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da wan news from the first car in anhui rolling off the production line at the jac automobile manufacturing plant in the 1960s, to the country's second largest automobile production and first largest export in 2023, to anhui's automobile manufacturing profits growing by 190% in the first seven months of 2024... the automobile industry, listed as the "first industry" by anhui, has been constantly shifting gears and accelerating on the road to high-quality development.

the picture shows the 2023 forum of hefei university of technology automotive industry alumni.

talent is the first resource, and the development of the industry cannot be separated from the support of talent. on this development path, hefei university of technology has made significant contributions and has provided a large number of talents for the automobile industry in anhui and even the whole country, so it has also earned the reputation of "automobile huangpu military academy".

helping anhui's automobile industry to develop from scratch

in fact, the cultivation of automobile talents in anhui originated from hefei university of technology in the 1950s. hefei university of technology is one of the earliest universities in china to offer a major in vehicle engineering. “the automobile industry occupies one-third of the world, and hefei university of technology occupies one of them” was once praised in the industry.

as we all know, the twin stars of anhui's automobile industry, "one commercial and one passenger", refer to jac motors and chery automobile.

"after the reform and opening up, hit had its first batch of graduates in 1982. in the 1980s, many alumni joined jac, and many of them worked there for their entire lives. the company's innovation and growth process was also accompanied by the struggle of hit alumni." shi qin, a professor at the school of automotive and transportation engineering of hefei university of technology, said that chery automobile was founded by a team led by hefei university of technology alumnus yin tongyue, and many of the founding teams of local car companies are graduates of hefei university of technology.

regarding the development history of anhui's automobile industry, shi qin gave some landmark events. the first was the mass production of jac light trucks in 1985, and then the production of ankai pure electric buses in 2009. at that time, they were among the few with great influence in the country. this was due to the cooperation between the company and hefei university of technology, which involved the research and development of electric vehicles and technological innovation at an early stage.

in 2009, hefei successfully applied for and carried out the national 10-city-1,000-vehicle demonstration operation project, which played a positive role in promoting the development of both enterprises and local industries.

the picture shows the 2023 forum of hefei university of technology automotive industry alumni.

in professor shi qin's view, "without the alumni of hust, there would be no anhui automobile industry today." this statement is no exaggeration. the alumni and the school's scientific research team have always been committed to serving the country through industry, working hard and down-to-earth. in the process of the anhui automobile industry from scratch, it is their long-term work that has laid an important foundation for the rapid development of anhui automobile today.

adjusting talent cultivation in line with the development of the times

through nearly 80 years of operation, hefei university of technology has formed the talent training characteristics of "solid engineering foundation, practical work style, and strong entrepreneurial ability", and has trained a large number of backbone and leading talents for my country's automobile industry, including yin tongyue, chairman of chery automobile co., ltd., zhou fugeng, deputy general manager of anhui jianghuai automobile co., ltd., and dai maofang, general manager of anhui ankai automobile co., ltd....

over the past few decades, many leaders in the automotive industry have emerged from hefei university of technology, as well as tens of millions of engineers working on the front lines of the automotive field.

"not only do we have outstanding talents, we also have a large number of alumni working on the front lines of technological innovation and silently contributing as engineers. without them, there would be no anhui automobile industry today." shi qin said that the alumni working on the front lines uphold the spirit of craftsmanship, especially in the early days when conditions for starting a car company were difficult, they sat on the bench to get to where they are today.

the reason why these alumni can become the backbone of the automotive industry is inseparable from the talent training of hefei university of technology. shi qin said that the school's talent training concepts, models and measures have been adjusted in line with technological progress and industrial development over the past few decades.

in the 1980s, teachers with corporate work backgrounds focused on talent cultivation, especially on cultivating students' broad engineering foundation and practical ability, giving full play to the talent cultivation resources of schools and enterprises, and combining theoretical knowledge with production practice.

as automobile transportation continues to develop towards intelligence and modernization, in 2016, the vehicle engineering department of the former school of mechanical and automotive engineering and the former school of transportation engineering (established in 2009) were merged to form the school of automotive and transportation engineering.

