It was the leaders of the most influential backbone organizations in China’s automotive industry and electromobility sector who took part in the meeting, headed by Deputy Secretary-General of the China Society of Automotive Engineers (China SAE) Zhao Lijin, who also serves as Secretary-General of the China Strategic Alliance of Electric Vehicle Innovation.
“China SAE is the most prestigious automotive engineering association in China, with more than 115,000 individual and 2,400 corporate members, while our association that focuses on electric vehicles is the ‘cradle’ of the most advanced battery and propulsion technologies. Seeing the dynamic industrial development taking place in this city, we have decided to come here to invite the University of Debrecen to become a member of our association in order to strengthen global ties in technology and research,” said Zhao Lijin in his introduction.
The leaders of our university and the representatives of its faculties feel very hopeful about this emerging partnership. Attila Jenei, Vice Rector for International Affairs of the University of Debrecen, emphasized the strategic goals of the university in connection with the visit.
“We intend to shape our network of international relationships strategically in the future so that it would support both education and research & development. We do hope that foreign companies that are either already operating in Hungary or considering to settle here will start to think in terms of relocating their research and development departments as well, and that local companies and university researchers will be able to establish a more profound cooperation with them, which will also materialize in the form of concrete projects,” said Attila Jenei..
According to President for Research and Innovation at UD Ferenc Kun, electromobility and battery technology are top-priority focus areas for the University of Debrecen, so the partnership with China holds enormous potential for us.
“It is essential for us to understand exactly what these companies require and how the content of our training programs needs to be updated so that we can turn out highly qualified engineers who truly meet the companies’ expectations. We also plan to launch new research projects in this field, investigating the possibilities of fuel cells as well as solid-state or sodium-based batteries, which are expected to replace lithium-ion batteries in the near future. I am certain that we have quite a few best practices and patents in the field of battery research that we can
utilize for this purpose. In fact, we have one patent that we have already validated specifically for Chinese industrial players,” said Ferenc Kun.
It seems quite clear that making direct contact with the Asian professional elite is also an important milestone for the Faculty of Engineering. Dean Géza Husi highlighted that his faculty is already involved in cooperation with an extensive corporate network, maintaining ties with almost as many as 900 companies at present, among which industrial giants such as BMW, Schaeffler and Eve Power even have their own laboratories set up on campus. Nevertheless, the arrival of the current delegation does represent a major step forward.
“In my opinion, this is a great honor that this delegation has reached out to us in Hungary at all, since they are not a university and they are not expecting education from us, but connections instead. For example, at the University of Debrecen, the automotive industry developments of recent years, including the vehicle laboratory and the equipment we have installed there, are perfectly suited for testing vehicles. While it is common knowledge that every vehicle entering the European Union must comply with EU regulations, we are also aware of the fact that this must be tested and certified by kind of entity. Furthermore, thanks to our direct corporate laboratory infrastructure, we receive immediate first-hand information concerning any technological or technical changes, which we can pass on to our students straight away, thus ensuring genuine practice-oriented training,” said Géza Husi.
During the implementation of the points on the professional agenda of the visit, the parties reviewed the current forms of collaboration between the University of Debrecen and the key players of the automotive industry, they were given an introductory presentation about the Scientific Association for Mechanical Engineering in Hungary and had a chance to discuss the details of potential future joint projects and the course of formal accession.
Press Center - TB