HIT Media (Text: Shang Yankai, Wu Wanqiong; Photos: Undergraduate School)
Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) opened its 2026 Global Summer School on July 20.
More than 1,400 students from over 190 universities in more than 50 countries and regions, together with more than 100 experts and scholars, including 15 academicians, will participate in academic exchanges and discussions on frontier developments across a wide range of disciplines.
The participating universities include Tsinghua University, Peking University, Imperial College London, National University of Singapore, Yonsei University in Seoul, and New York University.
Liu Jian, vice-president of HIT, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech.
On behalf of the university, Liu provided an overview of this year's program. He encouraged participants to embrace exploration and innovation, learn from one another through cross-cultural exchange, align their personal development with the shared progress of humanity, and make meaningful contributions through their knowledge, creativity, and expertise.
The opening ceremony of the summer school. [Photo/hit.edu.cn]
At the opening ceremony, Hans Bernhard Willmann of the World Health Organization spoke on behalf of the participating experts. Alexander Carter from the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and Zhang Kaixiang, an undergraduate from HIT's School of Materials Science and Engineering, addressed the audience on behalf of the student participants.
Barry Barish, 2017 Nobel Prize winner in Physics, delivered an online keynote lecture titled Gravitational Waves: From Einstein to a New Science and joined a live Q&A session with students.
Keynote lectures. [Photo/hit.edu.cn]
Since its launch in 2016, the HIT Global Summer School has been held for 10 consecutive years. It aims to provide students with high-quality learning opportunities while fostering academic exchange, intellectual dialogue, and cross-cultural understanding among participants from around the world.
This year's Summer School features 22 themed programs, organized by different schools and faculties based on their academic strengths, covering frontier and interdisciplinary fields including aerospace mechanics, intelligent information technologies, and advanced manufacturing.
HIT schools are jointly offering international summer programs with the University of Edinburgh, Zhejiang University, the University of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
These focus, respectively, on "Climate Leadership and Digital Finance", "Mechanics Exploration and Future Aerospace Vehicles", "Imprint·Twin Cities", and "Smart Low-Carbon Energy and Aerospace Propulsion".
Edited by: Liu Peixiang
Reviewed by: Song Ling, Li Shoubin; Yang Wenyu