CONTACT has been funding a chair at Tongji University since 2017 and is now extending its commitment with a focus on digital manufacturing and smart services. With the endowment, CONTACT improves the quality of education and promotes the German-Chinese exchange.
With around 37,000 students, Tongji University is one of the largest and most renowned universities in China. It is also home to the Chinese-German College for Postgraduate Studies (CDHK), a joint institution of Tongji University and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Here, students have the opportunity to earn a double degree in cooperation with a German partner university. In 2007, CONTACT Software established the endowed chair “Product Development” at the CDHK. CONTACT has now extended the funding for another five years and expanded the chair’s focus to “Smart Engineering”.
“Together, we will drive forward innovations for efficient and agile business processes in teaching and research. This allows us to merge our know-how from more than 30 years of PLM and IoT with the exceptionally high dynamic, agility, and innovation drive of the Chinese industry,” said Michael S. Murgai, member of CONTACT’s management board, during the signing ceremony. In addition to product development, the chair Smart Engineering also focuses on subsequent lifecycle phases such as operation, maintenance, and IoT-based business models. By integrating these phases, companies optimize existing processes and open up new value-added potential.
The chair Smart Engineering will be headed by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Fang Dianjun. He takes over from Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lin Song, who is retiring. With his work on research projects and as a long-time industry consultant, Prof. Fang has advanced pioneering developments within the industry. He was awarded the Fraunhofer-Medaille in 2010. With previous positions at the Technical University of Dortmund and the Fraunhofer IML, Prof. Fang has outstanding technical expertise and is a bridge builder between the Chinese and German cultures.
The commitment is part of CONTACT University. With its international university program, CONTACT enables students to work with state-of-the-art PLM and IoT software and gain practical knowledge about smart products and production systems. This way, CONTACT promotes excellence in research and teaching.
