From March 16 to 20, 2026, the College of Automotive and Energy Engineering, Tongji University and the Institute of Automotive Engineering, Graz University of Technology in Austria jointly organized a “Spring Camp” themed “Green Energy and Future Mobility.” A total of 31 Chinese and Austrian students (16 from Austria, 15 from China) participated in the five-day program, which included course learning, cultural experiences, and social practice activities.
On March 16, the opening ceremony of the Spring Camp was held in the AVL Smart Classroom at the Tongji University Clean Energy Automotive Engineering Center. The ceremony was attended by Mario Hirz, Deputy Head of the Institute of Automotive Engineering at Graz University of Technology; CAI Liming, Vice Dean of the Sino-German College at Tongji University; and ZHOU Quan, Vice Dean of the College of Automotive and Energy Engineering. They also participated in an exchange and discussion session with the Chinese and Austrian students.
For the course learning component, Professor Mario Hirz from Graz University of Technology delivered a series of lectures on new energy vehicle powertrain systems, while Professor LI Nan from the College of Automotive and Energy Engineering taught the principles of autonomous driving. Professor Jan Harder from the Sino-German College offered a series of courses on Chinese cultural experiences for the students. The course content was closely aligned with industry trends, covering cutting-edge theories while integrating local Chinese practical case studies, providing Austrian faculty and students with a window into the development of China’s automotive industry.
For the social practice component, participants visited institutions such as Momenta’s headquarters in Suzhou and the AVL Technical Center (Shanghai). These visits allowed them to gain firsthand exposure to the latest technologies and industry frontiers in areas such as autonomous driving algorithms and powertrain system testing. During the visits, students engaged in in-depth discussions with technical staff, gaining a more intuitive understanding of the R&D processes and practical applications of new energy vehicles and intelligent connected vehicles.
This Spring Camp not only deepened cooperation between the two universities in the field of automotive and energy engineering, establishing international university-university and university-industry collaboration channels, but also provided a valuable cross-cultural exchange platform for young people from China and Austria. In the future, both sides will continue to promote more forms of academic interaction and research collaboration, jointly contributing to the innovative development of the global automotive industry and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Graz University of Technology (German: Technische Universität Graz), located in Graz, the capital of Styria in southeastern Austria, is one of 18 public universities in Austria recognized by the Chinese Ministry of Education. Professor Hans List, the founder of the world-renowned automotive company AVL and the founder of the Power Machinery program at Tongji University, is a distinguished alumnus of Graz University of Technology. Tongji University maintains close relations with Graz University of Technology and AVL. Tongji and Graz University of Technology operate a dual master's degree program, and each November, the university selects five first-year master's students to study in Austria for their master's degrees, sponsored by AVL. AVL also holds an endowed chair at Tongji University and has long provided internship and job opportunities for Tongji students in Shanghai and Graz.
