On February 26, 2024, Lidia Arthur Brito, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, and her delegation visited Tsinghua University. They were met with by YANG Bin, Vice President of Tsinghua University and Executive Director of ICEE, and YUAN Si, former Vice President of Tsinghua University, and Executive Director of ICEE. HU Shaofeng, Director of the Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building in the Natural Sciences Sector of UNESCO, Ai Sugiura, Programme Specialist for Natural Sciences of UNESCO Beijing Office, and GUO Wei, Director of the Division of Sciences, Culture and CI, the Secretariat of China National Commission for UNESCO visited Tsinghua University together with Brito. WANG Sunyu, Deputy Executive Director and Secretary General of ICEE, KANG Jincheng, Strategic Expert of ICEE and former Director of the International Cooperation Bureau of Chinese Academy of Engineering, QIAO Weifeng, an associate professor of research of ICEE, XU Lihui, Assistant to Secretary-General of ICEE, and SHEN Ye, Assistant Secretary-General of ICEE, attended the event. 

YANG Bin welcomed Brito and her delegation. He said that Tsinghua University attaches great importance to the development of engineering education and cooperation with international organizations. He also thanked UNESCO for its support to the ICEE. Tsinghua University will leverage the platform of ICEE to further enhance international cooperation in the field of engineering education, expand its international influence in engineering education, and jointly promote the development of global engineering education.

YUAN Si expressed that under the guidance of UNESCO, ICEE has been conducting a series of consultancy research, strengthening exchanges and cooperation with international organizations and academic institutions, giving full play to its role as a global partner, and promoting engineering capacity building. In the future, ICEE will continue to serve as a bridge and link of the international platforms, and strive to become a center that demonstrates leadership, cohesion, influence, and a strong capacity for action in the field of international engineering education.

Brito firstly expressed her gratitude to Tsinghua University for its support to UNESCO. She highly acknowledged the contribution of ICEE to the compilation of UNESCO’s Engineering Report II, and praised its achievements in promoting engineering, scientific and technological talents cultivation as well as international cooperation and exchanges in recent years. 

Brito stated that in order to implement the United Nations’ resolution titled “International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development 2024-2033”, UNESCO hopes to collaborate with ICEE in areas such as engineering data statistics, annual engineering reports and online education, particularly play a role of ICEE in the facilitation of engineering education in Africa and women’s participation in engineering.