By Li Han

Staff Writer of the Tsinghua News Center

Tsinghua University’s Center unveiled its Center for Engineering Education (CEE), a cross-disciplinary research center for engineering education studies, at an inauguration ceremony in the Main Building on January 12.

Former Vice Minister of Education Ms. Wu Qidi was named the Director of the Center. Tsinghua University President Gu Binglin was named an honorary director.  Professor Yu Shouwen, Tsinghua’s former Senior Administrator, was named Director of the CEE’s Academic Affairs Committee. Academician Zhu Gaofeng, former Director of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Academician Shen Shituan, former President of the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, were invited to become advisors of the CEE.

Former Director of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Zhu Gaofeng, Former Vice Minister of Education Wu Qidi, Professor Shen Shituan, former President of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Tsinghua University President Gu Binglin, Tsinghua Vice President Xie Weihe, Tsinghua Vice President Yuan Si, and experts and representatives from other universities and corporations attended the meeting.

President Gu and Ms. Wu unveiled the Center and President Gu delivered an address at the ceremony. He extended Tsinghua’s congratulations for the establishment of the CEE and expressed the hope that the Center would draw on Tsinghua’s traditional engineering education and research advantages and learn from the advanced ideas and experience from all over the world to further improve  engineering education at Tsinghua’s and make contributions to engineering education in China.

Ms. Wu argued that higher education had developed fast in the thirty years since China’s reforms and opening-up and mentioned that much progress had been made in engineering education. She discussed the challenges China still confronted in engineering education and noted that the CEE would do research into those problems and promote further development.

Academician Zhu Gaofeng and other representatives spoke also at the meeting. A follow on meeting was held later that afternoon to discuss engineering education issues in greater depth and broader scope.

(Photo by Guo Haijun)