To further strengthen college–enterprise cooperation, deepen the integration of industry and education, implement the “Pioneer Programme” and carry out the “visiting enterprises to expand posts and promote employment” initiative, on 13 January the leaders and teacher representatives of the College of Electronic Information and Automation and the School of Artificial Intelligence of Tianjin University of Science and Technology visited Hunan Red Sun Optoelectronic Technology Co., Ltd. — a high-tech enterprise under China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (a central state-owned enterprise) that specialises in the research, development and manufacturing of photovoltaic equipment — and held in-depth discussions with the enterprise on talent cultivation, technological innovation and industry–academia–research cooperation.

▲ The delegation at Hunan Red Sun Optoelectronic Technology Co., Ltd.

Hunan Red Sun Optoelectronic Technology Co., Ltd. focuses on the research and development of high-end photovoltaic equipment, possesses deep technical expertise and industry influence in fields such as core equipment for photovoltaic cells and intelligent warehouse systems, and hosts a national-level photovoltaic equipment engineering technology research centre. As CETC’s strategic platform for “going global”, the company participated in the construction of the China–Egypt Renewable Energy “Belt and Road” Joint Laboratory, continuously deepens international technical exchanges, and has achieved remarkable growth in its overseas business in recent years.

▲ Visiting the company exhibition hall

That afternoon, accompanied by company representatives, the TUST delegation toured the company’s exhibition hall, the demonstration base of the intelligent high-rise warehouse system and the general assembly plant for photovoltaic equipment. Covering the company’s development history, core products, technical processes, achievements and honours and application cases, the tour gave the delegation an all-round understanding of the company’s technological breakthroughs in new energy equipment and intelligent warehousing, its advantages in production and manufacturing processes, and its global industrial layout.

▲ Touring the intelligent warehousing demonstration base and the photovoltaic equipment assembly plant

At the subsequent symposium, the company’s leaders introduced its development history and its planning and layout for the coming years. The chief engineer of the new energy segment, the head of the intelligent manufacturing and digital intelligence department and the head of semiconductor product planning respectively presented the practical achievements of their core segments, and highlighted the company’s plans and demands in technological research and development and talent recruitment, which resonated strongly with the university’s key work in strengthening industry–academia–research collaboration, talent cultivation and employment empowerment.

▲ The symposium between the university delegation and the company

Dean Zhou Weibin of the College of Electronic Information and Automation and Dean Zhang Xiankun of the School of Artificial Intelligence introduced the university’s positioning and the disciplinary characteristics and talent cultivation systems of the two colleges. Professor Li Boyan of the College of Electronic Information and Automation shared his team’s project achievements under the title “National Strategic Emerging Photovoltaic Technology — High-Efficiency, Flexible and Lightweight Thin-Film Solar Cells”, exchanging views on the strategic significance of calcium/copper (Ca/Cu) tandem solar cells, the advantages of the domestic industrial supply chain, the mobile energy network ecosystem, the product R&D layout system and the team’s achievements. Zhang Dawei of the College reported and exchanged views under the title “Development of Key Technologies for Photovoltaic Power Station Automation Equipment and Digital Twin Systems”, focusing on the team’s breakthroughs in the industrialisation of operation and maintenance robots for distributed power stations and its progress in transferring and applying digital intelligence technologies in the photovoltaic field. These highly relevant research foundations effectively promoted the discussion of more in-depth and concrete college–enterprise cooperation plans between the two sides.

▲ Faculty members presenting their team’s research achievements

Focusing on the development directions of “business-form innovation”, “technological innovation”, “industrial chain upgrading” and “diversified applications” in the new energy field set out in the national “15th Five-Year” Plan, both sides agreed that cooperation in new energy product technology, equipment research and development, product application and intelligent manufacturing is highly compatible. In the future, through resource sharing and complementary strengths, the two sides will jointly build a deeply integrated collaborative innovation ecosystem of “industry–academia–research–application”.

This visit and research is an important measure for the university to deepen industry–education integration and promote college–enterprise cooperation. It has not only laid a solid foundation for subsequent practical cooperation between the two sides in talent cultivation, technological breakthroughs and achievement transformation, but also provided practice scenarios closer to industrial needs for the talent cultivation of the university’s relevant disciplines. Next, the two sides will accelerate the signing of the cooperation agreement and the implementation of specific projects, jointly explore new paradigms of industry–education integration, and cultivate more high-quality applied talents for the high-quality development of the industry.