On October 23, a delegation from the Automotive Division of the Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI), including Dan Koester, JCI’s Director of New Technology, Dan Zhao, Director of Seating and Lean Engineering, China, Jun Park, Director of Interior Engineering, China, and Kevin Li, Senior Product Manager, Interior, China, visited JI for potential opportunities of collaboration. JI’s Dean Ni, Pam Byrnes, Executive Director, Professors David Hung and Huan Qi, and Vincent Chang, Faculty Director of Corporate Relations, met with the visitors.
Director Zhao gave an overview of JCI. The company was established in 1855 and currently ranks 67 in the US Fortune 500, with 162, 000 employees and 40.8 billion of revenue in 2011. It specializes in products, services and solutions to optimize energy and operational efficiencies of buildings, lead-acid automotive batteries, advanced batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles, and interior systems for automobiles. The purpose of their visit to JI is to explore the possibility of collaboration in the areas of material technology and technology management.
The JCI delegates were satisfied with their fruitful visit to JI and expressed their interests in collaboration with JI in the future.Dean Ni made a presentation about JI’s excellent students and high-caliber faculty, with their impressive achievements, which is an edge for corporate partnership. Vincent Chang explained the modes of collaboration, such as internship, capstone design, scholarship, innovative insight, and entrepreneur program. Professor Huan Qi and David Hung presented their research areas that could be of potential for collaboration with JCI. They also gave tours of their labs.
