The 4th Sino-German Forum on Cultivating Applied Talents of Intelligent Manufacturing Successfully Held at SDJU
On October 6, the 4th Sino-German Forum on Cultivating Applied Talents of Intelligent Manufacturing opened at SDJU. For our university, 2023 is critical period to forge ahead our 14th Five-Year Plan, and the year to celebrate the 70th anniversary. In this context, this forum, themed on Integration & Innovation: the Focus of Cultivating Applied Talents of Intelligent Manufacturing, played a significant role in facilitating SDJU to deeply implement the strategy of quality education, pooling talents, and global engagement, and explore the characteristic development of internationalized industry and education integration. The forum well demonstrated SDJU’s efforts to carve a new chapter featuring deepened opening and strengthened cooperation with Germany and further integration among government departments, industries, universities, and research institutes in response to the news challenges and opportunities in a new development stage.
The forum focused on topics such as industry 4.0 and demand for intelligent manufacturingtalents, government-university-enterprisecooperation, industry-university-research integration and intelligent manufacturing talent cultivation, and practice and exploration of domestic and foreign universities in cultivating applied talent for Sino-German intelligent manufacturing. It garnered significant attention from academia and industry, attracting over 100 representatives from domestic and foreign universities, institutions, and prominent enterprises. The forum spanned two days and consisted of seminars, special reports, and site visits.
The opening ceremony was presided over by Liu Jun,Dean of KKIP (Kaiserslautern Kolleg für Intelligente Produktion), and Yang Junjie, Vice President of SDJU, attended and delivered a speech. Vice President Yang emphasized that the success of the forum in the past three years has made it an essential platform for dialogue in the field of intelligent manufacturing between China and Germany, effectively facilitating cooperation and exchange in this area. As a locally-based applied university, SDJU adheres to the strategy of quality education, pooling talents, global engagement, and takes the development path of industry-education integration (IEI) with SDJU characteristics. In 2021, KKIP, jointly applied by SDJU and Hochschule Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences (HKUAS), was approved as Chinese-foreign cooperatively-run institution by Ministry of Education. KKIP, the only application-oriented undergraduate level Sino-German cooperatively-run educational institution in Lin-gang Special Area (LGSA), was an SDJU innovation to strategically serve the construction of Shanghai international intelligent manufacturing center, proactively adjust to the needs of socio-economic and industrial development and further internationalize. Vice President Yang also stressed that in 2022, SDJU German Research Center was inaugurated , and in 2023, LGSA German Enterprise Alliance (GEA) was set up, and the first GEA Conference was held at SDJU. SDJU is committed to seize opportunities in building LGSA into a core national pilot zone of IEI, continuously adjusts discipline layout to the changing industrial structure in the development of LGSA, fully leverages its educational advantages in Sino-German cooperation and intelligent manufacturing, organically bridges industry chain, innovation chain, education chain and talent chain, and aim to establish a top-notch Sino-foreign cooperatively-run institution and drive the high-quality development SDJU. The Sino-German Forum is a significant manifestation of government-school-enterprise collaborative efforts of in nurturing talents, and a crucial initiative of SDJU’s global engagement and internationalized IEI approach. Vice President Yang firmly believed the opening of the forum was to usher in a new chapter of collaboration and deepening cooperation among universities, enterprises, and governments of China and Germany.
Wu Qunfeng, Director of LGSA Division of Development and Reform (Statistics Division), as the first speaker, delivered a presentation titled Development and Industrial Layout of Lin-gang Special Area. He emphasized that after four years of construction and development, Lin-gang Special Area of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone is becoming the growth pole and engine of Shanghai’s economic development. He introduced the OPEN gene of Lin-gang, highlighting the existing “6+2” cutting-edge industrial system. In the future, LGSA will promote high-quality development through open institutional system, open functional platform, open innovation ecology, open industrial system, and open business environment with the goal to build Lin-gang into an open and global hub. Director Wu highlighted that there was reason to believe that SDJU, actively exploring the path of distinctive IEI development with SDJU feature, Lin-gang model, Shanghai advantage and Chinese characteristics, will become more resolute and powerful in accelerating the construction of a nationally influential and high-level applied technology university with distinctive features.
This forum comprised a total of 15 thematic presentations, including 4 sessions from government and research institutions such as the Lin-gang Special Area Administration (LGSAA), and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD). The main topics revolved around the macro aspects of the development and industrial layout of LGSA, status and considerations of the digital transformation of Shanghai’s intelligent manufacturing industry, dynamic development of Sino-German universities, the latest trends in intelligent manufacturing, and the consequent demands for talent cultivation. Representatives from German universities such as Hochschule Bremen University of Applied Sciences and Hochschule Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences shared insights in 2 sessions from their unique perspectives. They focused on talent cultivation of representative disciplines such as mechanical engineering and electrical engineering in German universities of applied sciences. From a German perspective on talent development practices, these presentations aimed to provide German experiences for cultivating applied talents in intelligent manufacturing in China.
How to learn from Germany’s advanced model in cultivating applied talents in intelligent manufacturing? How to integrate German experiences with a localized approach in training applied talents of intelligent manufacturing? Forum attendees from domestic universities such as University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Zhejiang University of Science & Technology, Hefei University, and SDJU conducted five keynote speeches on the opportunities and challenges of high-level “dual system” talent training, exploration and practice in adopting German dual system higher education model, and internationalized IEI via building first-class Sino-German center for international cooperation and exchange.
The forum also invited representative of prominent domestic and international enterprises in the field of intelligent manufacturing, including Shanghai Electric Automation Group, Siemens Digital Industries Software, Tencent Cloud Technology Co., Ltd., and Lenz China, for keynote speeches. From their unique perspectives, these enterprises showcased their explorations and practices in intelligent manufacturing, particularly in training applied talents of intelligent manufacturing.
This forum, as one of the events in celebration of SDJU’s 70th anniversary, was jointly organized by SDJU, LGSAA, Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing Industry Association, and Shanghai Industrial Internet Association and hosted by SDJU KKIP and GEA. By fostering intellectual exchange and meeting of minds between Chinese and German scholars and industry professionals, the forum not only facilitated Sino-German cooperation in talent cultivation in intelligent manufacturing, but also provided robust intellectual support for the establishment of an international intelligent manufacturing center in LGSA.
