College of Automotive Engineering
Overview
The College of Automotive Engineering, founded in 1979, is among the first batch of departments committed to automotive engineering in China. Its founding father is Meng Shaonong, former Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the first President of HUAT.
Currently we offer Bachelor’s Degrees in Automotive Engineering, New Energy Automotive Engineering, New Energy and Power Engineering (focusing on new energy vehicle power system), and Automotive Service Engineering. Among them, Automobile Engineering has been accredited by the Ministry of Education as the “National First-class Major” and the “Major with Specialized Characteristics”. It is also listed as the “Brand Major of Hubei Province”. It has passed the International Engineering Education Accreditation evaluation, and owes a Master Teacher Studio. Having gained the approval from the Ministry of Education of China, we are able to work with University of Bolton to enroll students for cooperative education.
Teaching and Learning
For decades, we have been working persistently to build a high-quality faculty team with rich experience and expertise in automotive industry. Among them, Professor Luo Yongge has a lot of achievements and enjoys a high reputation in the field of automotive technology research. Professor Fen Ying, honored as Master Teacher of Hubei Province, is now leading a new generation of researcher and educators. Forty-five percent of our faculty members are either Associate Professor or Professor. Our faculty members have also won a series of provincial honors and awards, including Outstanding Teaching Team of Automotive Engineering, Young and Middle-aged Innovative Team of Hubei Province (focusing on research and development of key ISG hybrid powertrain technology), and Outstanding Innovative Team in Automotive Transmission Control Technology.
We are dedicated to providing our students with a high-standard teaching platform and rich learning resources. Currently, we have established two model centers for experimental teaching, including the Model Center for Automotive Industrial Experiment and Training (National-level), and the Automotive Engineering Experiment and Training Center (Provincial-level). These centers cover an area of 8000 m2, and are equipped with instruments amounted to 5000 pieces worthing of 30,000,000 Yuan in value. The laboratory has large instruments and equipment, such as MAHA chassis dynamometer, brake test bench, comprehensive automotive performance test bench, VBOX road tester from Race Logic (UK), BBM vibration test system and BBM stress-strain test system from Germany, dSPACE hardware-in-the-loop simulation system from Germany, and dynamic test system for new energy vehicle powertrain. At the same time, we have established six joint labs and automotive APP R&D centers with international companies, including Freescale Corporation, AVL-List Corporation (Austria), Siemens and Altia from the United States. Our Digital Automotive Application Center has 180 sets of high performance computers installed with various engineering design and analysis software, such as Catia, Pro/E, NX, ANSYS Hyper-works, AVL Cruise, AVL Boost, etc. These modern automotive design and analysis tools have been widely used in teaching and research work.
We are constantly exploring new areas and modes of education to provide professional manpower for the development of society and the new demand for high-quality engineers. The course of Automotive Engineering (focusing on new energy vehicle) has been selected and funded by the first batch of Innovative Talent Training Program for New Emerging Pillar Industry in 2010, and latter it was chosen for the National Excellent Engineer Training Program. In 2011, the Training Center for Engineering Education changed its name into HUAT-DFMC Engineering Education Training Center (National-level). The course of Automotive Structure was accredited as National High-quality Course, and the textbook, Automobile Design, compiled by our faculty was put into the catalogue of Planned Textbook for the Eleventh Five Year Plan.
We encourage our students to participate in scientific competitions. For this purpose, we have established 5 different labs, including the Automotive Engineering Innovation Lab, the Intelligent Vehicle Lab, the FSC Formula Racing Car Lab, the Energy Conservation Research Lab, and the Digital Automotive Design Lab. Over the past five years, our students have won 123 awards, including 12 First Prizes at the national level, 20 Second Prizes at the national level and 27 First Prizes at the provincial level. In the past three years, we have won 18 awards in the National College English Competition, including one national Grand Prize, three provincial First Prizes and one Second Prizes. Our students have also published 13 academic papers and applied for 3 national patents.
At the same time, our students have won the First Prize in the National Freescale Intelligent Automobile Competition for five consecutive years, and has been honored as the "Dream Team" by other universities. The Whirlwind Team won a Third Prize in the Chinese Student Fuel-efficient Vehicle Competition. At the same time, our Dongfeng-HUAT FSC Racing Team has participated in 6 international college student events and 13 Chinese college student events since 2012, and won 3 championship and 3 Third Prizes.
Research and Academic Achievements
We have strengthened the construction of research platforms and have achieved remarkable scientific academic accomplishments. We focused on four major research areas, including automotive simulation and control technology, automotive digital design and lightweight technology, automotive CAE technology and automotive power transmission control technology. Two of our laboratories, the Automotive Power Transmission and Electronic Control Key Laboratory as well as the Automotive Transmission Control Technology Innovation Base, are identified as key laboratories by the government of Hubei Province.
In recent years, we have undertaken or completed a series of research projects, including 6 national 863 Project, 2 NSFC projects, and 15 projects committed by either the Hubei government or ministries of the Central Government. Among them, the project of Critical Technologies in Energy Conservation of Hybrid City Bus was awarded Second prize for its contribution to scientific progress in 2009. The DF Hybrid Electric City Bus R& D Project was awarded First prize by government of Hubei Province and China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in 2008.
Mission and Vision Statement
We have already been known as the cradle of high-quality automotive engineers. Our alumni are highly-praised for their profound knowledge, practical ability, technological creativity and problem-solving skills. By working closely with large companies like Dongfeng Motor Company, we are dedicated to carry out in-depth cooperation in education, teaching, and scientific research.
In the future, we will take initiative to adapt to the development of the industry, so as to provide the society with high-quality manpower. And our mission is to become a leading college that advances and transfers knowledge, and provides the best holistic education for the benefit of the Nation and the world.
