China officially inaugurated its College of Integrated Circuits at Harbin Engineering University in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Sunday, further enhancing the country's efforts to advance chip development for maritime applications.
Building on the university's strengths in shipbuilding, naval equipment, ocean engineering, and nuclear energy applications, the newly launched college will focus on the independent development of "ocean chips."
Research will center on integrated circuits applications for marine sensors, underwater intelligent systems, multi-physics detection, and MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) technologies.
Key research directions include micro–nano semiconductor and optoelectronic integrated devices, integrated circuits design and system-on-chip technologies, integrated circuits manufacturing and sensor development, as well as advanced packaging and intelligent microsystem integration.
The college will offer an integrated bachelor-to-doctoral training program.
Undergraduate education will follow a university-industry collaborative training model: one year of foundational study, two years of laboratory research practice, and one year dedicated to enterprise-based graduation project.
A dual-mentor system will be adopted, with the program aiming to train about 60 versatile and innovative students each year who are proficient in the full chip development process.
"Harbin Engineering University established the College of Integrated Circuits in order to leverage the university's unique strengths in the ship, marine, and nuclear fields, and to collaborate with leading enterprises in these sectors and in integrated circuits. Together, we aim to advance the training of urgently needed integrated circuits talent, promote scientific research, and support industrial upgrading in the marine and nuclear domains," said Zhang Yonggang, executive dean of College of Integrated Circuits, Harbin Engineering University.
China launches college of integrated circuits to advance chip development
China's 42nd Antarctic Expedition team has started unloading supplies for scientific exploration after arriving at waters near the Zhongshan Station, a Chinese research base in Antarctica.
The ongoing seven-month scientific exploration mission is supported by Chinese icebreakers the Xuelong and the Xuelong 2, which set sail from Shanghai on Nov 1.
The two icebreakers will deliver about 2,000 tons of supplies to the Zhongshan Station for scientific exploration.
The Xuelong 2 arrived first at a designated unloading spot about 12 kilometers from the Zhongshan Station. Later, the ship's Ka-32 helicopter transported in batches more than 300 tons of polar fuel to the research base when weather conditions were favorable.
"Nearly 90 members of the expedition team carried by the two ship are already at the Zhongshan Station, preparing for receiving supplies and assignments for scientific exploration," said Wang Tao, person in charge of unloading operations at the Zhongshan Station.
Thanks to more than 30 hours of efforts by the Xuelong 2 to widen the channel and lead the way, the Xuelong, which was carrying about 1,500 tons of supplies, has also arrived at the unloading spot.
The unloading operations, involving a combination of sea-ice transport and helicopter lifts, are expected to be finished within two weeks.
And then, the Xuelong and the Xuelong 2 will proceed to China's Qingling Station and Changcheng Station in Antarctica, respectively.
The expedition team includes more than 500 members from over 80 institutions on the Chinese mainland, along with researchers from more than 10 other countries and regions, such as Thailand, Chile and Portugal, as well as China's Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, in support of broader international scientific collaboration.
They will conduct multi-disciplinary scientific surveys, advance several major national research projects, and test domestically developed equipment under polar conditions.
Particularly, scientific drilling experiments in lakes deep in the Antarctic inland ice sheet will be carried out for the first time.
China's 42nd Antarctic Expedition team unloads supplies at Zhongshan Station
