Overview
1. Center Positioning
The Fundamental Industry Training Center carries out strategic planning and specifically implements engineering practice teaching and related scientific research throughout the university.
The Center is positioned as: (1) an engineering training base for cultivating outstanding engineers; (2) a supporting platform for extracurricular science and technology innovation activities to nurture top-notch innovative talents; (3) an engineering quality and culture education base for training interdisciplinary talents; (4) facilitating the expansion of scientific research direction of engineering training and strengthening service functions, to become a high-level scientific research transformation service platform of the university, making sustainable development possible for the center.
The correct positioning of the Training Center and its sustainable and healthy development have benefited from the scientifically effective team-building outcome. At present, we have formed a practical teaching team with “teachers as its core, engineering experiment technicians as its main force, skilled workers as assistants and contract personnel as support”, and “appropriate overall scale, age, education and seniority and stable core personnel”.
The Training Center has also received strong support from communities and various levels of the education authorities for its sustainable and healthy development. We have made following achievements:
China National and Beijing Exemplary Center for Engineering Training
China National Exemplary Center for Digitized Manufacturing System and VR/Simulation Education
Beijing Exemplary Center for Designated Practice Base
Beijing Exemplary Center for Innovation Practice on Campus
China National Exemplary Incubator for Innovation Projects in ZGC Region
Beijing City Center for Education of Science and Technology
Beijing City Center for Education of Innovation Workshop
Ministry of Education Certified Educational Institute for Vocational Schools Teacher and Instructor Training
China Capital Science and Technology Platform Open Laboratory
China National College Student Cultural Education Base Engineering Culture Education Sub-Base
2. Course Development
The Training Center, through its consolidated teaching concepts and realized transition from internship to engineering training, has transformed the training mode of mainly learning technical skills and changing students’ style of thinking into that of integrating knowledge, capability, quality and innovative practice. By consolidating engineering training teaching philosophies of “imparting manufacturing engineering knowledge, nurturing practical engineering capabilities, experiencing engineering culture and subsequently cultivating innovative thinking and overall qualities”, a teaching system is evolving that integrates engineering training, innovative and entrepreneurial training and cultural quality training. The nearly 30 courses offered include 2 National High-quality Courses, 3 Beijing High-quality Courses, 4 University High-quality Courses and 3 Cultural Core Courses. Its practice courses strengthen the design of comprehensive practice subjects, fully implement a project-based teaching model and intensify learning challenges.
The National High-quality Course Mechanical Manufacturing Practice and Beijing High-quality Course Electronic Technology Practice are offered by the Center to nearly 30 majors, from almost 20 schools and departments of the university, such as School of Mechanical Engineering, School of Information Science and Technology, School of Architecture, School of Economics and Management, School of Arts and Design, School of Aerospace Engineering, School of Sciences, School of Environment, Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Engineering Physics, Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Department of Medicine and so on, with an annual enrollment of nearly 2,600 students. Laboratory Scientific Research and Exploration organized and offered by the Training Center enrolls approximately1,500 undergraduate students annually. The course thoroughly explores the potential research resources at Tsinghua as a research university and transforms them into high-quality undergraduate teaching resources, helping undergraduate students develop their macro thinking that is cross-system, cross-disciplinary and cross-profession and gradually cultivating their interest in science, scientific research and academics.
3. Innovative Teaching Platform Development
Following Tsinghua’s ‘Advantage Transfer’ strategy, the Training Center integrates and expands by opening up practical teaching resources. Through “optimizing and integrating teaching resources for fundamental training, and enhancing and strengthening innovative practice”, the multi-channeled quality teaching resources are activated.
The Center has formed an innovative and practical teaching system for popularizing general knowledge, improving key abilities, and advocating innovation in full range, combining classroom teaching with extracurricular activities, theory with practice and teaching students according to their aptitudes. Each year it serves close to 7500 participants for scientific and technological innovation activities, including the SRT program, the Mechanical Design Innovation Competition, the Electronics Design Contest, the Undergraduate Engineering Training Integration Ability Competition, the Hardware Design Competition, the VI Contest, Freshman Competition of the Department of Electrical Engineering, the Innovative Micro-Controller Design Competition, ATMEL National Innovative Micro-Controller Design Competition and so on.
