On October 12^th, 2023, a delegation of staff members from Aerospace Engineering, comprising Prof Christos Spitas, Dr Yixiang Xu, Dr Salman Ijaz, Dr Donglei Sun, and Ms Yufei Wang, visited the Composites Centre of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, Ltd. (COMAC) to initiate bilateral collaboration on research, knowledge exchange, and student-industry engagement. The visit was initiated by Prof Christos Spitas and organised by Dr Donglei Sun. The head of the centre, Dr Dongsheng Li, together with eight of the centre’s directors and engineers, warmly welcomed the UNNC delegates. Both sides had a fruitful meeting.

During the meeting, the UNNC delegation delivered a technical presentation, showcasing some research work conducted at UNNC that was relevant to the Composites Centre, and both sides then had an extensive discussion on the presented work. The parties also discussed potential ways of collaboration on research and student-industry engagement.

In the next step, COMAC Composites Centre will share with UNNC its proposal for specific mechanisms for actualising the envisioned collaboration. The possibility of collaboration with other departments of COMAC will also be explored.