On July 28, SUSTech’s Technology Transfer Center and Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) co-hosted the 2018 Annual Conference on New Materials Industry and Technology. As a bridge between higher institutions and enterprises, the event aimed to provide an interdisciplinary platform for the new materials academia and industry to share knowledge, ideas, and resources.
With a theme of “New Materials, New Technology, and New Development,” the conference attracted about 300 enterprises. It also invited a large number of scholars, academicians, students, and representatives from investment institutions such as Zhengxuan Investment, Han Venture Capital, and Sequoia Capital.
Department Head of MSE Cheng Xin introduced the recent developments, faculty team and research findings of his department in details. After that, the conference saw a series of academic reports delivered by top scholars, and China’s Recruitment Program for Young Professionals. Professor Cheng Chun from the Department of Material Sciences and Engineering and Professor Yang Gaiyang from iCollege, the School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship, also presented academic reports at the forum.
A roundtable talk was the final event of the forum. A heated, exciting and insightful discussion took place around “how to carry out innovative, entrepreneurial and production-learning-research activities when China’s new materials industry is still relatively backward.” Participants included Cheng Xin, Sun Dazhi, FutureCap Partner Zeng Yingzhe, Vice President of Sequoia Capital Xiang Xiaoxiao, Dean of BYD Central Research Institute Gong Qing, and CYG Director Liu Xiaobo.
As a comprehensive and interdisciplinary academic discipline, Materials Sciences is a branch of applied science that integrates physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. Material Sciences study the mutual relationships between the syntheses, preparation, structure, and application of materials. Since the third Industrial Revolution, new materials has become one of the pillars of modern technology along with information and energy. Not only can new materials accelerate the development of related industries and technologies, but it may also lead to the birth of new industries and technological fields. It is of vital importance to achieve breakthroughs in key technologies, major equipment and categorical diversity of new materials. Only in this way can China’s new materials be more international and competitive, which in turn promote technological innovation, industrial upgrade, and the transition of “Made in China” to “Created in China.”
