Brimming with vitality in Rongcheng in May, partners from afar gather to discuss multilateral cooperation. On the morning of May 28, the Signing Ceremony for Overseas Institutional Cooperation and Unveiling Ceremony of the International Joint Research Laboratory on Advanced Materials and Structures was grandly held at the Qishan Campus. The College has formally established cooperative ties with the University of Cyprus, Frederick University (Cyprus), Université Côte d'Azur (France) and the National Technical University of Athens (Greece), building a new high-level platform for international academic and scientific research collaboration.
The ceremony was presided over by Yuan Huihui, Research Fellow and Assistant to the Dean of the College. Present at the event were Wu Tangfeng, Secretary of the Party Committee, and Professor Huang Ming, Vice Dean of the College, together with overseas professors including Bruno Briseghella and Pierfrancesco Cacciola as well as foreign postdoctoral researchers of the College. A number of professors from the four partner universities in Greece, Cyprus and France, alongside ten master's students from Université Côte d'Azur of France, attended the ceremony upon invitation.
At the opening of the ceremony, Secretary Wu Tangfeng delivered an address, extending a warm welcome to all distinguished overseas guests who had travelled from afar. He expressed the expectation that all parties would take this cooperation as a new starting point to further deepen academic exchanges, collaborative research and joint talent cultivation.
Subsequently, the signing ceremony was held with Chinese and foreign experts in attendance as witnesses. The College signed cooperation agreements successively with the four European universities to officially establish overseas partnership ties.
The College has maintained a decade of in-depth cooperation with the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Academic exchanges between the two institutions date back to earlier years. Between 2017 and 2019, they co-hosted three summer schools. In 2018, they signed a university-level Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and launched reciprocal institutional visits. Long-standing collaboration in co-organizing international conferences and publishing high-quality academic papers has laid a solid groundwork for the co-construction of the joint research laboratory.
Upon the conclusion of the signing ceremony, Vice Dean Huang Ming together with Chinese and foreign professors unveiled the International Joint Research Laboratory on Advanced Materials and Structures. All participating guests took a group photo to commemorate this significant moment marking a new chapter in our multilateral cooperation. After a short recess, experts from China and overseas held academic discussions on cutting-edge fields such as advanced materials, structural engineering and seismic mitigation and disaster reduction, exchanging their latest research achievements and consolidating foundations for further in-depth collaboration.
The signing and unveiling event marks a key initiative of the College to deepen international cooperation and pursue high-quality disciplinary development. Taking this opportunity, the College will establish a normalized international cooperation mechanism, pool high-quality resources and expand its global academic network. It will boost transnational research collaboration and young talent training, steadily elevate the international influence of its disciplines, support the integration of science and education under the Belt and Road Initiative, and strive to cultivate high-caliber civil engineering professionals with global vision.
