On the evening of October 26, Chang'an University (CHD) and the Chinese Embassy in South Africa held a video conference on China -South Africa cooperation in building a joint research center for smart transportation and sustainable infrastructure. CHD President Sha Aimin attended the meeting and delivered a speech, the meeting was hosted by Minister Counsellor Shen Long of the Chinese Embassy in South Africa. The heads of relevant departments of our university, such as Research Institute, International Cooperation Office and College of Highways, and Dr. Wang Yuchen from South Africa attended the video conference.
Shen Long said that after President Xi 's visit to South Africa in 2018, China-South Africa science and technology innovation cooperation is facing new and important opportunities. Chinese universities should actively build joint innovation platforms with South African universities, deepen exchanges and cooperation, strengthen exchanges among young scientists, and proactively integrate into the global innovation network. CHD has outstanding disciplinary advantages, and its cooperation with the University of Pretoria has a solid foundation and fruitful results. The Chinese Embassy in South Africa will support CHD to carry out substantive exchanges and cooperation with relevant partner institutions in South Africa, and actively promote the cooperation from the level of the two governments to support the establishment of joint research centers.
Sha Aimin said that CHD has an early start, many forms and rich experience in internationalization. In recent years, the university has adapted to the development trend of internationalization of higher education, increased the efforts of foreign exchanges and cooperation, and carried out various forms of substantive cooperation with universities and research institutions outside of China, such as mutual visits of teachers, joint training of students, cooperation in scientific research and joint construction of laboratories. To further promote the exchange and cooperation between the university and countries along the Belt and Road, the university and the University of Pretoria, South Africa have signed an agreement to jointly establish the International Joint Research Center for Smart and Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure. The university plans to cooperate in the fields of smart cities and intelligent transportation systems, sustainable transportation development, structural safety of large infrastructure, road materials and pavement design, etc., to promote research and cooperation in the field of road engineering and pavement materials for transportation infrastructure technology, and is committed to the exchange of faculty and students and cooperative research between the two universities, with emphasis on joint training of young scholars from both universities, so we hope to receive more support.
The two sides discussed in detail and made positive progress on the joint establishment of the International Joint Research Center for Smart and Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure, the exploration of various forms of CHD- University of Pretoria cooperation and the declaration of international cooperation projects between the ministries of science and technology of the two countries.
The University of Pretoria is located in Pretoria, the capital of South Africa. It is the largest university in South Africa. The university is ranked 561-570 in the latest QS global ranking, including accounting and finance disciplines ranked 151-200 in the world, engineering and technology disciplines ranked 364 in the world.
