The document summarizes research and development opportunities in Foshan, China through the example of the Sun Yat-sen University-Carnegie Mellon University Joint Research Institute (JRI). It describes Foshan as a dynamic city and economic center of South China that has attracted foreign investment. It then provides details about the JRI, including that it is a partnership between local government, Sun Yat-sen University, and Carnegie Mellon University that conducts cutting-edge research with industrial applications. The JRI aims to facilitate international collaboration and produces talented graduates annually to support Foshan's industries.

1. Sun Yat-sen University
Carnegie Mellon
Joint Research Institute

2. Foshan: Let’s Do Business
The following report investigates local research and development opportunities in
Foshan, using the Sun Yatsen Carnegie Mellon University Joint Research Institute as
an example of the city’s unique investment environment. Described by McKinsey &
Company as a city which will contribute more to global growth than Zurich, Madrid
or Milan, Foshan is the center of industrial innovation in South China. The report was
compiled by the International Department of the Foshan Investment Promotion
Agency (FIPA), China’s first Sino-Foreign government department.
One of China’s most dynamic cities. Located at the heart of the Pearl River Delta, Foshan
is one of China’s most prosperous and dynamic cities. Since the beginning of the country’s
reform and opening-up process, foreign investment has been a vital tool for Foshan’s
economic development. Combining a sound business environment with the forward
thinking mindset of local leaders has contributed to the success of enterprises across
Foshan, both foreign and domestic.
A strong local market. With a GDP per capita higher than that of Shanghai, and even some
European Union members, Foshan’s population of nearly 8 million residents has the purchasing
power to match international markets. From Foshan, a manufacturer can reach over 65 million of
China’s wealthiest consumers in less than two hours.
A modern economy powered by the private sector. There are almost 400 thousand private
companies in Foshan. As highlighted by The Economist, that is an average of approximately one
private company for every twenty residents.
China’s richest district. Located to the south of the city, Shunde is the richest district in China and
the production powerhouse of Foshan. Shunde is home to some of China’s most famous brand
names, such as Midea, Galanz and Country Garden.
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3. What is the JRI?
An international partnership. The SYSU-CMU International Joint Research Institute (JRI)
is a three-way partnership between the Shunde Government, San Yat-sen University, and
Carnegie Mellon University. The JRI acts as an incubator for research and development
teams from world-renowned institutions. The research conducted here aims to have an
immediate industrial impact.
Collaboration and cross-cultural cooperation. As a sister institute of the SYSU-CMU
Joint Institute of Engineering (JIE) and CMU-SYSU Innovation Research Center (CIRC) in
Guangzhou, the JRI offers postgraduate education in engineering. Simultaneously, it aims
to facilitate the development of impactful industrial technologies through cutting-edge
research and intercultural collaboration.
Real-time research impacting industries across the world. The goal of the JRI is to
provide a space for industry experts, researchers and students to come together and
improve lives around the world. The international base of the JRI has facilitated high level
collaboration projects, aiming to encourage the commercialization of technological
innovations locally and globally.
An expansive talent pool. The city also has a large pool of international researchers,
participating in projects with research centers around the world, encouraging high tech
development in all areas of industry. With nearly 300 postgraduate students, taught by over
35 professors and supported by over 60 researchers, the JRI produces highly talented,
internationally-minded engineers and technicians, ready to directly impact Foshan’s
industrial development. Around 120 students graduate each year from the JRI, with a high
post-graduate employment rate.
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4. “The JRI facilities make up a truly world class
modern research environment, and within the
Pearl River Delta we find so many related
industries where high level research can
have a big impact. The research we are
doing here in Foshan involves making
fundamental advances in the field of
computer vision and autonomous
perception. Our research can have impact in
local industries while also impacting the
global economy.
- Dr. Gary Overett , Assistant Professor
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5. Shunde: China’s Richest Talent Pool
Top for business, top for talent. Built upon an advanced industrial foundation, the Shunde
District of Foshan is not only the richest district in China, it is a regional leader for
entrepreneurship and innovation. The wealth of Shunde’s talent resources has attracted
over 2,000 foreign enterprises, many of whom transfer their facilities from other Chinese
cities, in favor of Shunde’s business environment.
Second-tier prices, first-tier talent. Not only does Foshan boast a highly professional and
well-trained workforce, it also offers such an incentive at a far lower cost than its first-tier
city counterparts. While drawing on the human resource strengths of cities like Guangzhou
and Hong Kong, Foshan is home to key technical institutions for engineering and
mechanics.
High level of tertiary education. In the Shunde District alone, there are 13 vocational
schools and one major polytechnic institution, providing nearly 13,500 professional
technicians each year. With the establishment of institutions like the SYS-CMU partnership,
the quality of postgraduate talent has developed rapidly.
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The Facts in Figures
Shunde HR Association
116
Recruitment fairs in Shunde
7,900
Enterprises using the fair
90,000
Participants in attendance
The Facts in Figures
Shunde Polytechnic
92%
Postgraduate employment rate
97%
Postgraduate employer satisfaction rate
15,000
Over 15k students each year

