Harbin Institute of Technology

Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), administered by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, has campuses in Harbin, Weihai and Shenzhen. It is a national key university centered on science and engineering, with coordinated development in science, engineering, management, literature, economics, law and arts.

Founded in 1920, it was designated in 1951 as one of two model universities for learning from overseas higher education systems. In 1954, it joined the first 6 universities receiving priority national development, the only one outside Beijing. It was the People’s Republic of China’s first science and engineering university with five-year undergraduate and three-year postgraduate programs whose graduates were directly awarded the title of engineer, earning it the name “cradle of engineers.” It joined the first group of national “211 Project” priority development universities in 1996, was designated one of the first 9 national priority development universities in 1999, and was selected as a Category A “Double First-Class” university in 2017.

Over its educational history, the university has developed its motto, “Strict Standards and Sound Skills.” Its plain and rigorous academic ethos has nurtured many outstanding people, while its innovative pursuit of excellence has produced abundant research. Drawing fully on interdisciplinary integration, it has built a relatively complete system of key, emerging and supporting disciplines across science, engineering, management, literature, economics, law and arts. It has 9 national key first-level disciplines and 6 national key second-level disciplines. In the Ministry of Education’s third discipline evaluation, 10 first-level disciplines ranked in the national top five, including mechanics in first place. In the fourth national discipline evaluation, 17 disciplines were rated Category A. Its ratio of A-rated disciplines to authorized disciplines ranked sixth nationally, its total A-rated disciplines ranked eighth, and its number of A-rated engineering disciplines ranked second. Eleven fields—materials science, engineering, physics, chemistry, computer science, environment and ecology, mathematics, biology and biochemistry, agricultural sciences, clinical medicine and general social sciences—rank in the global ESI top 1%. Materials science is in the global top 1‰, and engineering is in the global ESI top 0.1‰.

The university vigorously promotes the HIT spirit: patriotism through remembering responsibility and devoted service; truth-seeking through pragmatism and respect for science; unity through openness and collaborative problem-solving; and progress through perseverance and pioneering innovation. It also carries forward the spirit of HIT’s “Eight Hundred Pioneers,” who “remembered the nation’s trust, shouldered difficult missions, put down roots in northeastern China, worked through hardship and devoted their lives to the industrialization of the republic.” It has built a high-quality faculty, laying a strong talent foundation for a world-class university with Chinese characteristics. Its personnel include 38 academicians of China’s two academies, including 18 shared appointments; 9 nationally distinguished teachers; 44 distinguished professors and 6 young scholars under the Changjiang Scholars Program; 52 recipients of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars; 45 recipients of the National Natural Science Foundation’s Excellent Young Scientists Fund; 38 leading talents under the “Ten Thousand Talents Plan,” including 4 nationally distinguished teachers under the same plan; 18 top young talents; 31 national selectees of the “Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talents Project”; 12 chief scientists of the “973 Program”; 29 selectees of the Innovative Talent Promotion Program; and 185 New Century Excellent Talents. It has 6 National Natural Science Foundation innovative research groups, 12 Ministry of Education scientific innovation teams, 4 Ministry of Science and Technology innovation teams in key fields, 6 national teaching teams and 4 Ministry of Industry and Information Technology research-based teaching innovation teams.

The university has maintained its distinctive aerospace identity over many years. It established China’s first university school of astronautics and launched China’s first small satellite independently developed under a university’s leadership. It achieved China’s first satellite-to-ground laser communication and first fully automatic laser beam-to-target coupling guidance, through the optoelectronic and control systems at the Shenguang-III target facility. It produced China’s first computer able to play chess and speak, first new-system radar, first arc-welding and spot-welding robots, first nanosatellite independently designed, developed and controlled by university students, and first university student robot dance troupe to appear on the Spring Festival Gala. It conducted the world’s first high-speed bidirectional laser communications experiment between a high-orbit satellite and the ground. It made breakthroughs in key support-structure technology for the world’s largest-aperture radio telescope, helping China’s “Sky Eye” successfully begin observations. Its space manipulator enabled the world’s first scientific experiment in human-machine collaborative in-orbit maintenance aboard Tiangong-2. Its new-generation magnetically focused Hall electric thruster achieved the first space application of its kind worldwide. It was the first to reveal the structure of an HIV virulence factor, bringing Chinese HIV structural biology research to the global forefront. Its successfully launched Longjiang-2 became the world’s first microsatellite to independently complete Earth-Moon transfer, lunar braking and lunar orbit. It is developing China’s first major scientific facility to simulate extreme space environments and has participated in 14 major national science and technology projects, including lunar exploration. Its annual patent authorizations, total research funding and number of the three major national science and technology awards rank among the leading Chinese universities. Seven projects were selected among the Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in Chinese Universities over 6 consecutive years. Numerous achievements supported the maiden flights of the Long March 7 and Long March 5 rockets, the Tiangong-2 and Shenzhou-11 crewed mission and other major tasks. It has received awards including the “China Manned Space Engineering Cooperative Contribution Award,” “China Manned Space Engineering Outstanding Contribution Collective Award” and “China Manned Space Engineering Outstanding Contributor Award.” It is becoming a renowned powerhouse in science and engineering and a leading aerospace university in China and abroad.