On October 17, 2017 the Pridi Banomyong Library, Thammasat University welcomed representatives of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), an overseas campus of the University of Nottingham, situated in the city of Ningbo in the coastal province of Zhejiang, near Shanghai, China. The University of Nottingham was the first foreign university to establish an independent campus in China, under new legislation passed in 2003. The campus is located in Ningbo, a historic city on China’s eastern coast, and has been developed in partnership with Zhejiang’s Wanli Education Group. The 140 acre Ningbo campus was opened to students in 2004. The campus provides facilities for 5,000 students, including a municipal library. All courses are given in English and University of Nottingham degrees are awarded to graduates. Among many academic collaborations between TU and the University of Nottingham, last month a student exchange program began for which a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in April 2016 by Associate Professor Narong Jaiharn, Dean of the TU Faculty of Law and Professor Nigel White, Head of the School of Law at the University of Nottingham. The MOU provided for a select group of law students from TU to spend a year studying Law modules in Nottingham. In addition, twinning engineering programmes allow our students to spend their first two years at TU, followed by the final two years of the program at the University of Nottingham or an alternate location.

Leading the group of visitors was Professor Chris Rudd, Provost of University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering. Professor Rudd is a member of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Nottingham. He began his career in marine engineering as a seagoing engineer, and later worked in the automotive industry before completing his PhD at Nottingham. His area of specialist interest is lightweight structures, including composite materials, fibres, glasses, and biomaterials, and he has been developing business links with China since 2007 by leading missions to most of China’s major cities. He earned a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic, a Ph.D in Preform Processing for High Volume Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM) from the  University of Nottingham, and a DSc in Processing and Performance of Polymer Matrix Composites from the University of Nottingham. Among other visitors was Professor Yueh-Jaw (YJ) Lin, Associate Provost for Global Engagement, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, UNNC. Professor Lin earned his BSME from Tsinghua University, and MSME and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Chicago. Since graduation, he has worked in industry, government research, and universities. He has also worked as an industrial design engineer, designing electric appliances such as washers, dryers, and refrigerators. He has taught at the University of Akron, Ohio, and served as Innovative Learning Research Director at the NASA Safety Centre in Cleveland, Ohio through an intergovernmental personnel agreement program. He joined the University of Texas, Tyler in 2008 as professor and chair of mechanical engineering, before joining UNNC. Among his many research interests are robotics, mechatronics, manufacturing, automation, smart materials and structural health monitoring, biofabrication, and applied nanotechnology development. He has innovated in the mechatronic development and testing of lightweight, energy efficient, and environmental friendly aircraft de-icing methods and systems sponsored by aerospace industry and government agencies. He is also involved in carbon nanotubes-integrated polymeric structures fabrication, and nano-fiber based sensor development for structural health monitoring, as well as biofabrication process planning. These distinguished faculty members were accompanied by other professors and administrative staff from UNNC.

(All images courtesy of the TU Libraries and Wikimedia Commons)