keynote speakers / 主旨报告专家
Prof. Youmin Xi
Executive President of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Liverpool
Senior Professor of Management at Xi'an Jiaotong University
Biography: Executive President of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, and Senior Professor of Management at Xi'an Jiaotong University. Through logical training in physics at the undergraduate level, a holistic perspective from systems engineering at the master’s level, and a humanistic approach in management at the doctoral level, Professor Xi Youmin founded the Theory of HeXie Management (1985). He led the establishment and innovative development of Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (2006), with a continued dedication to management and education. He has published over 30 books, more than 300 papers, received over 10 provincial and ministerial-level awards for research achievements, supervised nearly 200 graduate students, and earned numerous national honours, including the “China Youth Scientist Award.” He also serves as Co-President of the Chinese Society for Management Modernization and Chair of the Ministry of Education's Business Administration Education Steering Committee.
Prof. Xiaojun Zhang
Chief Officer of Education at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Team Leader of Entrepreneur College (Taicang) Collective Leadership Team, Executive Dean of the Academy of Future Education, Principal Fellow of Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) in UK
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China
Biography: Professor Xiaojun Zhang obtained his PhD degree at Xi’an Jiaotong University. In 2023, he joined Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University as the Deputy Director of Institute of Leadership and Education Advanced Development (ILEAD), which was founded by him under the support of university leaders. Currently, Xiaojun serves as the Chief Officer of Education at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and Leader of Entrepreneur College (Taicang) Leadership Team. He also holds roles including Executive Dean of the Academy of Future Education, and Acting Dean of Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Hub.
Xiaojun is an edupreneur who initiated all the four units within the Academy of Future Education. He was appointed as Head of ILEAD in 2017 when ILEAD became a Department of Education. He restructured the faculty development centre at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and built the team of Educational Development Unit (EDU) in 2018. The Department of Educational Studies (EDS) was founded by Xiaojun in 2019, and in 2021, he created the Learning Institute for Future Excellence (LIFE) as an innovative platform to support student transformation and global citizenship competence development at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
Professor Zhang has led the development of several projects with national level impact. He established XJTLU National University Teaching Innovation Award in 2016, developed the Association for Sustainable Faculty Development in Higher Education in 2018 with more than 112 institutional members, and initiated the ILEAD Talk series, which has been established in more than 20 cities across China. Since August 2023, Xiaojun has been appointed as Chief Officer of Education to lead on the educational development and innovation at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, particularly to facilitate the exploration of syntegrative education as the Leader of XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang) Leadership Team.
Professor Zhang is a Principal Fellow of Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) in UK.
One of Xiaojun’s current work focuses is educating the educators in universities, including teachers, professionals, and institutional leaders and managers. He has developed many professional development programmes for educational practitioners across the country. His programmes were attended by more than 20,000 staff from more than 1000 Chinese universities. Since 2013, he has been invited for over 200 speeches for educational practitioners and researchers on the topic of education and teaching innovation. Xiaojun created one of the most influential community for teaching innovation in China: the XJTLU National University Teaching Innovation Award. More than 12,000 innovative teachers from 1000 Chinese universities have applied for this award since 2016. Every year, there are millions of online visits to this event, and more than 1000 excellent teaching innovation cases have been accumulated.
Professor Zhang’s research areas include institutional change and institutional logics; Educational leadership; Internationalization in Higher Education, especially the Sino-foreign Cooperative universities; Future education in the AI era; Syntegrative Education; University transformation and teaching innovation, in particular research-led learning and teaching; student-centred education; student transition etc. Professor Zhang welcomes PhD applications in these areas.
Xiaojun has published more than 100 academic papers and 5 books. His research focuses on practical problems and their practical implications. Most of his research has been adopted in his training programmes for higher education practitioners. One of his most recent books titled "University Transformation: From Teacher Dominated to Student-Centred" published by Tsinghua University Press, is a guidebook for education practitioners who want to transform their education. Xiaojun proposed the "diamond model" of teaching innovation in AI era and highlighted ten key directions of teaching innovation in his another recently published book "Future-oriented Teaching Innovation" by Economic and Management Press.
Prof. Biao Huang
Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering
Dean of School of Intelligent Manufacturing Ecosystem
Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China
Speech Title: From Automated Execution to Intelligent Creation: Shaping the Future of Industry Automation and the Education It Demands
Biography: Professor Huang earned his PhD in Process Control from the University of Alberta in Canada in 1997. He received his BSc and MSc degrees in Automatic Control from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Serving as several industrial research chairs, he has spearheaded many research projects. His work has addressed critical challenges in process industries, delivering cost-effective solutions that improve operational efficiency.
Professor Huang has been internationally recognised through fellowships in several highly regarded organisations: Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the IEEE, the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association, the Chinese Association of Automation, and the Chemical Institute of Canada. He is also a respected academic editor, having served as Editor-in-Chief of the IFAC journal Control Engineering Practice, and currently as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. With over 600 peer-reviewed Journal publications (over 34,000 citations, H-index 91), five books, and more than 30 keynote/plenary addresses worldwide, Professor Huang works to bridge theory and practice effectively.
Prof. Youqing Wang
IET Fellow, Fellow of the Chinese Association of Automation
Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China
Speech Title: Exploration of Intelligent Engineering-Practice Education Based on Augmented Reality Miniature Factory
Abstract: Engineering-practice education is an important part of cultivating world-class outstanding engineers. However, traditional engineering practice has limitations such as a single type of experimental object and prominent potential safety hazards, failing to meet the requirements of modern training. The Augmented-Reality (AR) Miniature Factory utilizes AR technology to project traditional digital-twin models onto miniature modular factories, realizing visual–tactile immersive engineering-practice education. Equipped with accurate twin models and programmable miniature hardware, the AR Miniature Factory can provide autonomous and interactive practical training. Meanwhile, it can also rapidly transform enterprise technologies into teaching scenarios, realizing dynamic matching between educational supply and industrial demand. The AR Miniature Factory aims to cultivate students’ advanced engineering-innovation capabilities and has achieved systematic innovation in traditional practice education.
Biography: Youqing Wang (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.S. degree in mathematics from Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China, in 2003, and the Ph.D. degree in control science and engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2008. He worked chronologically at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China; the University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA; the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada; Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, China; and City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. He is currently a Professor with Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing. His research interests include fault diagnosis, fault-tolerant control, state monitoring, and iterative learning control for chemical and biomedical processes.
Dr. Wang was a recipient of several honors and awards, including the IET Fellow, Fellow of the Chinese Association of Automation, the NSFC Distinguished Young Scientists Fund, the Journal of Process Control Survey Paper Prize, and the ADCHEM2015 Young Author Prize. He has also received the Second Prize for Educational Achievement Award from the Chinese Association of Automation and the Highest Prize for Educational Achievement from Beijing University of Chemical Technology.
Assoc. Prof. Henk Huijser
Lead Co-Editor of the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology
Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Biography: Henk Huijser is an Associate Professor and Strategic Lead Educator Development and Recognition in the Learning and Teaching Unit at Queensland University of Technology. He has been an academic developer since 2005 in Australia, the Middle East and China. Henk is a Lead Co-Editor of the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology and an Associate Editor of the International Journal for Academic Development. He is Co-Author of Problem-based Learning into the Future (2017) and Co-Editor of Student Support Services (2022) and Technology-Enhanced Learning and the Virtual University (2023).