Recently, the industry-university cooperation plaque-unveiling exchange meeting between Ningbo Preh Joyson Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd. and the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) was successfully held at UNNC. Senior executives from the enterprise, together with more than 20 professors, research centre directors and core research management staff from the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FoSE), gathered to witness the official inauguration of the Joint Intelligent Automotive Technology Excellence Talent Internship and Training Base.

As a benchmark enterprise in China’s automotive electronics industry, Ningbo Preh Joyson Automotive Electronics focuses on the R&D and mass production of core products including smart cockpits and new energy management systems. With continuous in-depth exploration of cutting-edge intelligent vehicle technologies, the company has laid out forward-looking sectors such as high-efficiency electric drives, on-board energy management and intelligent control systems. It always regards industry-university-research collaboration and the cultivation of young engineering talents as a long-term development strategy, and actively cooperates with local universities to build platforms for talent development and technological breakthroughs.

Hosted by Professor Juan Wang, the event opened with a welcome address delivered by Professor John Zhou, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Professor Jian Yang, Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange, then gave a comprehensive introduction to the faculty’s distinctive disciplines including power electronics, advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence, as well as its well-established research laboratory platforms. Peng Ran, CTO of Preh Joyson, delivered a speech on behalf of the enterprise. He noted that amid the new energy and intelligent mobility wave, the company has an urgent demand for interdisciplinary talents with solid theoretical foundations and engineering practical capabilities. UNNC’s international education model and interdisciplinary research system are highly aligned with the enterprise’s development needs, and he expected the new training base to open up a two-way channel for joint talent cultivation and collaborative technology R&D.

Heads of the enterprise’s technical and human resources departments, together with relevant professors from the university, witnessed the industry-university cooperation plaque-unveiling ceremony. Following the ceremony, the university presented its current research and technological achievements, and attendees held exchanges and discussions on existing challenges in the development of the new energy industry. The two sides conducted in-depth discussions on technical cooperation areas including the implementation of research projects, joint application for research programmes and commercialisation of technological outcomes. Meanwhile, they held thorough negotiations on matters such as joint talent training, construction of internship and practical training bases, and graduate talent recruitment, reaching preliminary agreements on multiple cooperation intentions.

After the discussion, accompanied by FoSE staff including Professor Juan Wang, Professor Ruibin Bai, Dr Shuo Wang and Joe Sun, the Preh Joyson delegation visited five laboratories in sequence: the Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory on More Electric Aircraft Technology, Control Systems Laboratory, Product Innovation and Design studio, Digital Port Technologies Laboratory, and Computer Vision Laboratory. During the tour, both sides engaged in in-depth discussions on forward-looking technologies including high-efficiency motor development, product and industrial design, UAV control systems, on-board energy management systems, AI algorithm optimisation and computer vision applications, identifying clear entry points for follow-up joint R&D.

Going forward, taking the internship and training base as the core platform, both parties will continue to deepen industry-education integration, accelerate the industrialisation of laboratory research achievements, and deliver targeted professional technical talents for the intelligent automotive sector, to jointly support the high-quality transformation and upgrading of Ningbo’s automotive electronics industry.