On the morning of September 17, 2025, the ICEE Youth Engineering and Technology Education Innovation Program seminar was held at Tsinghua University. The seminar was guided by the China Overseas-Educated Scholars Development Foundation and the UNESCO International Centre for Engineering Education (ICEE). It was organized by the ICEE Youth Engineering and Technology Education Innovation Program Working Committee and the Truth-Seeking Education Experimental Research Branch of the Tao Xingzhi Research Association of China, with participation from the Special Fund for the Strategy of Revitalizing the Nation through Science and Education under the China Overseas-Educated Scholars Development Foundation. The theme of the seminar was “Innovation · Integration · Development.”

Wang Sunyu, Deputy Director and Secretary-General of ICEE and Professor at the School of Education, Tsinghua University; Wang Weiguo, Deputy Director of the China Care for the Next Generation Working Committee and Chairman of the China Next Generation Education Foundation; Zhang Xiaobin, Director of the Management Committee of the Special Fund for the Strategy of Revitalizing the Nation through Science and Education of the China Overseas-Educated Scholars Development Foundation; Qiao Weifeng, Associate Professor in Research of ICEE and Assistant to the Secretary-General; Shen Ye, Assistant to the Secretary-General of ICEE and Secretary-General of the Global Partnership Committee; Shi Banghong, Head of the ICEE “Science Education and Engineering Education Synergistic Advancement Program” Special Committee and President of Huizhong Education Research Institute (Beijing); Liu Binli, Director of the ICEE Future Science and Technology Education Base and Founder of Smart Cloud School (Beijing) Institute of Education Science, and other guests attended the seminar.

Speech by Wang Sunyu

Professor Wang Sunyu delivered the opening speech, extending a warm welcome and sincere gratitude to the experts and educators attending the seminar for their concern and support for the development of youth engineering education. He emphasized that with the growing demand for engineering and technological talent, the strategic importance of engineering education is becoming increasingly prominent. Engineering education should not be confined to higher education alone; it must extend downward, as primary education provides fertile ground for cultivating and sowing the seeds of engineering education. He expressed his hope that through the exchange of ideas, participants could build consensus and bring cutting-edge concepts and high-quality resources into classrooms, opening the first door to engineering thinking and technological innovation for young people. He also gave a brief introduction to the Engineering Education Review, an international English-language journal dedicated to reviews in engineering education. 

During the discussion session, Wang Su, former Director of the Institute of International and Comparative Education at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences and Executive Vice President and Secretary-General of the Science and Engineering Education Committee of the Chinese Society for Educational Development Strategy, introduced the current status of engineering education in China’s primary and secondary schools. Other participants included Liu Changming, Principal of Beijing Financial Street Runze School and former Principal of Beijing No. 4 High School; Tian Jun, Principal of Beijing No. 11 School; Lu Yunquan, Principal of Beijing 101 Education Group; Xia Qingfeng, Principal of Beijing Zhongxue; Wang Jiaokai, Principal of Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area School and Yizhuang New City School of High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China; Zhao Shenzhou, Executive Deputy Director of the Junior Academy of Sciences at Tianjin Yinghua Experimental School; Zhou Xijun, Deputy Director of the Education Bureau of Fuyang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province; Qiao Weifeng, Assistant to Secretary General of ICEE; Shen Ye, Assistant to Secretary General of ICEE. Drawing on both industry and research experience, they shared insights into the problems and challenges encountered in implementing engineering and technology education in primary and secondary schools, as well as strategies to address them.

The ICEE Youth Engineering and Technology Education Innovation Program is a commonweal project carried out under the framework of the Engineering and Technology Talent Development Program jointly initiated by the China Overseas-Educated Scholars Development Foundation and ICEE. ICEE provides ongoing academic guidance for the program.