T he Faculty of Engineer-ing at Zhejiang Univer-sity (ZJU) dates back

to 1911 and is a leader in the fi eld. It consists of eight schools and one department, including the School of Mechanical Engi-neering, the School of Materials Science and Engineering, the School of Energy Engineering, the School of Electrical En-gineering, the School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, the School of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, the School of Ocean, the School of Aeronauti cs and Astronauti cs, as well as the Department of Polymer Science and Engineer-ing. It off ers 26 undergradu-ate programmes and 48 PhD programmes.

Among its talented faculty members, there are nine

members of the Chinese Acade-my of Sciences, seven members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and one member of the UK Royal Academy of Engineering. With a total annual research budget reaching around 1.1 billion RMB in 2016, the faculty has more than 1,800 papers published annually in internati onal journals included in the Science Citati on Index. It is devoted to tackling scienti fi c problems and breaching tech-nological barriers by integrati ng basic and applied research.

Laying foundationsZhejiang University: The Faculty of Engineering

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ZJU Faculty of Engineering in numbers

State key laboratories 4

State specialized laboratories 2

Provincial or ministerial key laboratories 10

Research institutes/centres 59

Undergraduates 4941

Professors 379

Other faculty 495

PhD students 2466

Master’s students 3787

What are the characteristics of research in the faculty? Chen: We are an engineering faculty that puts great stock in basic research. We have achieved significant break-throughs in basic studies on silicon materials, disordered alloys, ethylene and acety-lene, graphene, microstructure

materials, soft materials, and combustion theory and mod-elling, which have led to the development of new technolo-gies. To meet national strategic needs, we are also devoted to technical R&D and engineering applications, demonstrated by our significant achievements in tunnel boring machinery, high-speed railways, pico-sat-ellites and large-scale scientific computing technologies.

How does the faculty promote engineering applications?Chen: We collaborate closely with commercial enterprises. Of our 1.1 billion RMB annual research budget, 40% comes from industrial corporations.

We are awarded around 800 patents per year which have potential to be transferred to industry. For example, our patent on graphene-related technology was transferred to a technology company in a 30 million RMB one-time deal. Another research breakthrough on deep-ocean network connection technology, which includes 12 patents, gained a faculty member a 30% holding in a listed company.

Vibrant scientific research helps promote research capa-bilities of graduate students and facilitates undergraduate education as well.

What measures have you taken to enhance research?Chen: Building a strong team is the key. Capitalizing on ZJU’s Hundred Talents Programme, we are geared to attract talent-ed young researchers. In the past two years, we have recruit-ed 73 new faculty members, 50 of whom are from world-re-nowned universities. Moreover, we are reforming our academic evaluation system to make the criteria more scientific. The hope is to encourage faculty members to innovate when solving engineering and techno-logical problems.

We also encourage interdisciplinary and cross-faculty collaboration. By cooperating with the Faculty of Sciences and Faculty of Medicine, we can identify

cutting-edge interdisciplinary research. Our focus now is to promote our collaboration with clinical and basic medicine, which has led to collaborative projects on 3D bioprinting of organs, biomaterials and nanopharmacology.

Strengthening international collaborations in research and education is another important measure. Each year, we invite more than 140 internation-ally renowned professors, on short- or long-term visiting programmes, for teaching or research, while our faculty members make 1,600-plus visits abroad each year. Our international joint graduate programmes and construction of a ZJU international campus will further strengthen ties with world-class universities. Currently, 13% of our publica-tions in international journals are results from international collaborations.

What is your vision for the faculty?Chen: In 2017, the US News and World Report ranked us

the world’s fifth best university in engineering, a rise from the eighth in 2015. Our ESI ranking also jumped from 27th in 2015 to 18th in 2017. This demon-strates our quick development and increasingly global influence.

Apart from cultivating engi-neering talent, we aim to make historical achievements and contribute to the advancement of technology and civilization by promoting innovation. We invented the dual internal wa-ter cooling generator and single crystal silicon in the 1950s. Now we are contributing with technological breakthroughs in tunnel boring machines, high-speed railways and graphene.

For the future, as Yang Wei, our former university presi-dent, predicted, we will lever-age our traditional strengths in mechanical, electrical, civil and chemical engineering to make the programmes the strongest among domestic comprehen-sive universities; capitalize on the edges of ZJU to promote aerospace and ocean studies and take a national lead in these fields; speed up the de-velopment of basic research on material science, polymers and mechanics, with an emphasis on science and engineering; grasp the opportunities emerg-ing from China’s promotion of collaborative innovation to expand energy engineering studies and become a role model for university-industry collaboration.

Chen Yunmin, the dean of ZJU’s Faculty of Engineering, and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, specialises in civil engineering. Here, he talks about building a first-class engineering faculty whose work has a global impact.

