![\"President](\"\/cise\/files\/2016\/05\/h_butoday_16-9987-TSINGHUA-059-2-450x300.jpg\")
Photo by Cydney Scott for Boston University Photography<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Beginning in fall 2017, some of China\u2019s best and brightest engineers will come to BU to complete their education. by Joel Brown Tsinghua University engineers will earn master\u2019s degrees at BU Beginning in fall 2017, some of China\u2019s best and brightest engineers will come to BU to complete their education. Under a new dual degree program, graduates from Beijing\u2019s Tsinghua University, one of China\u2019s top universities, will be able to get a master\u2019s degree […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1500,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19415"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1500"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19415"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33967,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19415\/revisions\/33967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nUnder a new dual degree program, graduates from Beijing\u2019s Tsinghua University<\/a>, one of China\u2019s top universities, will be able to get a master\u2019s degree in systems engineering at the College of Engineering<\/a>. Kenneth Lutchen, dean of ENG, says the arrangement will benefit both schools, whose engineering faculties already collaborate on research.
\nUnder the agreement signed by President Robert A. Brown and Tsinghua President Qiu Yong on May 6, students who have earned a bachelor of engineering degree at Tsinghua can earn a master of science in systems engineering here. The so-called \u201c4+x program\u201d requires Tsinghua graduates to do two semesters of course work at BU, followed by a practicum that could be completed at Tsinghua.
\n\u201cThe engineering 4+x program is a historical milestone in the long-standing partnership between Boston University and Tsinghua University,\u201d says Qiu. \u201cAs the first dual degree program between our two universities, it has brought our cooperation to a whole new level and paved the way for our future joint endeavors in both education and research.\u201d
\nThe students are chosen by Tsinghua through a rigorous vetting process. Under the program, designed by the Tsinghua department of automation<\/a>\u00a0and BU\u2019s Division of Systems Engineering<\/a>, 5 to 10 students will come to BU per year initially, with more expected in the future.
\n\u201cThis is an opportunity for us to create a partnership with another high-quality institution, in which we are getting excellent students to come participate in our community and to have the added advantage of a dual branding of two world-class universities on their degree,\u201d says Lutchen. \u201cWe are convinced they will advance the reputation of Boston University internationally.\u201d
\nMost systems engineering programs in the United States are narrowly focused on manufacturing or industrial systems, he says, but BU is one of a handful of universities that have holistic systems engineering programs that provide the fundamental concepts that students can apply to things from biomedical systems to urban infrastructure to the internet of things (the network of physical objects, such as devices, vehicles, buildings, with electronics,\u00a0software,\u00a0sensors, and\u00a0network connectivity\u00a0enabling them to collect and exchange data).
\n\u201cIt\u2019s conceivable that new relationships will develop between the two institutions,\u201d he says. \u201cStudents are amazing at catalyzing interactions between faculty that otherwise wouldn\u2019t have happened.\u201d
\nLutchen, along with systems engineering division head Christos Cassandras, an ENG professor of electrical and computer engineering and of systems engineering, and division associate head Hua Wang, an ENG associate professor of mechanical engineering, led negotiations on behalf of BU. Cassandras made the first connection to Tsinghua through a thesis advisor who held an honorary professorship there. He has been visiting Tsinghua regularly since a months-long 2003 sabbatical trip, lecturing and mentoring, as well as recruiting the occasional student for BU\u2019s PhD program in systems engineering.
\n\u201cThis is a true faculty collaboration that has grown into an institutional bond,\u201d says Willis Wang, BU vice president and associate provost for global programs.
\nThere\u2019s one other connection between the two schools. At the signing ceremony, Brown noted that both he and Qiu are chemical engineers. \u201cIt\u2019s a great background for being a university president,\u201d Brown said with a smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"