6. The JRI: Making an Impact
Shaping South China’s knowledge economy. Universities in south China are taking the
lead in an array of reforms aimed at making academic centers and scientific collaboration
more international and more dynamic. The JRI is helping South China to strengthen its
position as a global leader in science and engineering. The Sun Yat-sen Carnegie Mellon
partnership was formed to create a more globalized university, combining human and
technological capital from across the world.
A variety of post-graduate courses with real impact. With professors specializing in
subjects ranging from artificial intelligence to new materials and nanoparticle synthesis, the
JRI offers a post-graduate education with real-life applications. The work at the JRI is
indicative of Foshan’s exemplary research environment, researchers are eligible for
government scholarships and bursaries, and individual enterprises are subsidised for
upgrading industrial processes, creating a ready market for products and technologies
developed by institutions like the JRI.
Celebrated professors and international researchers. The JRI is home to world-
renowned professors like Dr. Andrey S. Andrenko, the JRI’s Principle Investigator. With an
academic record spanning a quarter of a century, Dr. Andrenko has previously worked for
the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation R&D Center and Fujitsu
Laboratories Ltd in Japan. Author of 76 international publications, and 28 patents in Japan
and the U.S., Dr. Andrenko has actively contributed to research areas including:
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Wireless Sensor Networks
__________________________________
RFID Systems
__________________________________
Antenna Integrated RF Circuits
__________________________________
RF Energy Harvesting
__________________________________
The Internet of Things

7. Real-life applications for cutting edge technology. Though only a young institution, the
JRI has already filed for patents on technologies having a real impact across the Chinese
industrial landscape. Applications for JRI patented products vary from industrial use to
commercial. For example, researchers are currently using the Internet of Things and a “LiFi”
system to connect the lighting in supermarkets to advertising screens built into a customers
shopping cart. The aim is to provide customers with location-dependent product
information as they move around the supermarket.
Kinetic energy harvesting and smart applications. Another example of real-life
applications of JRI products is the work of Kai Wang in developing a Piezoelectric device
for tactile sensing and energy harvesting. Researchers at the JRI have been developing a
product to convert mechanical vibration and force into electricity, for application in an
industrial setting. Targeting Guangdong’s strong variety of high-tech industries, Kai Wang’s
patented technology is fully compatible with the TFT-LCD manufacturing process, and
instantly applicable to industrial needs.
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“We aim to strengthen production, study and research in
cooperation with the dominant industry in Shunde and
the Pearl River Delta. Delivering a world-class
postgraduate education in engineering, we build on
innovation, scientific research and technology transfer
to provide first-class research professionals at home
and abroad.”
- Hong-Zhou Tan, Director of the JRI

