On April 16, Beihang University celebrated the opening of its Engineering Practice and Innovation Center at the Shahe Campus. The inauguration ceremony, attended by Wu Jianghao, Vice President of Beihang University, marked a significant milestone in the university’s commitment to fostering engineering excellence and innovation.

The newly established center represents a major upgrade from the former Engineering Training Center, reflecting Beihang’s dedication to enhancing students’ engineering practice and innovation capabilities and cultivating top-tier innovative talent. The center is now fully operational and open to all university departments and institutions within the Shahe Higher Education Park.

Guided by a teaching philosophy that emphasizes “building a comprehensive platform, addressing real-world engineering challenges, and fostering engineering competence and innovation through practical experience,” the center has created a multidisciplinary foundation for engineering practice and innovation. It has also introduced a four-tier progressive teaching system, which includes basic engineering understanding, foundational engineering practice, cutting-edge technology exploration, and comprehensive innovation training.

To further strengthen the collaborative ecosystem within the Shahe Higher Education Park, the center has established five university-enterprise joint innovation laboratories focused on Beidou, Drones, Robotics, 5G, and Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, it has launched five collaborative courses on engineering innovation and practice. These initiatives aim to promote the co-creation and sharing of high-quality teaching resources among alliance universities, fostering a new teaching ecosystem that elevates innovation-driven practical education and improves talent development.

The center also integrates Beihang’s traditional strengths with innovative smart manufacturing, spearheading the construction of a “Smart Manufacturing Factory” at its core. Spanning 1,008 square meters, the factory features three platforms and seven modular units, including intelligent machining, intelligent inspection and assembly, central control, and simulation training. This initiative drives the digital transformation and quality enhancement of engineering training while incorporating aerospace engineering elements.

In a recent milestone, “Gongchuang No. 1,” Beihang University’s first humanoid robot, made its debut on campus. The robot, developed collaboratively by the Engineering Practice and Innovation Center, the Embodied Intelligence Robotics Research Institute, the School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, and the School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, features core components manufactured using the Smart Manufacturing Factory’s intelligent production line.

Following the ceremony, attendees toured the Smart Manufacturing Factory, gaining firsthand insights into its functionalities, applications, and resource-sharing mechanisms.

Editors: Han Xu, Lyu Xingyun