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Seminar

22 APR 2016 Seminar

Series of Dept Research Seminars - “Research Technology Development – from laboratory to industrial application" (Date: 28 April 2016)

Dr. Bill Zhao, Chief Executive Officer, Jingang Motors Group, China

Dr. Bill Zhao, Chief Executive Officer, Jingang Motors Group, China

Our Speaker Dr. Bill Zhao  would like to share with us on "Research Technology Development – from laboratory to industrial application".

What are the modern technological trends in these much focused industries like Aerospace and New Energy Vehicle? How can a university research be interactively linked with the industrial demands, deliver directional and innovative impact to the industry, and finally turn into a piece of real applicable technology in the industry? This seminar, given by the speaker, from the top level management in the industry, will address those issues.

He has gained a wide spectrum of research experiences in the university and industry, from the academic research in the University of Cambridge and the industrial technology research and application with Airbus, he has taken a management role as a senior executive in sales and marketing with Rolls-Royce.  In the last 20 years, he has been with different companies in China, always in top management positions in industries of aerospace, automobile and other high-tech sectors. The combination of his early research experiences and more recent industrial management experiences will provide a much wider insight on how a university and industry can link and work together to tackle the real life problem as well as new applicable technology development.

With his extensive experiences from university, industry and management, the talk starts with Technology Readiness Level (RTL) in relation to the level of applicability of research in the university and technology application in the industry, to address the concerning issues in university research and what the industry expected from funding, delivering and application. Using his own real life experiences as a researcher in Airbus, he will demonstrate that how a research subject can be evolved from a industrial problem, understand and solve the problem in laboratory scale, and finally be proven and applied in the real world. Finally, also from his current position, he will reveal what are the key technology demands in the current hot-up industries, commercial aircraft and engines, new energy vehicles, which hopefully will shed some light on our future directions in the research in those direction for our universities.

All are welcome and no registration is in need.

Date

28 April 2016 (Thursday)

Time

15:00-16:20

Venue

HW 828

About the Speaker

Bill Zhao, was educated at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BS Aerospace Engineering ‘85) and the University of Cambridge, UK (MSc ’92, Aerospace Engineering).  He currently sits on the boards of various industrial organizations from aerospace, automobiles and other high-tech sectors, being the CEO of a large motor company in China – Jingang Motors Group, a manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz Buses and new energy passenger vehicles. His industrial experiences starts with British Aerospace Airbus Ltd, Bristol, UK, as a senior engineer in design and development areas of Airbus aircraft in 1989, and moved to become the director of Sales and Marketing for Asia Pacific in Rolls-Royce Commercial Aero Engines Ltd in UK and BMW Rolls-Royce GmbH in Germany from1994. He then was placed in Beijing, China to oversee the co-operative activities of Rolls-Royce and BMW Rolls-Royce in China from 1996. In 2000, he became the CEO of Airshowchina.com Ltd, a JV company by AVIC, Zhuhai Airshow Company and Hewlett-Packard. He then moved as CEO or Vice-Chairman in different industries, from automobile to industrial conglomerate and aircraft ground equipment. From 2013, his management experiences and skills are spread across sectors of aerospace, automobile, education and some high-tech industries, as a Director, the Chairman or the CEO.

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