President GONG Ke Visited the University of Manchester

From Feb. 15 to 16, Prof. GONG Ke, President of Tianjin University visited the University of Manchester, where he met the Vice President and Dean of the faculty of engineering and Physical Sciences, Prof. Colin Bailey and faculty members from School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, and School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Firstly, Professor Mike Sutcliffe, Head of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science introduced to Prof. GONG the “Chemical Engineering at Manchester”, with focus on the undergraduate program at this largest department for chemical engineering in UK. Then Prof. GONG discussed the possible collaboration on joint PhD/MSc in Process Integration with Prof. Robin Smith, Prof Colin Webb and Dr. Nan Zhang, and it was agreed to make a demonstration of Manchester distance learning courses for MSc as soon as possible, which were expected to open to TU students as elective ones for master program with a joint master program in Process Integration to be established by both university eventually. Prof. GONG also proposed to take Tianjin University’s Binhai Industrial Research Institute as a base for the proposed collaboration.

During the following discussion with Prof. Colin Webb, IChemE Accreditation Committee Chairman, on the IChemE Accreditation, Prof. GONG stressed that TU considered the accreditation as a continuous process for quality enhancement to globalize the chemical engineering education in TU as an example for China. He also said that TU would review the process focusing on the works to fulfill the required improvements and report to IChemE by end of this summer semester. Prof. Webb called the attention of TU to extend the accreditation to Bio-chemical engineering as well as to other engineering program.

During his stay at Mnchester, Prof. GONG was also briefed works in School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, including Microwave and Communication (Dielectric Resonant Antenna, Cognitive Radio, MIMO, etc.), Micro- & Nano-Electronics, Sensing Imaging and Signal Processing (Electronic Tomography, wireless sensor, E-agriculture, etc.), Control, Power system (include high voltage) and Power Conversion. Both sides agreed to further understanding in the area of tomography and smart grid. Besides, Prof. GONG showed interest in the joint “2+2” program for Power technology by Manchester and North University of China. He believed this program module may be helpful reference to the proposed collaboration in Chemical Engineering between TU and Manchester.President GONG Ke Visited the University of Manchester.