the picture shows a formula racing car independently developed by students of hefei university of technology.

the birth of the automobile transportation college conforms to the development trend of intelligent and modern transportation today, integrates with artificial intelligence, big data, and the internet, and cultivates the teaching and scientific research model of internet + automobile. the college is committed to improving students' learning interest, independent learning ability, and research-based learning ability, strengthening students' innovative thinking, and driving the improvement of the overall quality of talent training.

empowering the development of the automotive industry in the long term

the development of anhui province's automobile industry began in the 1960s to the present day. hefei university of technology has been accompanying the entire process, playing different roles and making different contributions at each stage, including talent cultivation, technological innovation and scientific and technological leadership.

shi qin introduced that in the first stage, in the early 1980s, hefei university of technology led enterprises in technological innovation. at that time, the strength structure of enterprise innovation teams was relatively weak. the school introduced new technologies and development tools to enterprises, such as cad/cae technology for lightweighting.

in the second stage, as the company continued to develop, the talent team grew and had a certain degree of innovation ability. the school maintained a close cooperative relationship with local car companies, mainly to solve engineering and technical problems.

up to now, the company has not only grown its technical staff, but also greatly improved its r&d platform and investment level. in addition to cooperation in solving engineering and technical problems, the relationship between hefei university of technology and the company also focuses on technological leadership. it has jointly carried out scientific research with well-known car companies settled in anhui, such as nio, jac, and chery. in simple terms, it is to introduce innovative problems that may fall on products in the future into the company earlier.

shi qin gave an example: with the development of intelligent connected vehicles, information security issues have become prominent. they have cooperated with enterprises a few years ago and entered into relevant rehearsals, taking the lead in technological innovation.

nowadays, with the development of new energy vehicles and intelligent connected vehicles, scientific research has long broken the boundaries of disciplines and colleges. shi qin introduced that hust's traditional advantageous disciplines such as management, computer science, electrical engineering, and materials have also focused on the automotive field, and have achieved a large number of innovative results in key technologies for new energy power and energy storage, key technologies for the three-electric platform of new energy vehicles, and basic forward-looking research on vehicle aerodynamics and motor vehicle exhaust diffusion. these results have been closely integrated with the actual development of automobile industry enterprises, providing strong support for the development of the industry and local economic and social development.

put scientific research projects at the forefront of the times

in june 2023, the anhui provincial party committee and the provincial government held a conference to promote the construction of the new energy vehicle industry cluster, proposing the trillion-level automobile "first industry" positioning. one and a half months later, another conference to promote the construction of the new energy vehicle industry cluster was held in the province, requiring the focus on the automobile "first industry" positioning and the construction of an internationally competitive new energy vehicle industry cluster.

what will be the development trend of anhui's automobile industry in the future? shi qin believes that the greater potential for the development of anhui's automobile industry lies in the auto parts market.

"the development of complete vehicles and the competition among companies that are closely related to parts and components is the competition in the supply chain. the development of the entire industry has reached a point where the level of innovation is closely related to the entire supply chain and industrial ecology. without technological innovation in parts and components, there can be no technological innovation in complete vehicles." shi qin said that after the development of a complete vehicle to a certain level, the number of vehicles in use will no longer be able to increase significantly, which determines the upper limit of the production and sales of the complete vehicle.

therefore, shi qin believes that the greater potential for the development of anhui's automobile industry lies in technological innovation. "parts are the main force, and the ecology and economic efficiency of the entire supply chain still have great potential and space."

how does hefei university of technology respond to the development and changes in the automotive industry? shi qin said that the most fundamental task of the university is talent training, promoting talent training through scientific research and empowering enterprises at the same time.

putting scientific research projects at the forefront of the times, devoting themselves to solving common problems faced in the development of the national automobile industry, and providing strong support for the transformation, upgrading and innovative development of the industry have always been the common value pursuit of the hefei university of technology's automobile research team.

da wan news reporter wang yan (photo provided by the publicity department of hefei university of technology)

edited by xu zhengwen