News Release

Global Alliance of Technological Universities (GlobalTech) to tackle 'Grand Challenges'

Senior representatives and dozens of scholars from 7 founding universities of the GlobalTech came together at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to hold the 2010 GlobalTech Steering Committee Meeting and the First Workshop on Sustainable Urban Solutions

Business Announcement

Nanyang Technological University

Senior representatives and dozens of scholars from seven founding universities of the Global Alliance of Technological Universities (GlobalTech) came together on 3 May 2010 at Shanghai Jiao Tong University to hold the 2010 GlobalTech Steering Committee Meeting and the First Workshop on Sustainable Urban Solutions.

The latter coincides with the theme of World Expo 2010 -- Better City Better Life. Senior representatives discussed the role of technological universities in the 21st Century, and put forward an action plan for GlobalTech for the next couple years. The scholars exchanged their research and ideas.

Members of GlobalTech include the California Institute of Technology and Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, Imperial College London and Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule Zürich (The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) (Zurich ETH) in Europe, and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) in Asia.

Professor Zhang Jie, President of the host Shanghai Jiao Tong University said the 2010 GlobalTech Steering Committee Meeting, facing these unprecedented Grand Challenges, has the obligation to synergize its collective wisdom and efforts to contribute to the solutions of these challenges. "Together, we are making the history of humankind."

Dr Su Guaning, President of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Chairman of GlobalTech, said that the GlobalTech Steering Committee Meeting proposed that multilateral student exchange at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels be greatly encouraged among member institutions. Workshops on Global Health, Sub-Sahara African Cooperation, and Sustainable Energy will also be held at ETH, and IITB respectively in the next 18 months.

The GlobalTech Steering Committee Meeting also elected Dr Su Guaning, President of NTU, to serve as the next tenure of the GlobalTech Chairman from 2011 – 2013.

GlobalTech was formed in Singapore in April 2009. GlobalTech brings together these leading engineering-based universities in the belief that one of the best ways to address global issues is through the joint and concerted development of technological solutions based on top class research in science and technology.

The "Grand Challenges" identified by GlobalTech include biomedicine and health care, sustainability and global environmental change, security of energy, water and food supplies, security, and changing demographics/ population.

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