In order to strengthen the cultural and academic exchanges between our doctoral students and the doctoral students from European universities and deepen the cooperation between our university and European universities, SESE Summer School-2018 summer school was successfully held in Tongji University from September 17 to September 21. This event was hosted by Tongji University and the doctoral students from Tongji University (China), Harbin University of Technology (HIT, China) and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT, Germany) participated. A group of 9 Ph.D. candidates from School of Energy Science and Engineering, School of Environment, and School of Transportation Science and Engineering from our university participated the SESE Summer School-2018 with the support of graduate school of HIT.

This summer school project is an important part of the Sino-European Doctoral School Project. The graduate school of HIT has given great attention and support to the project. At the same time, the Ms. Xunyi Liu (Vice-Director in International Project Management Center of HIT) and Prof. Yong Shuai (Vice-Dean in School of Energy Science and Engineering of HIT) also attended the event. Dr. Wang Xinzhi was invited to give a keynote in the summer school.

The goal of this exchange project is to conduct extensive exchanges and discussions with other delegates on the issues of energy utilization, emerging research directions and achievements, and student development, which are of global concern.

As the host school of this academic and cultural exchange project, Professor Qirong Tang of Tongji University, on behalf of the organizers, warmly welcomed the delegation and wished the project a complete success. At the same time, Professor Becker of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) briefly introduced the development and construction of KIT, and highly valued the promotion of mutual understanding between China and Europe as a platform for doctoral academic and cultural exchanges. Ms. Xunyi Liu, the Vice-Director in international project management center of HIT, then gave a presentation on behalf of HIT, and the exchange activities began here. Nearly 10 professors and experts and more than 30 doctoral students, from Tongji University, HIT and KIT, gave academic reports on automotive applications, environmental protection, traffic roads, energy conversion and other aspects of research results. The Ph.D. students gave excellent oral presentations from September 17 to September 21 according to their research directions.At the same time, as one of the invited keynote speakers in this event, Dr. Xinzhi Wang of HIT made a presentation on the hot issue of highly efficient solar steam generation. During the exchange, all the participants listened to the reports of other delegates and gained a deeper understanding of the frontiers of international sustainable energy development and utilization. At the same time, the participants had extensive academic and cultural exchanges with other delegates, thus enhancing mutual understanding and friendship and promoting the development of China's sustainable energy resources. The cooperation between doctoral students from China and Europe has laid a good foundation. In addition, in order to promote cultural exchanges between Chinese and European doctors, the project organizer Tongji University organized delegates to visit various campus of Tongji University, and led the delegates to visit Huangpu River, Guyiyuan and Nanxiang Old Street. This will not only enable the Chinese and European doctors to have a deeper understanding of each other, but also further promote in-depth exchanges and common development between the two sides.

After the end of the SESE Summer School-2018, Prof. Qirong Tang of Tongji University organized doctoral students to visit the history museum of Tongji University in Siping campus, the wind tunnel laboratory, mechanical processing laboratory and the sustainable clean energy architecture exhibition hall in Jiading Campus from September 19 to September 20. During this period, the participating teachers and students visited the relevant laboratories. At the same time, they also had in-depth exchanges and discussions with researchers. Through laboratory visits, our teachers and students have a deeper understanding of the hot spots and frontiers of international energy utilization. This will lay a good foundation for future graduate joint training and academic exchanges.

The successful holding of the Sino-European Doctoral Academic and Cultural Exchange has enabled our Ph.D. students to fully communicate with scientific researchers from German universities, broadening their scientific and cultural horizons, as well as in-depth understanding and discussion of their own relevant research, laying a foundation for further study and exchange abroad in the future. At the same time, various student activities have enhanced the friendship between Chinese and German researchers, promoted exchanges and cooperation between Chinese and European universities, and played a positive role in way to build a world-class university for HIT.