SPbPU and Zhejiang University: A New Stage of Strategic Partnership

Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) hosted a high‑level delegation from Zhejiang University (ZJU, China) led by Vice President Professor Lizhong Wang.

Zhejiang University ranks among the top three universities in China according to the national ranking and holds high positions in global rankings (QS — 49, THE — 39, ARWU — 24). The collaboration between SPbPU and Zhejiang University covers a wide range of areas: materials science and additive technologies, energy, biomedicine, hydraulic engineering research, and humanities. Over the past 10 years, 22 joint articles and more than 130 megascience papers have been published. Special attention is given to anchor partnership — in November 2025, during the visit of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko to Zhejiang University, SPbPU was granted the status of an anchor partner with a focus on developing cooperation with the ZJU Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mechatronic Systems.

At the official meeting, Vice‑Rector for International Affairs Dmitry Arseniev welcomed the colleagues, noting that the universities have been bound by more than 20 years of fruitful cooperation.

The SPbPU Vice‑Rector highlighted three key development areas of Polytechnic University — artificial intelligence in all sectors of the economy, industrial digital technologies (digital twins and simulation), and new materials. These topics aroused keen interest from the Chinese side.

Particular attention was paid to academic mobility: over the past five years, more than 800 students from Zhejiang University have taken part in SPbPU’s international educational programs, including internships and summer/winter schools in plasma physics, space technology, nuclear energy, and other fields. As a sign of continuing this tradition, Dmitry Arseniev presented certificates for training to three ZJU students in SPbPU’s Winter Engineering University.

Dmitry Arseniev gratefully recalled the gift for SPbPU’s 120th anniversary, when more than 50 musicians from the Zhejiang University Folk Orchestra performed in the White Hall of Polytechnic University. Today, the Chinese colleagues donated to the SPbPU Museum two volumes of a unique collection of Chinese paintings from the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD).

The key event was the signing of a strategic partnership agreement for 2026–2031. After the official ceremony, the guests visited the Polytech‑Cyberphysics Educational and Research Center, where the Center’s Director, Associate Professor of the Higher School of Cyberphysical Systems & Control Vyacheslav Potekhin, demonstrated developments in intelligent control systems.

The delegation then proceeded to the Polytech Technopolis Research and Innovation Center, where they toured the laboratories of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Materials and Transport: «Laser and Additive Technologies,» «Lightweight Materials and Structures,» and «Composite Materials.» The guests also viewed a model of the Technopolis.

The business part continued with a meeting with heads of specialized institutes and laboratories.

During the negotiations, three main areas of cooperation were discussed: educational programs (student exchange, summer and winter schools, joint laboratories, and Russian as a foreign language courses); scientific research in ecology and water purification (phytosorption, conversion of biomass into biogas and hydrogen, use of microalgae and graphene oxide‑based sorbents); and joint projects in supercomputing and artificial intelligence (models for patent offices, medical diagnostics, engineering calculations).

The parties agreed to send SPbPU staff to Zhejiang University in autumn 2026 to define cooperation programs. A visit by a ZJU delegation led by Professor Bing Xu is preliminarily scheduled for August to develop anchor partnership in the area of the Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mechatronic Systems.