The International Symposium on Engineering Education Reform and Development Against the New Tech Era & the 2019 Asian Regional Conference on CDIO was opened on Mar.25 in Dalian. Over 300 scholars from universities home and abroad and professionals from a range of industries, including foreign guests were from Australia, Singapore and Japan, gathered in the coastal city to contribute their insights. The event is sponsored by the International CDIO Engineering Education Organization, hosted by Dalian Neusoft University of Information and co-hosted by CDIO Engineering Education Alliance, National Demonstrative Software Institutes Alliance, National Guidance Committee of National Industrialized and Informationalized Vocational Education and Association of Fundamental Computing Education in Chinese Universities.

With the arrival of a new wave of technological revolution and industrial reform, engineering education faces unprecedented opportunities. New expectations are placed on institutions of higher learning and industries to turn out engineers that are qualified for the new era. The event centres around the theme of Revolution and Development of Engineering Education Against the New Tech Era. The experts and scholars conducted in-depth discussions and exchanges on the status quo and future of engineering education, new requirements of the new economic and social developments for the training of engineering people and the cooperation of engineering education in Asia.

Helene Leong, a representative from International Cooperation Organization of CDIO and Wen Tao, Party Secretary of CPC and President of DNUI delivered speeches on behalf of the sponsor and the host.

Helence Leong, a representative from International Cooperation Organization of CDIO, delivers a speech.

Wen Tao, Party Secretary of CPC and President of DNUI, delivers a speech.

During the conference, with the theme of AI + educational practices and IT engineering talents in digital times, top executives from Baidu and New H3C discussed the changes of demands for engineering talents based on new technical revolution and the deepening of school-enterprise cooperation mechanism. Administrators and scholars from the University of Queensland of Australia, the University of Aizu of Japan, Yanshan University, Shantou University, Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology, Chengdu University of Information Technology and DNUI shared the experience of cultivating engineering talents in light of various explorations of engineering education. All parties gave distinct viewpoints including theoretical thinking and summary of practice, which provided profound analysis and discussions about the present state and the future of engineer education.

Professor Li Xue from the University of Queensland of Australia makes a keynote speech.

General manager Zhang Gao from Badu education department makes a keynote speech.

Vice president of the University of Aizu of Japan Cheng Zixue made a keynote speech.

Vice president of Yanshan University Zhao Yongsheng makes a keynote speech.

Vice president of DNUI Guo Quan makes a keynote speech.

Vice president of engineering college of Shantou University Bao Nengsheng makes a keynote speech.

Director of academic affairs office of Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology Dai Bo makes a keynote speech.

Director of international communication office of Chengdu University of Information Technology makes a keynote speech.

Vice president of New H3C University Liu Xiaobing makes a keynote speech.

Dean of Computer and Software College of DNUI Sun Wei presides over the morning session.

Dean of Foreign Language College of DNUI Zhang Yi presides over the afternoon session.

On March 26th, both Chinese and overseas scholars also attended the parallel forum in DNUI and continued their discussion on the mode of engineering talents cultivation, construction of curriculum system, school-enterprise cooperation mechanism and the assessment of learning effects.

The conference has simultaneously collected the achievements of engineering education reform and research in the field of education at home and abroad. It has received more than 160 papers from scholars in the domestic universities and colleges including Shantou University, Yanshan University, University of Electronic Science and Technology, South China University of Technology, Dalian Neusoft Institute of Information, and in the universities and colleges of the foreign countries like Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Mongolia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries. After review, 44 papers were singled out for publication.

Scholars and experts from many countries discussthe reform and development of engineering education.

Wen Tao, the Party Secretary and President of Dalian Neusoft University of Information, pointed out that since it was conceived, the concept of CDIO engineering education has been widely concerned and promoted at home and abroad. After more than ten years of theoretical development and application innovation, CDIO engineering education concept has had far-reaching effects on the worldwide engineering education reform and played an important role in cultivating high-quality engineering talents and promoting social development. The new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation have provided new opportunities for the development of engineering education, and also posed new challenges. The conference was held to bring together resources, build platforms to promote high level communication and interaction between universities, enterprises and other stakeholders of education, and provide more ideas and creates more opportunities for the cultivating high-quality and innovative engineering talents.

Wen Tao, the Party Secretary and President of Dalian Neusoft University of Information, is interviewed by Liaoning TV on the sidelines of the conference.

President Wen Tao and Ms. Helene Leong exchange gifts.

As the organizer of the conference, our university has made careful preparations. More than 70 student volunteers participated in the guest reception, conference service and publicity. The thoughtful arrangement has received positive remarks from scholars and experts participating in the meeting.

Careful preparation and warm service for cdio conference

DNUI is a full member of CDIO International Cooperation Organization. Since 2000, with the establishment of our university, the applied orientation has been defined in offering service for industries and regional economic development. Over the past 19 years, based on the concept of "Education creates students' value", DUNI has tightly relied on the IT service advantages of NeuSoft and the industrial advantages of Dalian High-tech Zone and built an application-oriented system of integration of industry-education. We have formed the operational mechanism of university-enterprise cooperation for a win-win result. The university has localized the achievements of CDIO international engineering education reform and developed it into TOPCARES-CDIO with creative efforts. Accordingly, we have successfully made the complementary butt joint between talent training and industry needs. We have won the first and second prizes of national teaching achievements, and been awarded for the first top 50 national experienced universities in innovation and entrepreneurship by the Ministry of Education and for the first 99 National demonstration universities for deepening the education reform of innovation and entrepreneurship. Driven by the innovative education mode, the quality of talent training is constantly improving. By now, more than 40,000 IT application-oriented talents have graduated, and the employment rate of undergraduates has reached more than 95% over the past five years. In the comprehensive evaluation of four-year majors in Liaoning Province during the 3 years of 2012-2014, 7 of the 11 majors evaluated ranked among top 3 in the province. The quality of talent training is widely recognized by employers and society as a whole.