Overview

The International Institute for Urban Systems  Engineering (IIUSE), is a nationally recognized  and rapidly growing research and education center  of excellence at Southeast University, in Nanjing,  China. IIUSE is an interdisciplinary university-industry-government organization, founded in 2010,with a unique and unprecedented status, authorized  by the university leadership and endorsed by the  government, as a“Special Academic Zone” within  the University. Professor Zhishen Wu, the founding  Dean of IIUSE, reports directly to SEU President  and serves as a Special Assistant to the President.IIUSE’s vision and mission are in direct response to  the global, societal, and technological challenges  facing the future of Urban Systems Engineering and  Mega Cities. As an autonomous interdisciplinary  Institute, IIUSE has its own faculty who can receive  tenureand promotion, similar to any academic unit. In addition, faculty from several other Schools  within SEU collaborate closely with IIUSE, as part  of its research staff, and carry the title of affiliate  faculty with other privileges.

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of urban  systems engineering, that requires expertise and  collaboration of several disciplines, IIUSE brings  together expertise from several closely related  programs and schools at SEU that are ranked, by the  Ministry of Education, among the top 5 best  programs in China. Out of 20 national key  disciplines at Southeast University, 5 are ranked  among top 5, and 6 are ranked among top 10 in  China. IIUSE’s partner schools include: School of  Civil Engineering, (No. 3, tied with Tsinghua), has  146 faculty members, including 21 members of the  National Academy of China, and has 2100 students,  including 500 graduate students. Major Key  disciplines and research programs of the School include Structural Engineering, which is a State Key  Discipline and has 203 graduate students; Disaster  Prevention and Mitigation, with 117 graduate students,  and Geotechnical Engineering, with 86 graduate students. Other programs include Bridge, Tunnel, and  Geotechnical Engineering, and Engineering Mechanics. School of Architecture (No. 3; Landscape Architecture  No. 1), has 100 faculty members, including 3 National  Academy members, and 450 graduate students.  School of Transportation and Communication (No. 1),  has 230 faculty members, including one National  Academy member, and 700 graduate students.Other  partner schools include Materials Engineering,  Electrical and Telecommunication, and School of  Energy and Environment.

IIUSE is growing its linkages with other disciplines,  faculty expertise and programs within SEU, with other  top Chinese universities, and with other major research  universities around the globe, especially those in the US  and in Europe. For instance, IIUSE has a joint research  center with a prominent university in Japan,a  comprehensive collaboration with the Department of  Information Engineering and Fiber Optics Research  Laboratory at the University of Padova, Italy, and other  formal collaborations that are being finalized with  several top research universities in the US.

VISION

IIUSE’s vision is to become a world renowned global university-industry-government research and education  center of excellence for addressing the challenges and  the needs of industry and the global society in the  emerging, complex and interdisciplinary field of urban  systems engineering and mega cities.

MISSION  

•Carry out and generate fundamental and applied  research; develop new methodologies and tools, and  utilize advanced and emerging technologies for Urban  Systems Engineering.

•Create relevant academic and professional  development programs for training of professionals and  next generation of engineers to meet the future global  challenges in urban systems engineering.

•Generate fundamental and applied knowledge relevant to  Urban Systems Engineering through partnerships with top  

universities around the world.

•Provide a forum where the industrial, government and  academic sectors from around the globe can jointly address  

relevant interdisciplinary problems and challenges facing  urban systems and mega cities.

•Serve as an educational center for developing projects  and programs for training professionals and future  engineers, disseminating results, and exchanging new  knowledge through international conferences, symposia,  forums, student and faculty exchange, joint lab-to-lab and  other types of global partnerships that would serve the needs  of the government, industries and the global society.