Prof. Preusse joins minister Hannelore Kraft on her trip to China
Hannelore Kraft, Minister President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Garrelt Duin, NRW Minister of Economic Affairs, are visiting the People's Republic of China until April 26, 2015.
The delegation also includes two RWTH representatives: Professor Dr.rer.nat. Reinhart Poprawe, holder of the Chair of Laser Technology and Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology Aachen, and Professor Dr.-Ing. Axel Preuße, holder of the Chair of Mine Surveying and Director of the Institute for Mine Surveying, Mining Damage Science and Geophysics in Mining.
The prime minister visited Tsinghua University in Beijing, with which RWTH has been cooperating since 1981. The cooperation has been funded as a Strategic Partnership by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, since 2013. Minister President Kraft visited the RWTH to find out about the current status of the establishment of a "Joint Research Laboratory for Innovative Design and Manufacturing of Advanced Mechanical Systems". The long-term project was agreed in February 2014 with a letter of intent between the two universities. In the future, 60 scientists from both partner universities will work together with industry on various topics in Beijing. In addition to the Chair of Laser Technology, the Institute of Machine Elements and Machine Design, the Institute of Surface Technology and the Institute of Jet Propulsion and Turbo Machinery are also involved at RWTH.
Joint double master program
RWTH Aachen University and Tsinghua University have also been linked since 2001 through the joint double master's program in mechanical engineering. In total, more than 500 graduates have successfully completed the double master in Aachen or Beijing in recent years. Currently, 30 RWTH students of the double master program are at Tsinghua University. Hannelore Kraft therefore met for an exchange with a total of 13 Chinese and German students who are completing the double master's program.
Professor Dr.-Ing. Axel Preuße will sign three contracts in the next few days: A Memorandum of Understanding with the School of Environmental Science and Spatial Informatics at the China University of Mining and Technology will enable a one-year exchange program for postdoctoral students. An intensification of the professional cooperation is planned with the Sino-German Center for Energy and Environment in Mining Areas. A cooperation agreement with the Shanxi Coking Coal Group Co. Ltd. should enable the establishment of a research facility.