Center for Engineering Excellence of HKUST(GZ) inaugurated

Excellent engineers develop technological and engineering equipment and projects of great significance. Excellent engineers represent the great strength of a country.

Recently, after a long period of preparation, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) (HKUST(GZ)) announced the establishment of the Center for Engineering Excellence (CEE), with Professor Quanke SU, a National Excellent Engineer and Chief Engineer of the University, as its founding Director.

China needs excellent engineers. A new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial competition is changing with each passing day. The level of engineering education and the quality of engineers have become important driving forces for a country's scientific and technological strength. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Central Talent Work Conference further divide "scientific and technological talent" into two categories: "engineers" and "scientists", and place the construction of an excellent engineering team in a prominent position. We must recognize the extreme importance of this work from the strategic height of building a strong country and national rejuvenation, in order to accelerate the independent training of outstanding engineering and technical talent.

The world needs great engineers. The historical development of modern times shows that engineers play a key supporting role in the industrialization and modernization process of countries around the world, and affect the improvement of a country's industrialization level and national competitiveness. The UNESCO report, Engineering: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for Development, proposes that to solve a series of serious global problems we are facing today, such as the environment, climate, poverty and sustainable development, we rely on engineers more than ever before.

Just in response to the urgent need for outstanding engineers in China and the world, HKUST(GZ) has set up CEE. This is a key step for the University to explore engineering education reform based on its own advantages and characteristics, and also a strategic action to bravely shoulder its historical mission and respond to the national "Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program 2.0". How will CEE find a new paradigm for cultivating talented engineers in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area amidst the profound changes unseen in a century? With this question in mind, the Editorial Office of Duxue Road No 1 interviewed Professor Lionel NI, President of HKUST(GZ), and Professor SU, founding Director of CEE.

Professor NI, who has led many collaborative projects between universities and companies, found that much of the work ended up getting stuck on engineering issues. "Professors can study and solve research problems. When it comes to the last step of presenting 'samples' and 'prototypes', full-time engineers must help us. Many university teachers lacking an industrial background are good at writing papers, but somewhat helpless when faced with real engineering problems."

He mentioned that since its inception, HKUST(GZ) has hoped to cultivate innovative and entrepreneurial talent for the needs of the country's "bottleneck disciplines", and the training of outstanding engineers is the key to achieving this goal.

"HKUST(GZ) can use our own advantages to make institutional changes and do something that other schools cannot do in the exploration of cultivating outstanding engineers," Professor NI added.

Based on this vision, when preparing to establish HKUST(GZ), Professor NI pioneered the establishment of the University's "engineering track", and thus sincerely invited SU, Chief Engineer of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB), to join the University as Chief Engineer and Practice Professor. Now Professor SU supports the establishment of CEE. This series of reform actions is all due to NI's profound thinking about the development of universities and the current situation of engineering education in China.

On Jan 19, 2024, the National Engineer Award Commendation Conference was held in the Great Hall of the People. Professor SU was awarded the title of a National Excellent Engineer and delivered a speech as a representative of the winners. As the Chief Engineer of many national-level and even world-class projects such as the HZMB, he has personally experienced the collision between scientific theory and real scenarios in engineering practice.

He hopes more strongly to explore a new path for university engineering education at HKUST(GZ) through the establishment of CEE. "Scientists discover the laws of knowledge and understand the world, while engineers apply knowledge to solve problems and make products." SU said frankly that HKUST(GZ) gave him a good opportunity to think about how a new university builds engineering capabilities to match its existing scientific research capabilities for their deep integration and coordinated development, and finally find answers to the current common problems such as the disconnection between scientific research tasks and engineering capacity training at universities.

He believed that "This is the positioning of the CEE, and its historical mission."

There is a grand vision and clear positioning, but it also requires specific implementation measures. When HKUST(GZ) was established, an "engineering track" was set up to enable engineers to teach students and lead projects.