Engineering the future of innovationQ&A

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APART FROM CULTIVATING ENGINEERING TALENT, WE AIM TO MAKE HISTORICAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY AND CIVILIZATION BY PROMOTING INNOVATION.

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OUR FOCUS NOW IS TO PROMOTE OUR COLLABORATION WITH CLINICAL AND BASIC MEDICINE, WHICH HAS LED TO COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS ON 3D BIOPRINTING OF ORGANS, BIOMATERIALS AND NANOPHARMACOLOGY.

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A ZJU research team, using direct copper mould casting, has

developed the world’s largest amorphous alloy with good thermal stability, overcoming

an obstacle in the production of bulk metallic glasses.

Amorphous metal material is one of the hottest areas in the field of advanced metal materials today. Also known

as metallic glass, the material is non-crystalline and has a disordered atomic arrangement, giving it excellent mechanical, physical, chemical and magnetic properties. It is stronger and

more pliant than crystalline alloys and has great potential in both public and military uses.

However, industrial applica-tions are limited, partly because amorphous metals can only be

Changing the state of play

METALLIC GLASSES

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M uch hope is placed in graphene as the material of the

future. The one-atom thick layer of carbon packed in a hexago-nal honeycomb formation has exceptional mechanical, elec-trical and thermal properties, but converting its potential at the nanoscale into macroscopic materials is a huge challenge. A ZJU research team, led by Gao Chao, proposed the concept of “liquid crystal-mediated mac-

ro-assembly”, which enables fabricating multi-dimensional macroscopic graphene materials in fibre, film, foam and fabric.

Inspired by self-organization in biological systems, Gao and colleagues shifted their research focus from nanoscale single molecules to macromol-ecule systems and discovered the ‘group effect’ of graphene in which oxidized graphene spontaneously arranges in water to form liquid crystals.

This process is accompanied by a rich phase transformation, from the least ordered nematic phase, lamellar phase to the helical chiral phase, which has not been reported in two-di-mensional colloidal crystals.

Using the industrially via-ble wet-spinning technology, Gao’s team transformed pre-aligned liquid crystal dopes into graphene fibres, whose me-chanical property is comparable to that of carbon fibres, but with

better electrical and thermal conductivity, energy storage capabilities and electromagnetic shielding properties. This new carbon-based fibre integrates structure and function.

ZJU researchers have also expanded the liquid crystal as-sembly strategy and developed high-quality non-woven fabrics and continuous graphene films. By stacking monolayer graphene sheets using a ‘house of cards’ method, they pro-duced ultra-lightweight carbon aerogel, with a packing density just one seventh of air. The lightest material in the world has great application potential in wave absorption, energy storage, and oil absorption.

Control of the multi-level assembly structure enables extensive adjustment of the structure and properties of graphene macroforms, open-ing a new era of macroscopic applications of graphene and emerging two-dimensional nanomaterials.

Weaving magic for graphene potential

GRAPHENE STUDIES

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The ultra-lightweight aerogel and other graphene materials in different forms have great application potential.

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produced in very small batches. Designing a disordered alloy system with a diameter of more than 20mm sti ll presents a ma-jor challenge, given the cooling rate restricti on.

A ZJU research team, led by Jiang Jianzhong, proposed that micro alloying could help reduce the free energy diff er-ence between liquid and crystal phases, and that increasing the density of atomic structure could facilitate the formati on of disordered alloys. Following this idea, the team developed

the world’s largest zirconi-um-based amorphous alloy — a 73mm-diameter bulk metallic glass rod, by direct copper mould casti ng. They have also developed a 35mm-diameter lanthanum-based bulk metallic glass and a zirconium-copper amorphous alloy with a diame-ter greater than 20mm.

All three disordered alloy systems have good thermal stability and high superplasti c forming ability, off ering potenti al for wide industrial applicati ons, such as in micromechanical and

nanoimprinti ng materials. The team has also developed metal-lic glass fi lms with super-large elasti c strain limit.

Research by Jiang’s team has also expanded our understand-ing of the structure of disor-dered alloys. They revealed that, despite conventi onal thinking, metallic glass does have long-range topological order. They also found that heati ng induces interatomic distances to shrink in metallic melts.

Another long-held under-standing debunked by Jiang’s

team is that the transformati on from non-crystalline to crystal-line state is irreversible. Studying a variety of disordered materials under high pressure, Jiang and his team discovered reversible crystallizati on in an amorphous material. The fi nding has trans-formed our knowledge about phase change in crystallizati on, potenti ally opening a new fi eld on reversible crystallizati on. The team has also found that transiti ons between diff erent amorphous states are possible in disordered alloys.

