In July 2002, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Zhejiang University (ZJU) signed their first collaborative agreement, cementing a partnership that would grow and evolve in the decades to come.

Partnership Beginnings

The two universities signed an initial Memorandum of Agreement in July 2002. In 2004, the first Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed and in April 2009, the MOU was renewed and the ZJU-Illinois International Center for BioEnergy was established along with a summer student exchange program.

Then, in July 2015, both universities signed an agreement for the creation of a joint institution called the Zhejiang University-University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Institute, or simply, ZJUI. ZJUI is flagship achievement of cooperation between the two universities and a benchmark for China-foreign cooperation in education.

ZJUI: Zhejiang University-University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Institute

The Zhejiang University-University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (ZJUI) Institute is an engineering college on ZJU’s International Campus in Haining, China, about 120 km southwest of Shanghai. The ZJU-UIUC Institute conducts teaching and research in broad program themes of engineering and system sciences; information and data sciences; and energy, environment, and infrastructure sciences. The Institute also offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in civil and environmental engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. This strategic partnership originates out of the Grainger College of Engineering.

DREMES

ZJUI has not only achieved a sustainable student enrollment and built a strong community of faculty members and staff, but the institute has also been a foundation for greater research capacity. The Dynamic Research Enterprise for Multidisciplinary Engineering Sciences (DREMES) at ZJUI is a joint research enterprise that focuses on health, energy, environment, and sustainable manufacturing and is committed to tackling major global challenges. To put DREMES success into numbers, 95 research projects have been conducted, they have 648 publications, they have 22 research labs, 37 patents and 32 teaching labs.