuss the projects’ implementation between the two universities.

President Chen Shiyi takes a photo with Dean John Coatsworth and Dean Mary Boyce

During the visit, the delegation met with Mary Boyce, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, ShiFu Chang, Executive Vice President of the Faculty of Engineering, and Andrew Laine, Director of Biomedical Engineering. Together they held talks on cooperating in engineering, medical research, as well as in the undergraduates’ training and international education projects and other issues in a series of in-depth exchanges.

In-depth discussions

Later in the day the delegation visited the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Science and Technology of Columbia University, where they held talks on the overall situation of scientific research and education.

The Chair Professor of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Columbia

On April 28th 2017, following up on the invitation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), President Chen made a formal visit to the Institute. MIT attached great importance to the delegation’s visit, with the welcome of Dean Martin Schmidt, vice president of international affairs Richard Lester, Dean of the Institute of Technology Ian Waitz, director of the Department of Mechanical Engineering Chen Gang and director of resource development Liu Zhenli all present to hold discussions with the SUSTech delegation. Associate Vice President of International Affairs Lu Chun and Dean of Engineering Xu Zheng accompanied President Chen to attend the meeting and discussion.

The delegation takes photos with Martin Schmidt, Richard Lester and Chen Gang

Schmidt was the first to welcome President Chen’s visit. He said that MIT attaches great importance to building closer relationships with mainland Chinese universities with the goal of joint research collaborations in many fields. Schmidt mentioned that in January 2017 he visited Shenzhen and was very impressed by the city and by SUSTech. He said that Shenzhen’s economic and social structures are developing rapidly. Shenzhen attaches great importance to the development of higher education, international cooperation and communication, technological innovation and the development of the manufacturing industry. For this reason, MIT welcomes and supports the establishment of a solid and mutually beneficial strategy with SUSTech, and Schmidt accepted President Chen’s invitation to visit SUSTech to continue to build on this idea.

Schmidt said that the MIT innovation center set up in Hong Kong with Unicom Shenzhen, which is China Unicom’s Southern Branch, and which works on the industrialization of scientific and technological research results will be extended to the city of Shenzhen, and both sides agreed it would be a great opportunity to develop joint partnerships in training, production and research.

During the visit, President Chen and his entourage also held talks with Professor Ian Waitz, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering who also showed significant interest in joint projects and student exchanges.

Talks at the scene

The SUSTech leaders made the most of the visit and stayed on to listen to a report from the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Professor David Wallace and Sangbae Kim entitled “Education and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering”.

David Wallace ‘s Report on “Education and Innovation in Mechanical Engineering”

Contribution: Office of Global Engagement