On 2 December, Marjan Oudeman, Supervisory Board member of the Netherlands-Asia Honours Summer School (NAHSS) and president of Utrecht University signed an agreement with PKU’s vice president Li Yansong in Beijing to expand the international summer school from Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai to Beijing. The main aim of the NAHHS is to allow Dutch students to obtain better understanding of …
THE Ranking: China boasts more top universities than any other emerging economy
The Times Higher Education (THE) BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2014 was released last week to rank universities in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, as well as 17 other “emerging economies”. Peking University tops the table, with Tsinghua University second. Four of the top 10 and 23 of the top 100 institutions are Chinese. The other two in …
Energizing Cleveringa Lecture in Beijing
Leiden University Professor Gert Jan Kramer gave a Cleveringa lecture to around 30 alumni from Leiden and other Dutch universities currently living and working in Beijing on 28 November. The inspiring talk was titled “The Energy Transition: the Netherlands, China, and the World”. Prof. Kramer briefly reviewed the history of energy and introduced the Shell Scenarios, the Greenpeace Energy (R)evolution …
TU Delft holds workshop on urban environments in Guangzhou
Last week Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) held a workshop on “urban systems and the environment” in Guangzhou, together with its research collaboration partner South China University of Technology (SCUT). This is already the 3rd workshop after TU Delft and SCUT formally set up a joint research centre on urban systems and the environment last year, one of several …
New Handbook about Joint Research Centres in China launched
NOST China co-organized the 2nd EU-China Workshop on Joint Research Structures (JRS) in China with the EU Delegation to China, Euraxess Links and the Italian and French embassies. This event was held on 22 November and allowed over 200 European and Chinese researchers and policy makers to share experiences about establishing and organizing joint research structures, such as centers, institutes …
Dutch Digital Drinks in Shanghai
Last week on Thursday evening a group of various Dutch IT, eCommerce and digital media professionals came together in Shanghai for the Dutch Digital Drinks. Networking wasn’t about sharing your WiFi password but about exchanging business cards. The goal is to share ideas, experiences and look for joint opportunities in an informal setting. Fellow Dutch digital devotees are encouraged to …
Smart Cities, Smart Accessibility Workshop
Last Wednesday (20 November) Shell, together with the Shanghai Municipal Science & Technology Commission (SMSTC), organized a workshop on the topic Smart Cities and Smart Accessibility. Other companies and organizations that gave presentations and/or joint the discussion were: THNK, Amsterdam Economic Board, Fujitsu, TRIAD, Carbon War Room, TomTom and Philips. Various speakers showed the audience technologies and solutions that are …
The necessity of more efficiency in China’s logistics
Eighteen percent of China’s GDP can be attributed to the logistics sector, compared to eight and seven percent in the US and the Netherlands respectively. Various factors influence the efficiency e.g.: barriers and regional differences in policy, infrastructure and logistics services. Reforms and standardization are essential to improve the efficiency in China’s logistics. Reducing obstacles in the supply chain could …
China’s performance in 2012 Nature Publishing Index strongest to date
With a third more papers than last year and a host of new institutions, China’s performance in the 2012 Nature Publishing Index is its strongest to date. Nature’s numbers show that the quality of research has improved, but the authors conclude that more support for basic science is encouraged. There have also been calls for the establishment of a coordinated …
Invisibility cloaks ‘made in China’?
Well, not yet. But the results from this research at ZheJiang University (Hangzhou) are very interesting. A team led by Lu Lan at Zhejiang University in China have actually created the first invisibility cloak designed using topology optimisation. They carved it out of Teflon and it took them 15 minutes using a computer-controlled engraving machine. The resulting “Teflon eyelid” invisibility …