The Training Center is working on improving the overall engineering practical teaching environment by creating an engineering environment with updated equipment and integrated resources, a humanistic environment with design wall charts and slogans, a new innovative environment with an improved Electromechanical Engineering Innovation Lab and a safe environment with efforts on constructing a security system promoting 6S management model. The Center has set up and implemented teaching quality assurance systems featuring practical teaching including a Safety Assurance System, a Teaching Process Management System and an Organizational Management System. With some scientific and effective incentive policies laid down, the Center has built a practical teaching team with “teachers as its core, engineering experiment technicians as its main force, skilled workers as assistants and contract personnel as support”.
4. Teaching, Scientific Research and Service
Always leading the Development of Teaching Reforms in Engineering Training in China, the Training Center is a deputy director member unit of the ‘Sub-committee of Teaching Instructions for Basic Courses of Machinery under the Ministry of Education’, a vice group leader unit of the ‘Engineering Training Discipline Group under the China National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center’, a chairman of the board unit of the ‘Beijing and North China Metal Technology Research Committee’ and a vice chairman of the board unit of the ‘Beijing Electronic Technology Research Committee’.
In recent years, the center has undertaken 6 quality engineering projects including the Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center project, an excellent teaching team project, a prestigious teacher project, High-quality course project, and numerous provincial and ministerial teaching reform projects. Its achievements in teaching practice have been promoted to more than a hundred colleges and universities nationwide. The center has undertaken 10 scientific research projects including projects from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Key funding projects of aerospace science and technology innovation, and has participated in 6 college and department level scientific research projects, with approximately RMB 3 million research funds. The research direction in engineering training has preliminarily formed.
As a Ministry of Education Certified key educational base for Vocational Schools Teacher and Instructor Training, it trains over 2000 teachers each year nationwide. As a Beijing Exemplary Center for Designated Practice Base, it accepts over 1500 students from other schools for training. As an open lab for the Capital Science and Technology Platform, it actively serves to transform scientific research into production in Tsinghua and Beijing City.
5. Major Achievements
The teaching team of ‘Engineering Training’ course series was rated an excellent teaching team in Beijing and nationwide respectively.
1 teacher won the ‘National Top Teacher Award’, 2 teachers won ‘Top Teacher Award in Beijing’ and 1 teacher was awarded the title of ‘Capital Education Pioneer and Model’.
2 National High-quality Courses: ‘Mechanical Manufacturing Practice, and ‘Laboratory Scientific Research and Exploration’; 3 Beijing High-quality Courses: ‘Mechanical Manufacturing Practice’, ‘Introduction to Industrial Systems’ and ‘Electronic Technology Practice’; 4 University-level High-quality Courses: ‘Mechanical Manufacturing Practice’, ‘Introduction to Industrial Systems’, ‘Electronic Technology Practice’ and ‘Laboratory Scientific Research and Exploration’.
The Project ‘Founding a Leading Engineering Training and Teaching Demonstration Center in China’ was awarded the first prize of the ‘Beijing Teaching Achievement Award’ and second prize of the ‘National Teaching Achievement’ award. The Project ‘Founding a resource-dependent, curriculum bearing and training-focused open Engineering Training and Teaching System’ was awarded the second prize of Beijing Teaching Achievement Award.
Course development promotes the compilation of textbooks. As a result it has compiled 7 sets planned textbooks for the national ‘11th Five-Year Planning’, 1 quality textbook in Beijing, 3 University-level ‘985 Second-phase Planning’ textbooks, and had 3 textbooks rated ‘Beijing High-quality Textbooks’ in 2011.
3 second prizes of the ‘National Teaching Achievement Award’ in 2014 (2 of which retired professors as the second unit).
Two teachers were rated ‘Advanced Individuals of the Capital Science & Technology Open Service Resources Platform’, Tsinghua University in 2014.
The first prize of ‘Collective Award of the Capital Science & Technology Resources Platform’, Tsinghua University in 2014.
The second prize at the university-level ‘Large Instrument and Equipment Service Benefit Award’ in 2014.
Special award at the ‘Project Evaluation of Beijing Science and Technology Week’ in 2014.
The first prize at the third ‘Self-made Experimental Teaching Equipment in Higher Education’.
Second prize of ‘Excellent Education and Training Project of Tsinghua University’ in 2014.
Two courses were selected in ‘Open Courses for Quality Resources’ by the Ministry of Education.