After the establishment of CEE, more complete supporting systems such as talent introduction and training mechanisms, and assessment systems have been issued and implemented. These reform measures directly address the pain points of the evaluation system of traditional scientific research institutions.

Professor NI took the study of embodied intelligence as an example: "Many teams studying embodied intelligence only like to optimize software and rarely design and assemble hardware because hardware development takes a long time and it is difficult to publish papers. However, the industrial sector needs an overall solution that combines software and hardware. We must make good use of the advantages of HKUST(GZ) and break through the barriers between scientific research and engineering at universities. Only in this way, can we cultivate talent like Tao WANG and Wenfeng LIANG who change the world."

Professor SU believed that guided by a series of top-level designs of HKUST(GZ), to realize the blueprint drawn by President NI, CEE needs to start from two aspects in a down-to-earth manner toward a good future.

First, we must build a bridge for long-term and stable cooperation between universities and enterprises. SU recalled that during the previous project promotion process, most of the university-enterprise cooperation was "one-time deals". Enterprises put forward needs and universities solve problems. Due to the different concerns of academia and industry, it is difficult for cooperation to continue and expand.

The HKUST(GZ) CEE hopes to build an industry-university-research platform, and by adding the role of a "practice professor" in cooperation as a bridge, carry out long-term projects and deepen the coordination mechanism.

"Practice professors at CEE need to understand the needs, strengths and weaknesses of both universities and industries, and can help companies and universities form a development synergy, enabling HKUST(GZ) to participate in major projects," said SU.

Second, we shall develop innovative platforms that integrate disciplines. SU took the Marine Hydrodynamic Research Facility being built by his team as an example to explain how interdisciplinary efforts can conduct model tests and application verification through laboratories. "We are developing the Marine Hydrodynamic Research Facility in the hope of building a platform for the development of marine engineering based on this foundation. This platform can bring in research on marine engineering, marine equipment and even future offshore human settlements and offshore cities, so that we can solve practical problems and discuss future development." SU believed that in addition, in many fields such as low-altitude economy and smart factories, we can leverage the advantages of HKUST(GZ)'s integrated disciplines to build a large platform and attract talent and projects.

Talking about the talent training goals of CEE, Professor NI gave some insights. "Chinese engineering has long gone global, but the international recognition of Chinese engineers needs to be improved."

He said that the international mutual recognition of engineers is an important measure to enhance the international competitiveness of Chinese engineers. As Hong Kong has good practical experience in this regard, HKUST(GZ) has the advantage of "bringing in" engineering talent and helping them "go global" through a flexible system. The initiative will promote two-way opening up of talent to the outside world, and enhance China's international influence in engineering.

Professor SU also has a deep understanding of this. In order to explore the development path of CEE, he visited several world-renowned engineering education institutions such as the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France and the University of Waterloo in Canada to learn from their experiences and discuss cooperation, hoping to foster an international engineer training model.

"We hope to promote the alignment of Chinese engineer qualification certification with international standards, and even build Chinese standards for global engineering certification." SU said that the CEE will partially draw on international advanced experience to explore the integrated training of "degree + engineer license". At the same time, it is promoting cooperation with well-known domestic and foreign engineering organizations such as the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers (HKIE) so that graduates from HKUST(GZ) can obtain international licenses to directly participate in international engineering governance.

From the pioneering of the engineering track to the establishment of CEE, every step of HKUST(GZ)'s exploration is trying to answer a question of our times: How to build a new system for training outstanding engineers with Chinese characteristics and world-class standards? As NI said, "We hope to train students who can have both theoretical foresight in analyzing the development of science and technology and engineering application capabilities in transforming scientific research results into products. We are not afraid of making mistakes, but we are afraid of not daring to try." Located in the core area of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Science and Technology Innovation Corridor, this new University has been established for only more than two years. Laboratories and practice workshops are intertwined, and paper standards and engineering values collide. CEE is taking reform as the rudder and practice as the sail to explore an HKUST(GZ) route for cultivating outstanding engineers, from the Greater Bay Area to the world.