Italian Minister Maria Chiara Carrozza Conferred TJU Honorary Professorship

On November 16, Professor Maria Chiara Carrozza,Minister of Education, Universities, and Research of the Republic of Italy, was conferred an honorary professorship from Tianjin University (TJU), becoming the first minister to be a TJU honorary professor. TJU President Li Jiajun conferred the Certificate of TJU Honorary Professorship upon her. Attendees of the event included Mr. Gianluigi Benedetti, Diplomatic Counselor of Italian Embassy, Mr. Alberto Di Minin, Advisor of Innovation Policy for the minister, Mr. Augusto Massari, Commercial Counselor, Professor Plinio Innocenzi, Science and Technology Counselor, and over 100 faculty and student representatives from TJU related schools and offices.

After the conferment ceremony,Minister Carrozzagave a lecture regarding “Human-robot Symbiosis for the Replacement, Rehabilitation, and Assistance of Human Sensorimotor Abilities”, elaborating on human-robot symbiosis detailing the aspects of robotic hands, touch-sensitive skin, and a power-assisted exoskeleton.

President Li met with Minister Carrozza before the ceremony. After introducing TJU’s history, President Li mentioned that the University of Bologna, Italy, is recognized as the oldest university in the world and TJU is the first university in China. Also, TJU has frequent cooperation with Italian partners. In 2013, the School of Architecture of TJU signed a cooperative agreement with Italian alliance of five universities (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Università Iuav di Venezia, and Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli). According to this agreement, both sides would develop cooperation in student exchange, joint training, and research collaboration in the field of architectural heritage protection. Furthermore, with unique resources and strength on the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements and policy support of Chinese government, TJU has the ability to develop cooperation with Italian partners in this area in addition to the previous cooperation. MinisterCarrozzaexpressed her long admiration for TJU’s strength in engineering. She indicated that the Italian government greatly valued cooperation with China, especially Tianjin. Universities and research institutions are the main vehicles of innovation. Minister Carrozza stated that the Italian Ministry of Education was willing to serve as an active bridge for promoting cooperation among universities, research institutions, and various partners between the two countries, and to cooperate with TJU on student exchange, research collaboration, and application of research discoveries.