Concentrate efforts to improve the quality of talent cultivation in new engineering fields
2025-10-07
The so-called new engineering talents refer to composite, innovative, and strategic engineering and technological talents trained to meet the new development needs. Currently, with the acceleration of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, new technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and nuclear technology, as well as new industries such as intelligent manufacturing, integrated circuits, biomedicine, and new energy, are flourishing. There is an urgent need for high-quality composite new engineering talents with strong engineering practice ability, outstanding innovation ability, and international competitiveness. To address this challenge, we must base ourselves on national strategies, aim at the forefront of science and technology and industry trends, build a new system of integrating science and education, deepen the new model of integrating industry and education, and comprehensively improve the quality of talent cultivation in new engineering disciplines. Strengthening the supply of innovative sources to comprehensively improve the quality of talent cultivation in new engineering fields, we need to enhance the function of scientific and technological innovation as a source, and establish an organic ecosystem driven by cutting-edge scientific issues and national strategic needs, supported by high-level scientific research platforms. Specifically, deep transformation can be achieved through the "four integrations": firstly, content integration, which timely transforms the latest scientific research achievements into course content and teaching cases, ensuring the forefront of the knowledge system related to cultivating new engineering talents; The second is the integration of processes, implementing the "early entry into projects, early entry into teams" model, allowing students to grow in a scientific research environment; Third, platform integration, opening high-quality resources such as State Key Laboratory to undergraduates, making them the main positions for talent cultivation; The fourth is the integration of teaching staff, promoting outstanding scientists to serve as mentors, and directly transmitting scientific research thinking and methods to students. For example, the Rare Isotope Frontier Science Center at Lanzhou University integrates national level scientific research resources in nuclear technology, new energy, and other fields, breaks down departmental barriers, implements a chief scientist responsibility system, and trains students through a mentorship system and undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs, allowing them to participate in major national courses at an early stage. It not only focuses on improving theoretical foundations but also exercises cutting-edge innovation abilities. In terms of professional layout, a dynamic adjustment mechanism should be established. We should not only promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional engineering majors, but also actively lay out cross disciplinary emerging majors for the future. In recent years, many universities have established majors in intelligent science and technology, artificial intelligence, biomedical data science, etc. Zhejiang University, Harbin Institute of Technology and other universities have also launched characteristic directions such as robot engineering and intelligent manufacturing, and aerospace intelligent electric propulsion technology, all of which reflect the deep integration of multiple disciplines. These majors focus on cultivating new engineering talents with integrated knowledge structures and innovative problem-solving abilities through interdisciplinary course modules, project-based teaching, and collaborative guidance from mentor teams. To enhance the adaptability of industries and comprehensively improve the quality of talent cultivation in new engineering fields, we need to deepen the integration of industry and education, and establish new models of school enterprise cooperation. It is required that schools and enterprises jointly formulate training objectives, jointly build curriculum systems, form mentor teams, and share technological breakthroughs. Talent cultivation should be embedded in national major projects and cutting-edge innovation scenarios, with a focus on honing the comprehensive abilities of new engineering talents to solve complex engineering problems, participate in interdisciplinary cooperation, and achieve technological industrialization. The innovative integration training model and the establishment of industrial colleges and industry education collaborative education bases with "innovative integration" as the core concept in universities have become an inevitable choice and key path for cultivating new engineering talents. This model breaks down institutional barriers between schools, enterprises, and local governments, deeply introduces resources and needs from enterprises and local governments, and promotes diversified cooperation models - it can be jointly built with industry leaders, focus on cutting-edge technologies and "bottleneck" problems, and cultivate strategic talents; It can also collaborate with local governments or industrial parks to connect with regional industrial clusters and serve local industrial upgrading. For example, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and CATL jointly established the Future Technology College, Shenzhen University and Tencent jointly established the Tencent Cloud Artificial Intelligence College, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. established the Huazhong University of Science and Technology Kunpeng Shengteng Science and Education Innovation Incubation Center. During the training process, real industry projects are integrated into the entire teaching process through course system consultation, teaching implementation sharing (such as implementing the "dual mentor system"), and practical platform sharing, achieving "learning by doing". The ultimate goal is to enable students not only to have a solid professional foundation, but also to develop a systematic industrial vision and excellent innovation ability, so that they can grow into "chief engineer type" reserve talents who understand technology, management, and market. Most of them will hold core technology research and development and project management positions in related fields, and can play a leading role in future complex engineering systems, achieving an organic connection between the education chain, talent chain, innovation chain, and industry chain. Enhancing global competitiveness in the face of the new global technological competition landscape and improving the international perspective and competitiveness of new engineering talents has been elevated from "icing on the cake" to "crucial". True international education is not just about introducing English courses or expanding overseas study tours. Its core lies in building a multi-level, immersive, and sustainable integration system that deeply embeds students into the global innovation network, systematically cultivating their cross-cultural collaboration abilities, international cutting-edge insights, and even the potential to participate in international rule making. Specifically, collaborative efforts can be made in four aspects: curriculum innovation, standard alignment, practical platforms, and collaborative paradigms. At the curriculum level, we should break through the traditional one-way input mode and offer cross-border project-based courses driven by "global challenges". We should collaborate with top universities around the world to organize cross-border team projects that combine online collaboration and offline visits on issues such as climate change, smart cities, and public health. Under the joint guidance of multicultural mentors, students can complete the entire process from problem definition to prototype development, and hone their ability to solve complex problems. In terms of standard construction, it is necessary to actively promote international engineering education certifications such as ABET (American Accreditation Council for Engineering and Technology) and EUR-ACE (European Accreditation System for Engineering Education) in key fields such as artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, and integrated circuits, promote curriculum system reconstruction and teaching quality improvement, and enhance the international universality and talent competitiveness of academic qualifications. In the practical stage, we can work together with multinational enterprises to build overseas practice bases, and send students to their global R&D centers for months or even a year of internship research and development, experiencing international technical standards, intellectual property management, and enterprise innovation ecology firsthand, so as to master the internationally recognized "technical language". In terms of cooperation paradigm, we will deepen the construction of Sino foreign cooperative education entities, such as Harbin Engineering University and top Russian universities jointly building Sino Russian innovation classes, implementing a "2+2" joint training model, promoting the deep integration of teachers, courses, and culture, and cultivating professional talents with dual system cognitive abilities who can play a bridging role in international scientific and technological cooperation. Through a systematic strategy that integrates courses, standards, practices, and platforms, new engineering talents can transform from adaptors to international rules to leaders in solving global engineering problems and innovation, providing solid support for the country to gain a voice in the global scientific and technological governance system. In short, to comprehensively improve the quality of talent cultivation in new engineering fields, it is necessary to build a new talent cultivation system that adapts to future development through multidimensional innovation such as the integration of science and education, the integration of industry and education, and international training, driven by the dual drive of cutting-edge technology and industrial demand. This requires the joint efforts of universities, enterprises, and all sectors of society to cultivate a large number of new engineering talents who can make their own contributions. (New Society)
Edit:He Chuanning Responsible editor:Su Suiyue
Source:Guangming Daily
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