Yesterday (16th July), a delegation from Chongqing University, China visited the School of Engineering, University of Warwick to discuss the international partnership. The team, led by Professor Ruijin Liao, Director of the China State Key Laboratory in Power Transmission Equipment and System Security based at Chongqing, met with Professor Nigel Stocks (Head of School) and other senior members of staff from Warwick to discuss plans for joint grant applications, exchange of PhD students and collaboration on MSc courses in Electrical Engineering.

SiC Power Electronics recently became a focus of research and development in China, fuelled by the needs of renewable generation, power grid and transport industries. In October 2014, Warwick and Chongqing jointly ran a high-end forum on SiC Power Electronics covering material, device and application aspects. Professor Phil Mawby, Professor Li Ran and Dr Mike Jennings gave keynote speeches and tutorials in that event which was attended by experts from Cambridge University, University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee), Sheffield University, Zhejiang University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Xian Jiaotong University, Dynex-China Southern Railways, China State Grid, China Southern Grid, China Haizhuang, Changan-Ford, Alstom, China National Natural Science Foundation, RCUK-China.

Following the event, a team comprising of members from both the Warwick Power Electronics Group and China State Key Laboratory, worked closely to bring the Warwick-Chongqing Joint Research Laboratory in SiC Power Electronics to fruition. It is hoped that the partners would combine strengths in device research and application studies to broaden the scope of research and undertake projects which would otherwise be very difficult for either side if not impossible.

On 18th May 2015, as one of the highlights of Warwick’s 50th Anniversary celebrations in Beijing and under the theme of Warwick GRP-Energy, Professor Laurence Young, Warwick PVC and Professor Chengguang Bai, Vice President of Chongqing University, signed an agreement to establish the joint laboratory. The signing ceremony was attended by representatives of Chinese Ministry of Education and British Embassy in Beijing together with some Warwick and Chongqing alumni in Beijing.