AUT strengthens ties with China with Wuhan University MOU signing
AUT has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Wuhan University, one of China's top ten universities.
The move strengthens existing links between the two universities, furthering existing collaboration between AUT's School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences and Wuhan University's (WHU) International School of Software (ISS).
Over the next five years, the two institutions will work together to provide a range of teaching, learning and research opportunities for AUT and WHU students and staff. Plans include joint programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, student and staff exchanges, collaborative research projects and special events, including lectures and symposia.
Professor Reinhard Klette from AUT said the MOU takes current collaborative opportunities between the two universities to the next stage.
"We're delighted to announce a closer working relationship with Wuhan University. Connecting and working with other research institutions, particularly high profile international universities, is a key to ensuring AUT provides our students with rich and varied learning opportunities," Professor Klette said.
"Partnering with Wuhan University also means we have the opportunity for our researchers to enhance the work they are doing. This is something that AUT and WHU have already been collaborating on over the last few years. For example, two of my PhD students participated in 2016 at research at WHU on the development of autonomous vehicles. Their stay at WHU was fully financed by WHU. They returned with very valuable experience about multi-sensor controlled vehicles, and contributed with their knowledge about multi-camera recording and stereo-data analysis. Besides autonomous driving, electric vehicles with car-infrastructure communication are also on the list of future joint research activities," Professor Klette added.
Founded in 1893, WHU is ranked fourth in China and has a QS world ranking of 275. The university now has more than 50,000 students, including 32,000 undergraduates, 18,000 postgraduates and 2,300 international students.
Professor Xiaohui Cui, Dean of the International School of Software at Wuhan University said the two universities have a long history of and a solid foundation in collaboration.
"We hope we can move forward the joint programme and student exchange programme on undergraduate and postgraduate levels. We also hope we can have more joint research between the academic staff of the two universities. Now China is pushing forward the "The Belt and Road Initiatives" which include supporting exchanges in educational fields and collaboration in scientific research. We warmly welcome AUT staff and students to have long term or short-term visits and exchanges and jointly apply for the Chinese government's project funding for "The Belt and Road Initiatives," Professor Cui said.
It is envisaged that researchers from both universities will apply for joint funding applications, resulting in new and innovative research in the fields of communications, robotics, and computer vision.
Students from both universities will benefit from plans to introduce an exchange of teachers with expertise in software engineering, robotics, computer vision and computer graphics. PhD exchange programmes lasting for 6-12 months will be developed and potentially also joint PhD degrees.
Launched in March 2002, ISS was the first demonstrational software school to be established in China. The School has four departments including the Department of Software Engineering, the Department of Spatial Information and Digital Techniques, the Department of Digital Arts, and the Department of Integrated Circuit & Communication Software. ISS also has four scientific research institutions currently offering two undergraduate majors, two doctoral programmes and three Masters programmes.