Invited by HUAT, a group of guests from Uinversity of Technology of Belfort-Montbeliard (UTBM), France had a two-day visit to HUAT. They are Mr. Pascal Brochet, president of UTBM, French, Mr. Sylvain Allano, chairman of the board of UTBM and director of innovation and development department of Peugeot Citroen Automobiles (PCA), Ms. Sophie Chauveau, director of research department, Mr. Jaafar Gaber, director of International relations and Mr. Sihao Deng, project manager of joint programme of UTBM.
Guided by Mr. Zhou Haiyin, dean of Electronic and Information Engineering school, Ms. Ma Xun, director of International Cooperation and Exchange, the visit started with a campus tour to some places such as PLC and industry control net lab, computer hardware lab, research institute of vehicle wireless net, racing car studio and team, comprehensive vehicle testing center, vehicle digitalization application center, Hubei Key Laboratory of Automotive Power train and Electronic Control. Once in a while during the visit, Mr. Brochet asked some questions about teaching and research in the school of electronic and information so as to have a detailed idea about hard and soft facilities related to computer science and technology in which a joint program is proposed and made good comments on students’ hands-on innovation abilities and learning conditions combined with research and teaching.
After the visit, the guests had a meeting with president Zhong Yuning and vice president Zhang Youbin. Both Zhong and Brochet expressed their thanks to the effort in the joint program devoted by the two sides and believed that the cooperation between the two sides were both necessary and of strategic meaning. Mr. Brochet said that science and technology is the future of the world and it was necessary for future engineers with multi-culture. With similar background in geography and industry, the cooperation would produce more qualified engineers for French companies in China and also Chinese companies that intend to develop in French, for which UTBM would spare no effort to support it.
Zhou Haiying gave a brief introduction to the undergraduate programs of HUAT and preparation work for applying for the joint program and Openlab with PCA. Mr. Allano said that PCA would like to set an Openlab as the sixth in China together with HUAT, UTBM and UBP, devoting to research in the field of smart factories. Mrs. Ma also mentioned the progress of joint program application and some related issues to be solved to improve the application documents.
At the end of the meeting, Mr. Zhong signed a cooperation agreement with Mr. Brochet and then the two universities also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mr. Allano about cooperation with PCA for Openlab.
The next day, accompanied by vice president Zhang Youbin, the guests visited the newly-built heavy truck plant of Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Company and Shiyan Museum.
