On May 5, Mr. Alexander Bässler, CEO of German Fischer Group, led a delegation of senior executives and specialists to visit the College of Civil Engineering of Tongji University. The delegation engaged in meeting with Prof. Liu Fang, Vice Dean of the College and the Executive Director of the Sino-D-A-CH Research Center of Smart Civil Infrastructure, Prof. Yuan Yong, and Assoc. Prof. Zhang Jiao-Long. They also visited the Earthquake Engineering Hall of the State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering.

At the meeting, Prof. Liu Fang presented the evolution of Tongji University’s Civil Engineering Discipline and its recent milestones in international collaborations. Assoc. Prof. Zhang Jiao-Long detailed the origins, mission, and research priorities of the Sino-D-A-CH Research Center of Smart Civil Infrastructure, alongside a roadmap for future Sino-German collaboration. Dr. Ronald Mihala, Managing Director of Research & Development at Fischer Group, outlined the company’s development history, technological strengths, and global strategic vision. Both parties identified substantial alignment in core values and agreed to leverage the Center to deepen industry-academia-research synergies, advancing practical solutions for sustainable infrastructure development.

The Center was established by Tongji University in partnership with German-speaking academic institutions. It focuses on four pillars— resilience, intelligence, low-carbon solutions, and human-centric design and serves as a trilateral integration platform for education, technological innovation, and talent development, contributing to the global goals of sustainable development.