On the morning of July15th, The "2019 Retreat Conference" of Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute (hereinafter referred to as TBSI) was officially launched inShenzhen University Town. Distinguished guests from all walks of life includingspeakers from world-class universities, research institutes andindustry-leading companies took part in the event. Furthermore, over 500 TBSI teachers, studentsand post-doctoral students also participated.
At the opening ceremony, TBSI Co-Directors Gao Hong and Connie Chang-Hasnain elaborated on the development of TBSI over the years. TBSI has established a full-time teaching staff of 23 professors. The 10th meeting of the Academic Steering Committee held in 2019 reviewed the candidates for the first round of global teacher recruitment. Through the global recruitment of high-end talents, TBSI expects to increase the number of full-time teachers to 30 by end of the year. In addition, 21 part-time core scientists from the University of California at Berkeley and 26 part-time core scientists from Tsinghua University will edify the interdisciplinary development of TBSI. In 2019, 6 doctoral students and 31 master students graduated from TBSI. In 2019 September Fall Semester, 166 new students will join TBSI, including 29 international students. The number of international students keeps increasing each year. The construction of the new TBSI Campus is in full swing. The campus is expected to be completed at the 110th anniversary of Tsinghua University in 2021. It features high-end interdisciplinary scientific research platform, multi-dimensional teaching space, and open communication space. Upon completion, the campus will become an important center for the world's top academics.
The closing ceremony was held on July 17. The special guest speaker of the conference, Professor Emeritus of Tokyo University of Technology, Former President of Foreign Academician of the National Academy of Engineering, and the father of Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL), Kenichi Iga, gave an outstanding speech titled "VCSEL: Its Invention and Presentation by Initial Research and Development." Academician of the National Academy of Engineering and Professor PR Kumar of Texas A&M University presented their work at the conference entitled Regret and Bandits.
This year, the TBSI Retreat Conference is open to the public. In addition to the four invited conferences, the two-and-a-half-day “Spirit of Interest” was launched in parallel with Innovative Materials for Energy and Information, Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, Innovations in Power, Energy, and Transportation Systems, TBSI Workshop on Learning Theory (TBSI-WOLT), 3D Optical Imaging: Devices and Systems, International Workshop on Data Science Research and Business Applications, Engineering Biology for Precision Medicine, Workshop on Nanofabrication Facility 8 sub-forums provide an academic feast for guests and TBSI teachers and students inside and outside the school. Participants attended according to their research fields and interests, and listened to various lectures from academic circles and industry.
In addition to dialogues with industry experts and scholars, TBSI students also presented their research results to experts in various fields participating in this session through poster presentations. Many research topics have been researched in a multidisciplinary field to provide participants with a new perspective and every attendee was deeply impressed.
