From November 17th to November 23rd, the Control Science and Engineering discipline at HEU underwent its inaugural international evaluation. A panel of 11 leading experts and scholars in the global control field comprised the evaluation team. They assessed the development quality of our university’s Control Science and Engineering discipline using international standards, conducted a comprehensive analysis of the discipline’s development from a global perspective, guided future directions, and bestowed the discipline with the accolade of being “Internationally Outstanding”.

The feedback session for the international evaluation of the Control Science and Engineering discipline was held on 23rd, both online and offline simultaneously, at the Qihang Activity Center VIP Conference Room.

Professor Jonathan Chambers, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom and a professor at the University of Leicester, led the evaluation team. Other members of the evaluation team including Professor TANG Lixin, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Vice President of Northeast University; Professor Viktor Pekarits, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and professor at the University of Alberta, Canada; Professor Ramesh Agarwal, Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, IEEE Fellow, and professor at Washington University in St. Louis, USA; Professor GE Shuzhi, Academician of the Singapore Academy of Engineering and professor at the National University of Singapore; Professor Michael Besson, Academician of the Mexican Academy of Sciences and professor at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Mexico; Researcher YANG Chunsheng, Academician of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and Chief Scientist of the National Academy of Sciences of Canada; Professor SHI Peng, Academician of the European Academy of Sciences and professor at the University of Adelaide, Australia; Professor Liudmila Mihailova, Chair of the International Information Fusion Association and professor at the University of Sheffield, UK; Professor Daniel Mandic, IEEE Fellow and professor at Imperial College London, UK; Professor Vicenç Puig, Chair of the IFAC Process Safety Committee and professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, among other top international experts and scholars in the field of control.

YAO Yu, President and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of HEU, attended the feedback meeting, and WU Linzhi, Vice President and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of HEU, presided over the meeting, with ZHAO Yuxin, Assistant to the President, also in attendance.

In his opening speech, YAO Yu expressed gratitude to the experts for their thorough assessment of the Control Science and Engineering discipline and provided a brief overview of the university’s historical development, educational characteristics, and the developing status of the Control Science and Engineering discipline. YAO Yu pointed out that the Control Science and Engineering discipline at the university had strongly supported the development of the university’s “Double First-Class” discipline construction and had made outstanding contributions to the development of China’s shipbuilding and maritime industries. He hoped that through this international discipline evaluation, by referring to world-class standards, the university could adjust the positioning and direction of the development of the Control Science and Engineering discipline, identify the “bottlenecks” and “constraints” in its development, grasp the “highlights” and “increments” in its development, and further achieve improvements through evaluation, promoting the international influence of both the university and the Control Science and Engineering discipline, and advancing the university’s goal of becoming “Double First-Class”.

Jonathan Chambers remarked that Harbin Engineering University’s research in globally significant areas had achieved outstanding results, providing strong support for the university’s aspiration to become a world-class institution. He commended the university’s substantial efforts in discipline construction and noted the significant progress made in the development of the Control Science and Engineering discipline, reaching an internationally outstanding level. He hoped that the evaluation would help identify issues, bridge gaps, clarify directions, and provide a clear development strategy and approach for the discipline.

The attending experts made a statement respectively, discussing and formulating their evaluation opinions on the Control Science and Engineering discipline. Jonathan Chambers, on behalf of the evaluation team, gave the overall feedback. The evaluation team gave full affirmation to the discipline’s characteristics, talent cultivation, experimental facilities, research conditions and academic achievements. They also offered suggestions and recommendations on optimizing discipline layout, interdisciplinary collaboration, basic research, and international influence.

ZHAO Yuxin stated that the development of the Control Science and Engineering discipline would continue to learn from the advanced concepts, standards, and methods of world-class universities’ discipline construction. The goal was to further adjust the discipline’s development positioning, clarify its development direction, optimize the development path, and enhance the level of discipline management.

From November 17th to November 22nd, the international evaluation of the Control Science and Engineering discipline was conducted through remote communication methods. The international evaluation team, comprised of experts, engaged in activities such as reviewing evaluation reports, consulting discipline-related materials, listening to reports on the discipline’s situation, watching academic presentations given by faculty and graduate students, participating in virtual laboratory tours, and having discussions with faculty and students. These activities provided the evaluation team with a comprehensive understanding of the discipline.

The discipline of Control Science and Engineering at HEU is the earliest control discipline in China focusing on ship automation. The discipline was granted the authority to confer doctoral degrees in 1990, and in 2002, it was granted the authority to award doctoral degrees in the first-level discipline of Control Science and Engineering and established a postdoctoral research station, and was approved as a national key discipline in “Navigation, Guidance, and Control” in the same year. In the fourth round of discipline assessment in 2017, it was rated as A-, placing it in the top 5%-10% nationally. In 2019, it was awarded the title of being an advanced collective in the national education system. The discipline boasts an outstanding faculty team, including recipients of the Huang Danian-style Teacher Award, among other honors. With a distinct focus on ship and ocean engineering, the discipline has produced significant research outcomes, contributing to the country’s strategy for maritime strength and high-level technological self-reliance.

This international evaluation, aimed at building a world-class discipline, evaluated the current status of the discipline based on data, identified development gaps compared to similar international disciplines, and clarified the discipline’s positioning. Through a diagnostic assessment of the discipline, issues and bottlenecks were identified, strengths and development directions were pointed out, and the next development goals and paths for the discipline were made clear. This is conducive to promoting the development of the discipline, enhancing the international visibility and influence of both the university and the discipline. Representatives from the Undergraduate School, Graduate School, College of Science and Technology, Human Resources Department, International Office, Development and Planning Office, as well as representatives from the College of Intelligent Systems Science and Engineering, participated in the feedback meeting.