New Exchange Opportunities in China

A new agreement was signed with Beijing’s Jiaotong University, which specializes in rail and has almost 30,000 students and 3,000 doctoral students. The university boasts impressive experimental facilities, including:

• a virtual reality experimentation system that reproduces a railway station, enabling students to familiarize themselves with the key stages of operation;
• a driving simulator which reproduces train control functions and logic, signaling, tracks and urban transport operations;
• a HO (1:87) scale model of the urban rail network, simulating the organization and distribution of traffic, with a drone inspecting the track situation …

The partnership agreement signed with ESTACA will enable new exchanges of students or teachers/researchers, participation in summer programs, and the development of joint thesis or laboratory internship programs.

ESTACA has been doing exchanges with Beihang University or BUAA (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) for over 25 years. It is one of China’s largest universities (30,000 students) and is currently ranked as the world’s 1st aeronautical university in the Shanghai rankings. Exchanges with this university include student exchanges, research cooperation (co-supervision of theses, joint research projects, lecturer exchanges, internships in research laboratories, participation in international conferences). New major collaborative projects are being discussed for the future. Representatives from the university visited ESTACA in November to pursue exchanges and tour the School’s laboratories.

In addition to the renewed cooperation agreement with this university, a specific partnership between ESTACA and NPU’s Schools of Aeronautics and Mechanics and Electronics has been signed to develop joint theses and joint research projects, teacher-researcher exchanges, internships in research laboratories and participation in international conferences. After visiting the university’s laboratories, including the 3D printing laboratory and the Space Academy satellite laboratory, discussions took place with the university president and the directors of the 4 schools interested in developing relations with ESTACA: Aeronautics, Astronautics, Mechanics & Electronics and International Business. The goal is to eventually further collaboration by developing a dual diploma or a Franco-Chinese 3+2 program and develop a tailor-made short program to increase the intake of Chinese students.

Last March, the agreement between ESTACA and Zhejiang University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics had to be signed remotely in the post-Covid context. Based in Hangzhou, this university ranks 33rd in the world in the Shanghai rankings. A visit in October was an opportunity to further discussions on the main areas of cooperation: internships in research laboratories, student exchanges, co-supervision of theses (2+2), joint research projects, exchanges between teaching and research staff, participation in international conferences.

COMAC is China’s national aircraft manufacturer, founded in 2008, which builds three aircraft in particular:

• The ARJ21, a 70- to 90-seat aircraft
• The C919, a 168- to 190-seat aircraft, which took its maiden flight in 2017.
• The CR929, a planned 250-300-seat aircraft co-developed with the Russian consortium UAC1.

Discussions with Group management focused on two main topics:

• Internship opportunities for ESTACA students
• The development of custom training modules for COMAC engineers, notably on the subjects of homologation and certification.