From March 25 to 27, the First Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) NEE Forum-Explore New Paradigm of Engineering Education was held at the University.

The forum aims to build a platform for exchanges and cooperation, resource sharing, and further promote the development of new engineering education.

Guests in attendance included Zhimin LI, Vice President of the Chinese Society of Educational Development Strategy, Lin JIANG, Director of the Higher Education Division of Guangdong Province, Zhifeng CHEN, Deputy Director of the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau, Hongwei FANG, Vice President and Provost of SUSTech,

The event attracted nearly 300 attendees, including experts, scholars, industry leaders, and professors.

In his remarks at the forum, Vice President Hongwei FANG said that the “Brilliant Engineer Training Program”, as a new education model for new engineering disciplines build for future talent, is a major strategy by SUSTech to continue the reform of engineering education.

He urged that they introduce a new educational culture and way of thinking, and new approaches to meet the supply of high-quality talents with innovative and practical abilities and interdisciplinary knowledge. He hopes to learn from different engineering universities through this forum, their concepts, developments, and putting their plans into practice.

Jianhua LIN, former President of Peking University and Director of the Future Education Center at Peking University, stressed that universities should no longer regard themselves as monopolies of knowledge. He noted that they should share resources to help develop the country’s higher education system, and described the challenges universities face along with some potential solutions.

Peihua GU, Director of the New Engineering Education Center of Tianjin University (TJU) and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, discussed the current challenges and opportunities of engineering education in China and the United States. He outlined his views on cultivating outstanding engineering talents, and familiarized everyone in attendance with TJU’s approaches to developing innovative engineering talents.

Dongsheng YU, Executive Deputy Editor-in-chief of Higher Education Engineering Research at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), spoke about the history of engineering, engineering science, and engineering education at the forum. He revealed the academic and scientific development of engineering education, and how engineering education needs to meet the needs of modern social and economic development.

Lifeng XI, Vice President of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), noted that the School of Mechanical Engineering at SJTU cooperated with industry to build a new path of reforms that combines science and education and integration of industry and education for undergraduate program projects, to enhance the creativity, critical thinking, systematic thinking, and execution ability of undergraduates facing real and complex engineering problems.

Yong ZHANG, Chairman of Sinocom Posts and Telecommunications Consulting and Design Institute Co., Ltd., discussed the development trend of the 5G+ industrial internet and the innovation and development needs of engineering education in universities and colleges.

He shared his ideas and practices of 5G full connection to help develop a new training education system in engineering, to lead a new outline of industrial digital transformation with technological innovation, and explore a new direction for engineering education reform through the integration of industry and education.

Limin ZHOU, Associate Dean of the School of System Design and Intelligent Manufacturing (SDIM) at SUSTech, also spoke at the forum and pointed out that SDIM has implemented educational concepts that have integrated multiple disciplines, and has laid a solid foundation for engineering education at the University.

Afterward, there were two dialogue and exchange sessions held. In the first one, academics that included presidents, academicians, and fellows discussed the issues faced by the country’s new engineering education and the training of outstanding engineering talents.

Those that participated in this session included Jianhua LIN, former President of Peking University, Liqun ZHANG, President of the South China University of Technology, Yaorong MI, Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Lifeng XI, Vice President of SJTU, Peihua GU, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Jinsong LENG, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Linzhi WU, Vice President of Harbin Engineering University.

Jingshen WU, Vice President for Teaching and Learning of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), moderated over the session as they discussed their experiences and practices of their respective universities and institutions, and exchanged views on how to promote the continuous deepening of new engineering education reform around the world.

In the entrepreneurial dialogue session, the guests spoke about the needs of the industry and the integration of production and education.

Those from industry included Yong ZHANG, Chairman of Sinocom Posts and Telecommunications Consulting and Design Institute Co., Ltd., Hao CHEN, Founder of Shenzhen Shaoyin Technology Co., Ltd., Daming GAO, Chairman of Sany Ventures, Yu ZHANG, Founder of Xingjiyuan Education Technology Co., Ltd., and Ziyue WU, Founder of Goo High-Tech Co., Ltd.

Zhaoyuan MA, Professor of SDIM at SUSTech, presided over this session as the experts discussed various topics and called on enterprises to take the initiative to assume social responsibilities and join hands with universities in cultivating outstanding engineering talents.

With the goal of exploring a new paradigm of engineering education, this forum aims to create an international academic platform to promote the research and exploration of new engineering education reform and elevate higher education in engineering.