E thylene and acetylene are gases in widespread industrial use. Ethylene

producti on exceeds 160 million tonnes per year, the largest among organic chemicals. How-ever, the existi ng method for separati ng ethylene and acety-lene, a key step in their produc-

ti on, is hugely energy intensive. ZJU researchers’ recent breakthrough in ethylene/acet-ylene separati on has led to a more energy-effi cient way.

Adsorpti on, with the use of porous materials, is a promising technology to separate gas mix-tures. However, the trade-off

between selecti vity and adsorp-ti on capacity of porous materi-als presents a major barrier to effi cient gas separati on, limiti ng the industrial applicati on.

To address the trade-off problem in ethylene/acetylene separati on, ZJU researcher Xing Huabin and collaborators

proposed a crystal engineering approach based on the use of hybrid porous materials com-prised of pre-formed inorganic anions and organic linkers. They achieved the highest known acetylene/ethylene selecti vity through the strong hydrogen-bond interacti on of

Tailoring the pores at molecular level solves separation problem

ADSORPTION

Pre-formed inorganic anions are the key to selectivity.

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H igh-speed rail as a vital means of mod-ern transportati on is

a major focus in China’s infra-structure building. The country already boasts the world’s lon-gest high-speed railway system. Extreme weather and heavy use can gradually lower the perfor-mance of high-speed railway foundati ons. A ZJU team, led by Chen Yunmin, has designed a system to test for railway foun-dati on quality and contributed to the design and maintenance of high-speed railway.

Excessive track foundati on sett lement under train loading and environmental impacts can deteriorate the track align-ment and increase the risk of bullet train derailment. A safe sett lement amount is less than 15mm, too small to be accu-rately predicted and evaluated with existi ng methods.

A ZJU researcher in Chen’s team, Bian Xuecheng, pro-posed a hybrid testi ng method combining numerical simula-ti on of vehicle-track subsys-tems with physical modelling of track foundati on subsys-tems, and developed an inno-vati ve dynamic testi ng system for high-speed railways. They

designed a delicate actuator array and managed to precise-ly control the phase diff erence of the array to reproduce the dynamic load of a passing train on railway sleepers. The system allows for modelling of trains with a maximum axle weight of 25 tonnes and a running speed of 360 km/h, adequate for testi ng all China’s existi ng high-speed railways. The hybrid testi ng approach can also test the impact of track irregulariti es on track foundati on sett lement in rail-ways elsewhere in the world.

This system is highly precise and the experimental results are consistent with on-site measurements. Aft er a month of conti nuous experiments, it demonstrated the eff ect of train loading on track founda-ti on sett lement caused by the equivalent of train passages on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway for 10 years. The system can also simulate the impacts of diff erent weather conditi ons on railway foundati ons.

The testi ng system developed by Chen’s team is an eff ecti ve tool for studying ground

vibrati on and wave propagati on under the impact of heavy, high-speed loads. Using the system, ZJU researchers have found the dynamic stress distributi on rules of the track foundati on and ground soils when trains are running at high speed, identi fi ed patt erns of railway foundati on sett lement under the combined impacts of trainloads and water infi ltrati on, and developed a high polymer grouti ng method to repair foundati on sett lement. These fi ndings can be widely applied to many railway engineering practi ces.

Putting high-speed rail through its paces

RAILWAY TESTING

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acetylene and inorganic an-ions. Moreover, by controlling the geometric distributi on of anions and pore sizes, ‘acet-ylene clusters’ were achieved through synergisti c interacti ons between gas-porous materials

and/or gas-gas molecules. These have off ered new bench-marks for acetylene binding, and enabled high acetylene uptake under ambient condi-ti ons and highest selecti vity of acetylene over ethylene. The

fi ndings suggest that, serving as ‘acetylene traps’, the materials are good candidates for improv-ing the energy effi ciency of pro-ducing polymer-grade ethylene and acetylene. The mechanism of the hybrid porous materials

for acetylene separati on has been confi rmed by neutron powder diff racti on and molecu-lar simulati on studies.

The research is a big step for effi cient acetylene/ethylene separati on, according to Xing.

The dynamic testing system for high-speed railway developed by Chen’s team is highly precise.

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O n September 22, 2010, China suc-cessfully launched

its fi rst pico-satellite — ZDPS-1A. Weighing 3.5kg, it was the world’s fi rst kilogram-scale sat-ellite to achieve rapid automat-ic three-axis atti tude control and has been working in orbit for more than six years. The ZJU Micro-satellite Research Centre (MSRC), a pioneer in China’s pico-satellite fi eld, was behind its development.

Pico-satellites, with their compact size, light weight, and relati vely low cost, are one of the hott est areas in aerospace technology. They have signifi -cant commercial, research and teaching uses, and a role in nati onal defence.

