On the afternoon of September 29, the launch ceremony of School of Design at SUES was held at the Co-op Comprehensive Building on Changning Campus. This marks an important milestone in SUES’ efforts to support Shanghai’s development as a global design capital, embrace industrial transformation, and connect with international innovation resources.
The ceremony was attended by Jiang Yong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Changning District Committee; He Li, Secretary of the CPC SUES Committee; Lou Yongqi, President of SUES; Zhu Xiaoqing and Meng Xing, Deputy Secretaries of the CPC SUES Committee; Xia Chunming and Xu Kaiyu, Vice Presidents of SUES; Chen Cailian, Secretary of the CPC Committee of Goneo Group; and more than 20 international guests attending the WDCC and EPC conferences, including Dava Newman, Professor at MIT and former Director of the MIT Media Lab, and Rosanne Somerson, Honorary President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Representatives from domestic partner universities, enterprises, the design community, alumni, faculty and students also attended the ceremony to witness the launch of School of Design.
At the ceremony, Jiang Yong delivered a speech outlining the prospects for district-university collaboration and industry-education integration and expressing his expectations for School of Design to take root in Changning and serve Shanghai’s urban development. In her speech, He Li stated that the CPC SUES Committee attaches great importance to the reorganization and development of School of Design, regarding it as a key initiative in building a world-class application-oriented university with distinctive strengths in industry and innovation. She expressed the hope that the School would uphold Party leadership and strengthen its foundations, ensuring a clear direction and sound governance from the outset; focus on SUES’ 3-Wing framework and deepen reform, demonstrating its commitment to disciplinary development and talent cultivation; and embrace a global outlook and collaborative innovation to take a leading role in shaping a new force in global design education. Lou Yongqi provided a comprehensive overview of the rationale behind the School’s reorganization and its long-term development vision. He noted that the School’s establishment is an important initiative in optimizing SUES’ disciplinary structure, deepening industry-education integration, and promoting the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talent. He called on the School to integrate deeply into the University’s interdisciplinary 3-Wing development model, build a design discipline oriented toward application and innovation, and serve Shanghai’s modern industrial system and the development of a people-centered city. The attending guests jointly unveiled the School of Design.
The ceremony also featured the unveiling of a laboratory jointly established by SUES and Goneo Group. A number of industry experts were appointed as Industry Professors of the School, including renowned architect Yu Ting; Hou Zhengguang, founder of MoreLess, an original furniture brand; Wang Yang, founder of the YAANG brand and partner and design director of Songguo Design; Su Xinbao, Deputy General Manager and Deputy Chief Architect of East China Architectural Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Arcplus Group; He Genxiang, Artistic Director of EKA·Tianwu; and Lola Woetzel, former Director of the McKinsey Global Institute and former head of McKinsey’s China practice. The ceremony also paid tribute to the former heads of School of Art and Design and International Institute of Creative Design, and the School’s new leadership team made its collective debut. Richard Hsu, Dean of School of Design, delivered a speech entitled “United in Purpose, Creating the Future Together.” Representatives of the heads of the School’s five disciplinary groups shared their visions for disciplinary development, and guests from various sectors offered their congratulations and best wishes. The ceremony also featured distinctive cultural performances, including percussion and pingtan, presented by the New-Tech Laboratory, highlighting the School’s character of cross-disciplinary integration. Before the ceremony, the attending guests visited the laboratories.
As one of the key drivers of SUES’ SPINOVATION initiative, School of Design will build on Shanghai’s development as a global design capital and put into practice the integrated development philosophy of “the city as the campus, enterprises as the classroom, and real-world problems as research topics”, forging a distinctive new path in design education.