8. “Smart grid research is a major scientific and
technological innovation for the 21st
century. At the JRI we are making
significant achievements in theoretical
and experimental research in the area.
One project proposes advanced
techniques that enable integration of high
levels of renewable energy that will
reduce China’s reliance on polluting coal
power generation.
- Dr. Yinliang Xu, Assistant Professor
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9. R&D: Computational Medicine & Neuroscience
Xiaoying Tang, Director of Computational Anatomy & Neuroimaging Lab
I'm an Assistant Professor at the SYSU-CMU Joint Institute of Engineering, the SYSU-CMU
Shunde International Joint Research Institute, and an Associate professor at the School of
Mobile Information Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University. I am also an Adjunct Assistant
Professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. Before
joining SYSU-CMU JIE, I did my Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins University.
My research interests are primarily focused on the field of quantitative medical image
analysis, neuroimaging, computational anatomy, and computational neuroinformatics. The
research topics that I have focused on and the main contributions that have emerged as a
result include: 1) Bayesian estimation of biological parameters; 2) Diffeomorphometry of
anatomical manifolds; 3) Learning and parametrization of anatomical manifolds; 4)
Statistical modeling for biological shape analysis; 5) Structural MRI and Diffusion Tensor
Imaging analysis.
“Our goal is to help doctors see what they cannot see, to
understand the mystery of the brain, to let machines
make smart decisions… and even prevent brain
dysfunctions in the era of big data.
- Xiaoying Tang, Assistant Professor
My approach to medical image analysis is based on Computational Anatomy.
Computational Anatomy (CA) is an emerging discipline aiming at understanding anatomy by
utilizing a comprehensive set of mathematical tools. CA focuses on providing precise
statistical encodings of anatomy with direct application to a broad range
of biological and medical settings.
The mathematical notions of Riemannian geometry underpin CA
as a modern formalism for the study of anatomical shapes with
a central theme being the construction of large
diffeomorphisms between smooth manifolds which represent
specific anatomies.
In CA, our goal is to translate the great amount of
neuroinformatics presented in medical images to their
corresponding anatomical and functional representations,
to help doctors see what they cannot see, to understand
the mystery of brain, to let machine make smart
decisions regarding prognosis and diagnosis, to
provide strategies for correcting and even
preventing brain dysfunctions in the era of big
data.
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10. R&D: Alternate Energy Vehicles
Orkun Karabasoglu, Director of Electric Vehicle Technology Lab
I believe in the SYSU-CMU partnership and feel that there is a huge growth opportunity
here in China. There are many automotive and energy storage factories in this region, and I
want to see the impact of our academic work in industry.
Currently, I am working on multiple projects related to electric vehicles: (1) I design new
navigation (routing) algorithms for electrified vehicles. Our approach creates low-cost travel
routes, when compared to the routes provided by Baidu or Google. We want to
commercialize this technology. (2) I aim to develop new battery management systems that
would make batteries more efficient and less prone to degradation over time. Recently, I
visited some battery factories in Shenzhen to build collaboration. (3) Our smart driver
assistance project involves collecting sensory data from the powertrain of the vehicle
through a cellphone app and processing this information. We inform drivers about their
behaviors, cost of their trip, etc. We have plans to turn this project into a spin-off company
of the JRI and are currently looking for investment opportunities. (4) I also work on
determining the optimal vehicle design for China’s unique conditions such as traffic, terrain,
and climate.
“As a world class research institute, JRI attracts
talent from all over the world. JRI aims to
become a center for energy and electric
vehicle research in China.”
- Orkun Karabasoglu, Assistant Professor
I find the research environment in Shunde very productive and
efficient. The government provided me with research labs and a
generous start-up fund, to help support my research.
I can work with my students at any time, day and night. Students
are very interested in my work and they are highly motivated. We
solve real world engineering problems at a fast pace.
I am currently looking for companies to collaborate with. I want to work
with companies in China and abroad that are interested in electrified
vehicles, battery technology, connected cars, and smart grid.
I believe that the electric vehicle revolution has a
bright future in Foshan. Foshan government has
established a series of policies to accelerate the
adoption of EVs, such as generous subsidies.
People here have a very positive attitude to EVs.
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11. Research
Environment:
Student Testimonies
It's my honor to follow Dr. Overett
and finish my internship at the JRI.
The campus is quite suitable for
contributing to research. Life in the JRI is
simple but meaningful, which means you can
focus on your work, attend lectures from well-
known professors, and share ideas with people around
the world.
- Mingdi Mao
I think JRI is a very free place to stay, it offers the best lab
environment as well as really nice accommodations.
Here, I have freedom to learn something I am
interested in, and my mentors help me to
participate in scientific research. Also, I meet
lots of interesting people at the JRI, we
really enjoy the time we have spent with
each other.
- Alan Ma
I'm a master student at the JRI. It is a great place for any
student or professor to study and live. It provides the best
experimental facilities, all of the professors complete due
diligence, and a wealth of academic activities are usually held
here.
- He Yuyan
The environment here allows us to collaborate with the finest educational staff
in China and the U.S. in a variety of research fields in which contemporary and
state-of-the-art methods in science are applied. This particular advantage enables us
to not only see ‘what and how to learn' from the best but also to witness the close
relationship of passion and work. I can say without a doubt that I'm proud to be an
intern here.
- Caner Seymenoglu
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13. 13
Foshan Bureau of Commerce
Foshan Investment Promotion Agency
Address: 135 Fenjiang Zhong Lu, Chancheng,
Guangdong
Zip Code: 528000
Telephone: (+86) 757 83280559
Fax: (+86) 757 83353632
Website: www.fipa.gov.cn
Email: info@foshan-gov.com
佛⼭山市商务局
佛⼭山市投资促进局
地址：⼲⼴广东省佛⼭山市禅城区汾江中路
135号
邮编: 528000
电话：(+86) 757 83280559
传真: (+86) 757 83353632
⺴⽹网址：www.fipa.gov.cn
邮箱:info@foshan-gov.com