Delegation returns from memorandum signing, education conference in China

A delegation from ASME, including President Gene Feigel and Executive Director Virgil Carter, were in China last month where the Society established a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society (CMES) and held its first internationally focused Mechanical Engineering Education Conference in Beijing.

ASME and CMES have formed a partnership around an agreement on reciprocal membership promotion. In this promotion, the societies will share opportunities to broaden membership benefits while meeting the mutual goals of both organizations. According to terms of the agreement, members of ASME and CMES will receive a 50 percent discount off the respective membership rates, and student members will be offered a $15 membership to the reciprocal organization.

(In foreground, left to right) Virgil Carter, ASME executive director; Gene Feigel, ASME president; and Lu Yong Xiang, CMES president, celebrate the signing of MOUs between ASME and CMES. The signings took place in the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

While at the historic Great Hall of the People in Beijing, President Feigel, Executive Director Carter, Lu Yong Xiang, president of CMES and the China Science Academy, and Song Tian Hu, general secretary of CMES, signed two memorandums of understanding forging cooperation between ASME and CMES. One promotes mutual membership benefits and the other involves a joint nanotechnology conference, to be held in China in January 2007.

Beijing also served as the venue for ASME's Mechanical Engineering Education Conference. This was the first time this meeting was held outside the United States. Two hundred forty participants, made up of mechanical engineering university department heads, deans and faculty leaders representing 14 countries, gathered in Beijing to discuss issues facing engineering education. The conference sessions carried an international theme with topics that included a global perspective on the engineer of 2020, innovation and collaborations in undergraduate and graduate education, partnerships between industry and universities, and global accreditation.

ASME President Gene Feigel addresses the Mechanical Engineering Education Conference, also in Beijing.

Feigel was among the distinguished conference speakers, who included Zhou Ji, minister of Education China; Xu Kuangdi, president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; Andrew Ives, president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (ImechE); and Hideo Ohashi, president of the Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education.

Coming out of the conference, ASME also explored future collaborations with the London-based ImechE and the Mexican Society of Mechanical and Electrical Engineers, as well as others. Next year's conference will be held in Puerto Rico from March 23–27.

ASME representatives also held talks with senior leaders from the Beijing Modern Management Technology Education Center (BMMTEC), Beijing Jiao tong University, and Shanghai Jiao tong University. These three organizations have recently signed agreements with ASME to conduct the new ASME training program, Global Management for Engineering and Technology (GMET). During these meetings, the promotion of academic research, personnel exchange, and creation of ASME student sections in China were also explored.

While in China, Amy Geffen, director of ASME Strategic Initiatives, and Clifford Cui, project manager, ASME Global Initiatives, visited the American Chamber of Commerce P.R. China and South China University of Technology. Both organizations have expressed interest in participating in the GMET training program and other ASME initiatives.

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