Sino-Swiss Engineering Practice
Following up the successful previous two editions of module “Engineering Practice within Chinese and Swiss Culture” of the MSE – Master of Science in Engineering (briefly called MSE-China), the third cycle took place between August 22nd and September 10th. Different from the first two cycles, the third one was organized by SUPSI—the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, but with the participation of all the Swiss Universities of Applied Science, in particular HESSO—the University of Applied Science of Western Switzerland and ZHAW—the University of Applied Science of Zurich. Totally, 21 students participated the module, including 9 Chinese students.
Two main ideas are behind this course. First, the Universities of Applied Science and the Office for Professional Education and Technology have expressed the internationalization as one of the corner stones of the development strategy of the Universities of Applied Science. Second, China has become the largest export market for the Swiss industries and more than 50% of all exports to China are in the area of precision technology and manufacturing. The course wants to bring together these two ideas and introduce to the MSE students a direct, on site experience of the Chinese market for the Swiss industries. It shows what are the difficulties to enter the China market but also the ways and possibilities to overcome these difficulties.
With the support of swissnex-China, students from SUPSI, HESSO and ZHAW had a 3 weeks’ study period in China, especially in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta. Considering the different background of the students (mechanical, informatics, electronic, material, management engineering), subjects have a broad range, such as Total Productive Maintenance and Experience of Implementation in China, Setting up Successful Quality Manufacturing in China, Sustainable Innovation and Innovation for Sustainability, Dongguan City as an Example of New Developed City, Chinese Economy, Chinese Culture, Is Quality in Asia a Question of the Culture?, China’s Special Economic Zone: Its Role for the Transformation of China, Introduction to Mechanical Metal Forming Press: comparison between Swiss and Chinese technology, Swiss Precision in China for the Die and Mould Industry, Battery Electric Vehicle: Development and Present Status, Opportunities for Sino-Swiss Cooperation, Water Pollution and Wastewater Treatment in China and Cooperation with Switzerland.
Furthermore, this course module includes industry visits. 14 industrial visits were organized in 2008, 9 in 2009, and 12 in 2011. The industries are Chinese and foreign (mainly Swiss) owned companies covering different sectors like electronics hardware, shoes, medical instrument, watches, car, machine tools and tooling, textile machines, plastics, etc.
Moreover, this module helps students to understand Chinese and Swiss culture, to know the reality and need of industry. Also, it helps the interaction between Swiss and Chinese students, getting well with each other, minimizing the side effects of culture difference in the future study in Switzerland.
