On the afternoon of June 5^th, Mr. ZHANG Dade, Chief Engineer of the Ansteel Group, led a 14-person delegation to USTB in order to hire Academician MAO Xinping, Chinese Academy of Engineering, to be a member of the “Ansteel Group Technology Innovation and Development Strategy Advisory Committee.” Prof. YANG Renshu, President of USTB, Prof. WU Aixiang, Vice President of USTB and other leaders of relevant departments participated in the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Prof. LIU Xuefeng, Dean of the Department of Science and Technology.

Prof. YANG Renshu warmly welcomed the delegation and gave an introduction on the overall situation of USTB, especially its achievements in the development of science and technology in China’s steel industry. Prof. YANG reviewed the cooperation between USTB and Ansteel Group over the past five years and their shared remarkable achievements during that time. He said that USTB attaches great importance to its cooperation with the Ansteel Group in various fields, and hopes to build a leading development platform that combines industry, education and research and cultivate emerging talents.

Mr. ZHANG Dade expressed his thanks to USTB for its long-term contributions to the technological progress, talent training and overall innovation of the Ansteel Group. He then introduced the Group’s recent developments and its plan for upcoming technology research. Mr. ZHANG expressed his hope that the Group could rely on the advantages of USTB to cooperate in basic research and tackle difficult problems together. He said that there are many opportunities for cooperation between the two sides. In the future, he expected communication to improve, while the two sides would work together to explore industry needs and be leaders in technological progress.

During the meeting, Mr. ZHANG Dade presented Prof. MAO Xinping an appointment letter to join the “Ansteel Group Technology Innovation and Development Strategy Advisory Committee”. In his speech, Prof. MAO reviewed the great contributions Ansteel Group has made to China’s economic and social development, and further stated that while practically speaking iron and steel still cannot be replaced by any other materials, greener materials and more sustainable development is required. He then discussed how to build different models of cooperative platforms with different steel companies according to the characteristics of the school, and made suggestions on how USTB can provide high-quality services for the technological development of Ansteel and carry out cutting-edge research.

Prof. WU Aixiang then introduced USTB’s Mining discipline and expressed his hope in having in-depth discussions with the Ansteel Group in order to help Ansteel Mining adopt “smart” mining. To conclude, the two sides discussed the matter of renewing their comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement and other related matters such as organizing on-site technical exchanges before signing the agreement.