On 13th February 2025, a few student representatives from Tsinghua University (China), which is one of the top universities in the technical field, have visited Eindhoven University of Technology where 4TU.Energy is located. These students are holding a fellowship called "Spark" from Tsinghua University.
Tsinghua University engages in extensive research and offers 51 bachelor's degree programs, 139 master's degree programs, and 107 doctoral programs through 20 colleges and 57 departments covering a broad range of subjects, including science, engineering, arts and literature, social sciences, law, medicine. Tsinghua is also a member of a Low Carbon Energy University Alliance (LCEUA). With this "Spark" fellowship, top students of Tsinghua University are provided financial support to travel domestically and internationally to explore academic research beyond what they have learned from university.
The link for this visit is between the Energy research lines and Energy-related programs between 4TU.Energy and the Department of Energy and Power Engineering of Tsinghua University. The Department of Energy and Power Engineering of Tsinghua University has already a lot of academic achievements targeting "Dual Carbon Goals" in the field of: 1) clean and efficient utilization of coal; 2) biomass energy utilization; 3) CO2 capture, utilization, and storage; 4) electrochemical energy storage; 5) hydrogen energy utilization; and 6) deep integration of fundamental scientific problems and AI.
Based on this link, 4TU.Energy has organized a mini-symposium including an academic presentation from Xiaocheng Mi about “metal combustion” and an introduction on the Eindhoven Institute for Renewable Energy Systems (EIRES) and 4TU. Energy.
Xiaocheng Mi is an assistant professor at the Power and Flow group in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). His research efforts are focused on developing breakthrough technologies of renewable energy systems and tackling the related safety issues. The key areas of XiaoCheng's interests include metal combustion, pressure-gain combustion, and detonation in gaseous, heterogeneous, and condensed-phase energetic materials.
The title of Xiaocheng's presentation was "Metal-enabled Cycle of Renewable Energy with Iron Powder" and Xiaocheng has focused on both the fundamentals and applications of his research. Visitors found the research topic on "Iron Powder" very innovative and interesting!
The introduction on EIRES was given by Alwin Hoogendoorn who is the senior Programme Manager on Hydrogen & Metal fuels at EIRES. Alwin has shared both the overview and insights from the programs at EIRES. Visitors have showed a special interest on Students Teams which are supported by EIRES.
The coordinator of 4TU.Energy - Sha Lou, has introduced 4TU.Energy to the visitors on behalf of the scientific director. Visitors commented that there is a big value of a centralized knowledge center such as 4TU.Federation on different research themes, to provide better central support on research and education and facilitate the collaborations within and beyond 4TUs.
The scientific director of 4TU.Energy - David Smeulders has joined this visit for lunch and has drawn the common interest in future collaborations based on the fellowship or funding support from both sides (Tsinghua University and 4TU.Energy). Student exchange or co-organized summer school could be a good follow-up.
Students found the presentation from Xiaocheng Mi very educative and interesting.
Students got an introduction on 4TU.Energy from Sha Lou.
The part of "China - The Belt and Road Initiative" sparked a lot of interaction during the presentation from Alwin Hoogendoorn.
Students gave small gifts which were brought from China.
The visit ended with a laboratory tour by Ye Wang who is an assistant professor at the Microsystems group in the Mechanical Engineering Department of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e).
