From June 9 to 10, 2017, four students representing the South China University of Technology (SCUT) Student Chapter (in application process) of the ASCE and instructors, Prof. Ji Jing, Prof. Chen Qingjun and Dr. Deng Yichuan, visited the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and participated in Greater China ASCE ISG / Student Chapter Conference organized by the ASCE Hong Kong Chapter. Representatives from different universities participated in this activity, including Tsinghua University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the University of Macau, Tongji University, Zhejiang University, Dalian University of Technology, Southwest Jiaotong University and other renowned universities .
Figure 1. Representatives of teachers and students
On June 9th, SCUT participants went to the LT-F conference hall in HKUST for the student chapter meeting rehearsal, and listened to the improvement comments to the PPT by our participants, from Prof. Zhang Baizhao, who is the former president of ASCE Hong Kong Chapter.
Figure 2. A photo after the rehearsal
On the morning of June 10, the annual meeting of ASCE-ISG Greater China Regional Exchange Conference in 2017 was officially opened in the report Hall of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The honorable participants include Prof. Norma Jean Mattei, the current chairman of ASCE, Mr. Thomas Smith, the executive director of ASCE, president of ASCE Hong Kong Chapter, as well as instructors and students from renowned universities in Hong Kong, Macao and mainland.
At the meeting, the Students Chapters from different Universities presented their annual report, including the participation in the ASCE American Steel Bridge Competition, Concrete Canoe Competition, inter-school academic exchange activities, and national college and middle school students’ structural design competitions. SCUT was the sixth to give the report, the students Ouyang Nanxi and Xu Zhe, from 2015 project management class and 2015 Civil Engineering Excellent English class, respectively, presented the activities the School of Civil Engineering and Transportation of SCUT organized and participated in with fluent English. They reported an overview of the past one year of ASCE Student Chapter of SCUT and the relevant activities, and they have been recognized and praised by the participants.
Figure 3. The students’ show of the School of Civil Engineering and Transportation
Students from Tongji University, Zhejiang University and Southwest Jiaotong University share the experience of participating activities in the United States. From the preparation to the competition, they bring knowledge and mind collision to all participants, our students also deepened their understanding of ASCE Student Chapter and of American structural Competition from this sharing meeting.
Figure 4. Sharing the experience of participating in competitions
Finally, Prof. Mattei, Chairman of ASCE, and council members summed up this activity. Prof. Mattei gave a high remark of appreciation to the students for their activities and welcomed more Chinese students to the United States to participate in competitions and exchanges, and encouraged young undergraduates to learn engineering knowledge better for the benefit of mankind.
The ASCE Student Chapter of SCUT participated in the ASCE-ISG Greater China Regional Conference, which not only broadened the students' horizons and promoted the exchanges with students from other ASCE-ISG chapters, but also shows the domestic exchanges of SCUT Chapter, effectively expanding the international impact of SCUT and our department.
During the meeting, Prof. Ji Jing, the Deputy Director of the Civil Engineering Department, Prof. Chen Qingjun, Dr. Deng Yichuan and Prof. Luo Hongjin, Director of the Civil Engineering Department of HKUST and other teachers, exchanged their views on the directions of cooperation between the departments of two different universities in future research and teaching eagerly and deeply. (Editors: Mu He-Qing, Wu Xiaohuan)
Figure 5. Communication between teachers
Introduction of ASCE:
ASCE (The American Society of Civil Engineers), founded in 1852, has a long history of more than 160 years. It is a national professional engineer society with the longest history. It’s a global leader in civil engineering, with membership of more than 130,000 professionals from 159 countries. Currently, ASCE has cooperated with 65 civil engineering societies in other countries. ASCE is also the world's largest civil engineering publishing organization, with more than 50,000 pages of publications available each year. There are currently 30 technical and professional journals, as well as a variety of books, conference proceedings, committee reports, practice manuals, standards and monographs and so on. The full text of electronic journals and conference proceedings is now available. Electronic journals, conference proceedings and the selected proceedings is dated back to 1995, 2003 and 1998, respectively.
ASCE-ISG: International Student Group of the American Society of Civil Engineers. ASCE has student chapters in the United States and a number of well-known engineering colleges in the world. It is mainly for training talents of civil engineering and the promotion of various exchange activities. These chapters are called ASCE Student Chapter or ASCE International Student Group (ASCE-ISG).
The American Civil Engineering Competition is a historic event founded by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The competition consists of 14 projects, including Concrete Canoe, Steel Bridge, Geo-technical, Survey, Transportation, Environmental, Professional Paper, Mystery, Visual Display, etc.
