On March 10, a team of nearly 40 faculty and students from the Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh paid a visit to the College of Engineering (COE) under the Pittsburgh-PKU INNOVATE program. The team, led by Larry Shuman, senior associate dean in academic affairs, Swanson School of Engineering, Minking Chyu, Leighton Orr Chair Professor and Chairman, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Katherine Carlitz, Assistant Director for Academic Affairs, toured Peking University and had communications with COE students.

The team was warmly welcomed by Ms. Yongmei Li, assistant dean of the College of Engineering. Li talked about the similarity between the U.S. and Chinese culture, and introduced the history and impact of PKU. Li also briefed on COE's recent progress in departments, faculty, students and international exchanges, and emphasized that the collaboration between PKU and Pittsburgh is a win-win combination.

Following Li’s welcome speech, to give the visitors an idea of the kind of projects carried out by COE seniors in their capstone design class, one of the current COE design teams made a full presentation about their project “Solution to the Urban Traffic Problems”. In the project, COE students teamed up with the students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Toronto University and participated in the PACE (Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education) Project, an initiative jointly funded by many world top 500 companies including GM, EDS, SIEMENS, HP and SUN to promote the application of computer technology in selected universities and colleges. The team members have been working collaboratively to develop a green vehicle called PAMD-The Portable Assisted Mobility Device. The main purpose is to alleviate the traffic and air pollution problem in large urban cities.

Subsequently, Professor Xiangdong Guo from the Department of History at Peking University gave a lecture on the history and culture of China.

The Swanson School of Engineering has a strong engineering legacy built on the traditions of Pittsburgh's industrial past. It shares with COE many programs, such as bioengineering, petroleum engineering, industrial engineering and materials science. It is the third time that a sizable team from Swanson visited COE to strengthen communications.