On 20 July 2022, the 2022 Member's Day of UNNC Association for Science and Technology (AST) was successfully held in the campus. Mr Danjian Tang, Vice President of Ningbo Association for Science Technology, Professor Tao Wu, President of UNNC Association for Science and Technology, members of UNNC AST attended the meeting.

Mr Danjian Tang mentioned in his speech that UNNC AST is definitely one of the youngest but the most distinguished one among the 14 ASTs in higher education institutes. Since its establishment, UNNC AST has performed an outstanding job in serving the researchers, academics, and PhD students and nurturing an active research environment. More importantly, it has also contributed to the development of discipline and empowered the local economic development.

Professor Tao Wu welcomed all the attendees and said that it is the second time that UNNC AST gathered people together and have the Member’s Day activity. He was delighted to see the UNNC AST has developed and played an active role in connecting the academics from all three faculties and conducting disciplinary research communication and collaboration. In the following time, Professor Wu also gave a report on the progress and future plan for the UNNC Association for Science and Technology.

The UNNC Association for Science and Technology has help to oragnise and co-organise high-level conferences and forums, such as Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutral Symposium in Petrochemical Industry, isRS Urban Resilience Workshop and so on. There were researchers and academics from the top universities, industries and governmental bodies attended the conferences both online and offline. With its great support, the University has obtained achievements in the build of a national scientific and technological cooperation base, provincial key laboratories, a provincial engineering centre, municipal key laboratories, municipal social science research bases and etcetera.

More importantly, UNNC AST has been dedicated to become a significant platform for cross-faculties research and knowledge exchange. In 2021, there were three cross-faculties forums held with the topic on AI and Big Data, Urban Digitalization and Knowledge Exchange. These forums were popular among the university and received the wide participation and positive feedback from the staff and students.

UNNC AST also insists on its fundamentals to serve the public through science and technology popularisation. In the passing academic year, the Faculty of Science and Engineering organised more than ten academic staff volunteers to deliver public lectures for domestic high school students both online and onsite. UNNC AST has established the expert team in supporting the first “Double Thousand” in supporting “Double Deduction” scheme initiated by Zhejiang Association for Science and Technology, Zhejiang Education Bureau and Zhejiang Science and Technology Bureau. Dr Jian Yang, Dr Jing Bie, Dr Jun Lu and Dr Jianfeng Ren are the first batch of 131 experts in Zhejiang. The UNNC AST student union has also organised the science and technology exhibition for inspiring students’ science exploration spirit.

The UNNC AST also brides the academic staff and researchers in the University with the local industry. With the great support given by UNNC AST, our staff members have established all kinds of cooperation with local companies, like Zhejiang Runtu Company, Renxin Environmental Science Institute, Zhejiang Windey Co., Ltd, Zhejiang Institute of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering Co., Ltd.

On the Member’s Day activity, Professor Tao Wu also presented the UNNC AST Outstanding Contribution Award to Ms Min Rose, Dr Glen Noble, Dr Chiew-Foong Kwong, Dr Anthony Bellotti, Dr Yat-Ming Loo and Ms Chenxi Wang. Several members of UNNC AST also received recognition by the Ningbo Municipal governmental bodies. Professor He Zhang and Dr Jian Yang have been awarded Ningbo Youth Science and Technology and Professor Xu Sun has been nominated for the Ningbo Excellent Science and Technology Dream Seeker.

In the end, UNNC AST invited Professor Jesse Zhu, Visiting Professor in Green Chemical and Honorary Director of China Beacons Institute to give a sharing about his research path and the essence of research. Professor Zhu’s speech was inspiring and brought many insights to PhD students and researchers in their early career phase.