At the invitation of Prof. LI Weiping, Dean of School of Information Science and Technology, four graduate students from the Design Factory of Aalto University, Finland paid an 11-day visit to USTC for the purpose of academic exchange on a ME310 Design Innovation Course from March 1 to March 11 under the leadership of a teaching assistant.
During their visit, the Finns were supposed to improve the solutions of a shared research topic together with the other four students from USTC. The total eight students form one group sponsored by ABB China. They aim at supplying better user experience for customers of ABB’s Drive products as well as exploring and stimulating more potential customers to buy those ABB products. On March 5 and 6, the entire group traveled to Beijing and held discussions on the final proposal with ABB China. They then went to Shanghai on March 10, to show the results they’d just gained to ABB retailers in Shanghai and tried to get more feedbacks. The Aalto students had uploaded the achievements that they’d got during the exchange in USTC to Aalto’s ME310 Design Innovation Course website and YouTube.
USTC students holding discussions with Aalto Students
The ABB sponsored group giving displays at ABB China, Beijing
In the evening of March 8, a romantic candlelight party was held by USTC IEEE Student Branch and graduate student union of Dept. EEIS so as to give the exchange students a warm welcome.
At the welcome party
The visit is regarded as a component of the cooperation on Design Innovation Course between Aalto University and USTC. The course, which is initiated by Stanford University and aims at supplying challenges in real life for students of science and engineering, has been widely adopted by many universities all over the world. Last year, the group’s four students on our side had had a similar visit to Aalto University in December. By taking the course, the students will enhance their creating ability and teamwork spirit greatly. Meanwhile, the partnership between Aalto University and USTC has also been further strengthened.
(FAN Shu, School of Information Science and Technology)