Professor Sir Jim McDonald of Royal Academy of Engineering gives lecture to College of Engineering
Oct 28, 2020
Peking University, October 28, 2020: On October 21, invited by the College of Engineering (COE) at Peking University, Professor Sir Jim McDonald of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK gives an online lecture to nearly 200 students of COE. The lecture was hosted by Professor Song Jie, associate dean for international exchanges and professional education of COE.
Professor Song Jie hosts the lecture
The lecture serves as a lesson of the course “Introduction to Modern Engineering”, a compulsory course for all engineering freshmen, which is designed to invite outstanding academics and experts from outside the university to help broaden the students’ vision.
Professor McDonald is currently principal and vice-chancellor of University of Strathclyde, and president and fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of the University and is also responsible to the University Court for the finances of the University. Recommended by the Ministry of Science and Technology of People’s Republic of China in January 2020, Professor McDonald was received by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Professor McDonald plays a key role in promoting and strengthening the collaboration in engineering and technology between China and the UK.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the lecture was organized both online and onsite. Professor McDonald, with himself in Scotland, gave the lecture online, while over 150 freshmen, master and Ph.D. students, faculty members and post-docs attended the lecture onsite in the classroom. There are also many online audiences such as scholars from other universities, foreign students of COE who are not able to come back to campus, professional engineering students, and students who are having international exchanges in other countries at the moment.
Prior to the lecture, Xia Hongwei, director of the Office of International Relations at Peking University, warmly welcomed Professor McDonald and the onsite and online student audiences. Xia said, “The event is a good encouragement to the students to learn about the research in the UK.”
Xia Hongwei welcomes Professor McDonald and the audience
In his lecture entitled “Energy Systems for the 21st Century - The 3Ds: decentralisation; decarbonisation; digitalisation”, Professor McDonald pointed out that the need to safeguard energy supplies while addressing urgent environmental demands is one of the biggest global challenges today.
Professor McDonald gives the lecture
He firstly analyzed the major environmental, safety, and economic challenges in the current energy system, and then introduced the 3Ds solution- decentralization, decarbonization, and digitalization. After giving a vision of future power system supported by oil and gas, wind, solar, and nuclear power, he emphasized the need for international & national leadership, vision and innovation. “It is the engineers who will build a new decarbonized future energy system” said Professor McDonald.
Professor McDonald’s talk aroused great interests among the audience. In the Q&A session, both students onsite and scholars online raised insightful questions, such as “How to build a new layout based on the current city?”, “What is the future of controlled nuclear fusion” and “Will floating devices on the sea seriously harm the natural wave, tide and marine system, and be a disturbance to ships?”.
“I am very happy to talk with so many scholars and students,” said Professor McDonald, “Because of the impact of the pandemic, I haven’t seen so many students sitting in the classroom for quite a long time.”
Group photo
“This kind of event is very beneficial for both sides,” said Professor Song of COE, “We look forward to deeper cooperation and international exchanges in the future.”
Edited by: Huang Weijian
Source: College of Engineering, Peking University
