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Minister Counsellor Jin Xu visited Heriot-Watt with colleagues from the Chinese Embassy in London, the China Britain Business Council, as well as Mr Si Bingjun, Head of PetroChina's London Office and Chairman of the Chinese Enterprise Association of Britain.
Discussion focussed on the opportunities for furthering university-industry links in specific areas of research, as well as capacity building through postgraduate and CPD programmes. Professor Xiuying Wen, Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer, Profesor Dorrik Stow and Tony Weir were involved in presentations and discussions about the University, the Confucius Institute, the Energy Academy and other areas of research, teaching and collaboration with industry.
Professor Nick Taylor, from the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences and Deputy Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, led a tour around a number of laboratories. At the Ocean Systems Laboratory, Professor Yvan Petillot showed a number of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) and Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASVs). Professor Oliver Lemon and Yanchao Yu demonstrated ‘FurHat’ in the Interaction Lab, a humanoid head incorporating natural language and gaze technology to interact with the Minister Counsellor.
At the Autonomous Affective Agents Lab, Amol Deshmukh demonstrated the use of an interactive Nao torso robot integrated with a touch table to provide empathic robotic tutoring.
The visit was coordinated by Ruth Moir, Heriot-Watt's Assistant Principal (International Development) with the China Britain Business Council and hosted at the Scottish Confucius Institute of Business and Communication.