Global warming takes centre stage in Chinese collaboration

The University signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Chengdu University of Information Technology at the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Automation and Computing

THE impact of global warming and how computers and data science can help to understand climate change are set to be important themes in a new collaboration between the University of Huddersfield and one of China’s leading institutions.

Chengdu University of Information Technology (CUIT) originated as college that specialised in meteorology, although it also has major strengths in fields that include information technology and engineering.  It has now signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Huddersfield’s School of Computing and Engineering.  This will result in academic exchanges and research collaborations involving UK and Chinese staff and students.

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Huddersfield’s Professor David Taylor and Professor Jiliu Zhou at the MoU signing. (left to right) Professor Jia He (CUIT Dean of Computer Science), Professor Rupert Ward (Huddersfield’s SCE Associate Dean), Professor Jiliu Zhou (CUIT President), Tony Wang (Huddersfield’s Director of International Partnership) and Professor Zhijie Xu (Huddersfield’s SCE) and Professor Yuanping Xu (CUIT) Left – Hudds Prof David Taylor and Prof Jiliu Zhou at the MoU signing. Right – (l-r) Prof Jia He (CUIT Dean of Comp Sci), Prof Rupert Ward (Hudds SCE Assoc Dean), Prof Jiliu Zhou (CUIT President), Tony Wong (Hudds Director Int’l Partnership) and Prof Zhijie Xu (Hudds SCE) and Prof Yuanping Xu (CUIT)

The MoU was signed at Huddersfield when it hosted the 23rd IEEE International Conference on Automation and Computing (ICAC), a two-day event that saw the presentation of 130 papers from researchers who came from more than 40 countries.  There were a large number of Chinese academics among them – and the ICAC was started in 1994 by scientists and engineers from China based in the UK.

The 2017 conference had the theme of Global Challenges through Automation and Computing and it was chaired by Zhijie Xu, who is the University of Huddersfield’s Professor of Visual Computing.

He said that the conference programme, which covered a broad, multi-disciplinary spectrum, was designed around the theme of Industry 4.0, in which automation and data science are key ingredients.

“Fusing automation with the latest development in computer science, such as cloud computing and big data could improve the entire manufacturing value chain.  From purchasing and logistics, to manufacturing, energy efficiency and satisfying customer needs – all of these are benefitting from the work of scientists working in this discipline,” said Professor Xu, who was delighted by the success of the conference and the themes and potential collaborations that emerged from it.

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Pictured left – (left to right) President of the Chinese Automation and Computing Society in the UK Professor Dongbing Gu with keynote speaker Professor Visakan Kadirkamanathan and conference organiser Huddersfield’s Professor Professor Zhijie Xu. Pictured right – Delegates at the conference Pictured left – (left to right) President of the Chinese Automation and Computing Society in the UK Professor Dongbing Gu with keynote speaker Professor Visakan Kadirkamanathan and conference organiser Huddersfield’s Professor Professor Zhijie Xu. Pictured right – Delegates at the conference

Delegates were given tours of the facilities operated by the Institute of Railway Research and the Diagnostic Engineering Lab at Huddersfield and the quality of the University’s estate and support services were widely commented on, said Professor Xu.

He also welcomed back to the University his former PhD student, Yuanping Xu, who obtained his Master’s and Doctorate at Huddersfield before returning to China, where he is now one of the country’s leading scientists in meteorological data analysis.  The Chair of the Academic Council at Chengdu University of Information Technology – Professor Jiliu Zhou – also attended ICAC and was a signatory to the new MoU.

Another key figure in the collaboration is the University of Huddersfield’s Rupert Ward, who is Professor of Learning Innovation and Associate Dean (International) within the School of Computing and Engineering.  He has now followed Prof Xu in visiting Chengdu, to hold talks on the direction of the collaboration.

A feature of the ICAC is a rigorously-judged contest to select the best paper from a shortlist drawn up by a panel of expert judges.  And one of the 2017 winners was the University of Huddersfield’s Guoxing Li, who is supervised by Dr Fengshou Gu and Professor Andrew Ball.  The prize was for a paper titled A Dynamic Deformation based Lubrication Model between the Piston Rings and Cylinder Liner.