MSRC has been committ ed

to the research and develop-ment of pico-and nano-sat-ellites since 2000. It has designed and implemented an approach to develop long-liv-ing, reliable spacecraft by fully adopti ng commercial-off -the-shelf (COTS) devices, which can be purchased ready to use, at a signifi cantly lowered cost. Their technologies, widely applied in diff erent types of satellites in China, have greatly promoted the country’s micro satellite manufacturing.

On September 20, 2015, MSRC successfully launched its second-generati on satellite, ZDPS-2. As China’s fi rst appli-cati on-based pico-satellite for high-value experimental tasks, ZDPS-2 features a number of technological breakthroughs,

including acti ve illuminati on, effi cient high power supply, high-speed data transmission and fl exible atti tude control system design.

Weighing 20kg and carrying a fl exible deployable mecha-nism extending to Φ1.5m, it is the fi rst pico-satellite that carries a large, fl exible ap-

pendage, while maintaining three-axis atti tude control.

ZDPS-2 has been working in orbit for more than a year, and has successfully completed its missions, including testi ng several new products, such as a panoramic infrared camera, an infrared Earth sensor, and a micro-propulsion system.

A pioneer in pico-satellites

SPACE TECHNOLOGY

ZDPS-2 features several technological breakthroughs.

C hina’s rapid econom-ic development and urbanizati on has

brought extensive constructi on of subway and railway tunnels, municipal pipelines and hydrau-lic tunnels, for which tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are

in high demand. New elec-tro-hydraulic control systems for TBMs, developed by ZJU engineering researchers, have boosted China’s manufacturing of high-end TBMs.

Balance and moti on control are entrenched challenges in

TBM technology. Focusing on the problem of excavati on interface instability caused by pressure imbalance in the sealed capsule, a ZJU team, led by Yang Huayong, developed a dynamic pressure balance control method uti lizing

multi -parameter coupling. Based on the electro-hydraulic technique, the new approach enables coordinated control of the thrust, excavati on and recti -fi cati on subsystems, signifi cant-ly reducing surface deformati on in the tunnelling process.

Light at the end of tunnel-boring challenges

TBM SYSTEMS

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A ZJU research team has proposed a feasible way to make coal com-

busti on as clean as natural gas. Extensive use of coal is a

major cause of the intensifying haze in many regions of China, a country that consumes more than 3.5 billion tonnes of coal annually. Coping with the resul-tant air polluti on is an enormous nati onal and global challenge.

ZJU professor, Gao Xiang, and his team members de-vised an eff ecti ve approach to simultaneously remove mul-ti ple pollutants and achieved ultra-low emissions (ULE) of nitrogen oxides, parti culate matt er, sulphur dioxide, sulphur trioxide and mercury from coal combusti on.

The technology developed by Gao’s team was successfully applied in a 1000MW unit in China’s Jiaxing power plant,

China’s fi rst demonstrati on, and helped reduce emissions of major pollutants to a level even lower than the regulati on set for natural gas combusti on.

Gao’s process is based on a multi -step and multi -dimen-sional system. Through various mechanisti c investi gati ons and trials with industrial enterprises, the team developed highly effi -cient de-nitrati on catalysts with multi ple acti ve centres, which exhibited signifi cantly improved low-temperature acti vity and mercury removal properti es.

They have also developed integrated methods to regen-erate deacti vated catalysts.

To effi ciently capture fi ne par-ti cles, the team has identi fi ed the mechanisms under which the regulati on of temperature and humidity in electrostati c fi eld aff ects the charge and coagulati on of various parti cles.

They have succeeded in using composite electrostati c precipitator for simultaneous removal of sulphur oxides, mercury and other pollutants.

The technology launches a new era of ULE for coal-fi red power plants and provides a promising approach for global air polluti on control.

A way through the haze for improved coal combustion

COAL COMBUSTION

To keep the tunnelling shield aligned and prevent deviati on from the designed axis, Yang’s team created a new thrust con-trol method based on posture predicti on and a thrust recti fi -cati on technique of pressure/fl ow for tunnel shielding. Their inventi on allowed ti ght control of posture.

Tackling the issue of key com-ponent failure caused by sudden load change, the team devel-oped a thrust system design method, which accounts for load characteristi cs. They also created

an electro-hydraulic drive system with self-adaptati on. This has reduced the impact of sudden load change on the equipment by at least 30% and signifi cantly lowered equipment failure rate.

Innovati ve TBM technologies developed by Yang’s team are widely applied in more than 400 tunnel projects in 40-plus citi es worldwide. With technical support by researchers like Yang and his colleagues, domesti cally manufactured TBMs account for more than 80% of China’s emerging TBM market.

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ZJU researchers contributed to the development of advanced TBMs.

Gao’s ULE technology was successfully applied in the Jiaxing power plant in China.