Design & Prototype Lab-Fundamental Industry Training Center, Tsinghua University

The technology innovation laboratory was founded in 2014. Its predecessor is the mechanical and electrical innovation laboratory. Now it belongs to the Fundamental Industrial Training Center.

1. Positioning of Functions
The technological innovation laboratory is an important part of the engineering practice education base and the innovation education base of the center. The laboratory aims to innovation and entrepreneurship education, advanced manufacturing technology, advanced human system interaction technology, rapid prototyping and digital product design, Internet of things and artificial intelligence technology for engineering training practice teaching and innovative entrepreneurship education for undergraduate students, and study the scientific and technical questions in the process of engineering practice education and creation of new entrepreneurship education. It also serves scientific research and student science and technology competitions.

2. Laboratory Components
The laboratory has an area of about 3600 square meters and more than 100 sets of instruments and equipment, including 1 sets of large equipment with the value of over RMB 300,000. The total value of the equipment assets amounts to about RMB 10 million.

The technology innovation laboratory has 4 training rooms, namely digital industrial system, virtual reality interaction, lifelong learning and innovation and entrepreneurship education, as well as 3 technical innovation and entrepreneurship minor subjects in intelligent hardware, robot and intelligent transportation. Depending on the specialized areas, the laboratory has developed multi-level, modular, project based and comprehensive practical teaching sessions to explore the applications of new technologies and new teaching models in engineering training, engineering culture, innovation and entrepreneurship education.

3. Laboratory Team
There are a total of 13 staff members working in the laboratory including 1 professor, 2 senior engineers, 2 engineers, 6 assistant engineers, and 2 other technical workers.

4. Teaching Tasks
The laboratory undertakes the experiments prescribed by 8 teaching courses, including National Resource-Sharing Courses: Mechanical Manufacturing Practice, Electronic Technology Practice and Laboratory Scientific Research and Exploration, 1 National High-quality Course: Materials Processing, Cultural Quality Core Courses: Manufacturing Engineering Experience, Manufacturing Engineering Practice, Fundamentals of Industrial System, Modern Processing Technology, and Special Processing. The laboratory trains nearly 2,000 people annually. It also teaches experiments prescribed by certain experimental courses of the School of Mechanical Engineering.

Currently, following the mid-to-long-term development plan of the Fundamental Industry Training Center and taking advantages of the laboratory’s featured cross-innovation and system integration, the Technology Innovation Laboratory strives to achieve breakthroughs in the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship education, new engineering construction, humanistic manufacturing, medical workers, virtual simulation experiment teaching, Internet of things and artificial intelligence, and contributes to the nurturing of quality versatile talents.

5. Achievements
Since 2010, the laboratory has participated in 4 major projects for the Ministry of education and the Ministry of science and technology. More than 20 papers on teaching and research have been published and 3 national invention patents have been authorized since 2000. The laboratory won the Second Prize of Experimental Technology Achievement Award of Tsinghua University in 2006, the First Prize of Teaching Achievement Award of Tsinghua University in 2008, and the Second Prize of Education and Teaching Achievement Award of Tsinghua University in 2016.