CERT Partners with Tsinghua University
CERT Signs Agreement Strengthening Partnership with Tsinghua University, Beijing
An exchange of ideas followed the ceremony, where UC Riverside and Chinese professors and graduate students took part in seminars on topics such as transportation and air quality, energy sustainability, protection of the environment, and development of new technologies with low environmental impact. The following day consisted of meetings with the Tsinghua faculty on specific research ideas and directions, looking for similarities to build upon at the two universities. The talks included planning for research exchanges for students and professors of both institutions.
CE-CERT Director Matt Barth says the two universities have interacted informally for years. "We're both pushing the frontiers in transportation, air quality, and energy systems research," he says. "This research agreement plays very well into the 'Ten-Plus-Ten' program set forth by UC President Dynes last year." Under this initiative, the ten University of California campuses would work in conjunction with ten major universities in China, allowing students to study in math and science fields in either nation, each bringing that knowledge back to their home country. Barth also pointed out the importance of improving air quality issues prior to the 2008 Olympics in China.
Charles Wyman said there were real synergies between the two universities that will be strengthened. "There's strong effort and concern on the part of researchers in China because of the population expansion. There's also considerable interest in the production of ethanol from cellulosic biomass that could be beneficial to both our universities and our countries."
"We've had a long-term productive relationship with this university, and have had several exchanges of students to do research and get their degrees," said Joseph Norbeck. "It was a wonderful event, and long overdue - the signing formalizes a research relationship with the leading engineering school in China." He gave Weijian Han, researcher director for Ford in China, much credit in bringing about the agreement.