Northwestern Polytechnical University celebrates 80th anniversary

Northwestern Polytechnical University held a ceremony on October 13 to celebrating its 80th anniversary at Aoxiang Stadium on its Changan Campus in Xi'an. More than 4,500 people gathered for this special occasion, including leaders of the university, distinguished guests from home and abroad, representatives from various areas who have always supported NPU, representatives from the universities at home and abroad, representatives of NPU alumni from home and abroad and the teachers and students currently attending.

Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee Secretary and Standing Committee of Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress Director Hu Heping, Xi'an Municipal Party Secretary and member of the Standing Committee of Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee Wang Yongkang, secretary general of Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee and member of the Standing Committee of Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee Qian Yin'an, and Vice-governor of Shaanxi Province Wei Zengju attended the ceremony.

Hu Yan, director of the Department of Science and Technology in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology; Yan Weige, vice-director of Personnel and Education, Zheng Peng and the Inspector of Department of Science and Technology and Quality of State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, were both present at the ceremony. Other groups that attended included the principals of relative departments of Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee and Government, the leaders from Xi'an Municipal Party Committee and Government, the school leaders of six G7 Universities (University Group of MIIT), and eight E9 (Excellence 9) Universities, the school leaders of the 14 universities with the same origin as NPU, the school leaders of the 12 universities in Western China, the leaders of 66 universities home and abroad and the member units of the "Belt and Road" Aerospace Innovation Alliance, the leaders of some military industry groups and research institutes, the leaders of some regional governments, enterprises and public institutions in Shaanxi Province, all of the school leaders of NPU, the representatives of NPU's former school leaders, the alumni representatives, the representatives of teachers and students and guests of various circles.

Zhang Wei, the secretary of NPU Party Committee, presided over the ceremony.

Wang Jinsong, President of NPU, delivered a speech, highlighting that the university, since the date of its birth, adheres to the fundamentals of cultivating talents, pays attention to national vitalization and prosperity, aiming at promoting China's development through science and education. In the future, sticking to the mission, NPU will consistently strive for fostering generations of first-rate talents loyal and dedicated to our country. NPU will keep the mission in mind, to carry forward modernization of education, establish a first-class university deeply rooted in China, and to train excellent teachers with faith, morals, knowledge and kindheartedness characterized as the "four virtues for a good teacher", following the example of Chen Shilu, an academician honored as "Shaanxi Role Model" and "MIIT Role Model". Moreover, NPU will insist on serving society, helping with the construction of Shaanxi and its capital city Xi'an in the pursuit of the Provincial advancement and the city development, through transferring talents, technology and culture into actual productive forces.

Professor Li Hejun from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, who was honored as "2018 the best scientific and technical worker" spoke in the ceremony on behalf of NPU teachers. He expressed his pride at being a member of NPU, which he believes has roots in the tradition and spirit of the university.

As a student representative, Lu Yihang from the School of Electronics and Information also took an oath that NPU students will undertake the responsibility and contribute to a brighter future of the school through their efforts.

Representing the alumni, Yang Wei, the academician of CAS and vice general manager of Aviation Industry Corporation of China sent his congratulations to the NPU's 80th birthday. After reflecting on his school years, he expressed his deep love and best wishes with four words, namely "ambition, devotion, contribution, and pride".

President of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Wang Shuguo, made a speech. He spoke highly of NPU for its national mission and perseverant goal in western China, especially for its excellent faculty, the pride of alumni at the university. He continued to say that Xi'an Jiaotong University would feel greatly honored and would be proud of working together with NPU, as the top universities of West China, demonstrating the spirit and soul of "sticking to the mission and devotion."

Colin Beiley, the president of Queen Mary University of London as well as the academician of the Royal Academy of Engineering, also made a speech. He said, NPU has become a strategic partner of Queen Mary University of London with a well-known world reputation in leading scientific research field and education. He hoped to continue the further cooperation for future talents, based on co-training mechanism and co-researching between two universities.

On behalf of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Hu Yan expressed congratulations and cordial greetings to the teachers and students of NPU as well as the alumni at home and abroad in the celebration conference. She said, with the national mission in mind, NPU has made great achievements in western China since 1938 and will continue to advance with the times for a more brilliant future.

Hu Heping was also invited to address a speech on behalf of the Party Committee and the government of Shaanxi Province. He stressed NPU's motto "Loyalty, Integrity, Courage and Perseverance" as well as its spirit of "Strong Preparation, Diligent Effort, Practical Attitude, and Creative Innovation". Due to these, he pointed out, NPU has cultivated a large number of the outstanding talents and made a lot of landmark achievements in the research of science and technology for the higher education of China as well as the sustainable development of economy and society in Shaanxi since 1930s. He highly praised NPU as a promising land for those students, researchers of science and technology, and industry elites yearning for their dreams. And then, he shared his best wishes for NPU to achieve more glories in talent-training, discipline construction, academic research and university education, with the 80th anniversary as a new starting point.

In the end, the school song of NPU brought a successful close to the celebration of its 80th anniversary.

(Ruan Hongmei, Wang Juan, Liu Jie, Yang Huiying)