Dear Students,

The 2014-2015 academic year is just around the corner. For those returning students, welcome back! I hope you had a relaxing and meaningful summer break. For freshmen students, welcome to join the community and start your first exciting year at the Joint Institute.
The Joint Institute has made great progress during the past academic year. The most noteworthy achievement is the winning of the prestigious Andrew Heiskell Award from the Institute for International Education in New York, which is the highest honor in international education. Our undergraduate recruitment has become increasingly more competitive. The quality of the incoming freshmen class is the best we have ever seen. In May this year, the construction of the new Joint Institute Building finally broke ground. We are all excited that in two to three years, we will have a real home and be able to provide a much better teaching and research facility for all our students. We raised funds and built the Yu Limin Student Center, which houses our computing center, a reading room, the student advising center, the English writing center, as well as discussion rooms. Besides, we raised a significant amount of funds for scholarships, which will benefit students in the coming years.
Looking forward to the new academic year, I am excited that many more developments are in the pipeline. First of all, we will continue making preparations for the ABET accreditation visit in the fall of 2015. In association with that, we plan to revamp our undergraduate curriculum and upgrade our lab facilities to improve the overall teaching quality. We will build some new undergraduate teaching labs, including a mechatronics lab, a communications and electromagnetics lab, and an optics lab. We will continue to hire high-caliber faculty members, especially in areas of high demand, such as circuits, computer engineering, robotics, image and signal processing, communications and networks, design and manufacturing, etc., so that we can offer more courses in areas of your interest.
As you prepare to start your new academic year, I encourage you to look into the various extracurricular opportunities the Joint Institute offers, such as undergraduate research projects, international exchange programs, the winter programs, TA positions, club activities, community services, etc. College life is not about just taking courses and getting a good GPA. It is also about growing yourself professionally and personally, about finding your true passion and interest in life, and about making friends. Participation in extracurricular activities helps you improve your soft skills, which are extremely important to your future careers.
I hope the new academic year brings more exciting opportunities and better luck for all of you.
Sincerely yours,

Peisen Huang
Dean

亲爱的同学们：
我代表所有的教职员工欢迎你们来到世界最佳工程学院之一的密西根学院。要进入这所著名的学院非常不容易，所以你们应该觉得很光荣。恭喜！
创建于2006年，密西根学院是两个顶尖大学，美国密西根大学和上海交通大学，建立全球战略伙伴关系的结果。此合作的目标是在中国建立一个世界级的机构，培训新时代工程等领域的全球领导者。在短短8年期间，密西根学院已经发展成为一个享誉国内外的精英机构，赢得了无数高等教育创新的奖项，包括由纽约国际教育机构颁发的著名安德鲁海斯克（Andrew Heiskell）奖，这是国际教育界最高的荣誉。
密西根学院的目的是成为国际高等教育的基地。它有一个创新的课程，融合密西根大学和上海交通大学的特色。所有课程均由来自欧美著名大学的一流国际教师以英语授课。我们培养学生的工程知识和解决问题的能力，以及软技能，如创造力，团队合作，沟通和领导能力。我们还为学生提供各种机会到世界各地的合作伙伴大学留学深造。我们的目标是帮助学生为具有挑战性的前途作准备，让他们在他们自己选择的领域成为真正的全球领导者。
在密西根学院，我们强调三件事：我们在教育，科研，以及管理体制着重创新，国际化，和质量。所有教职员工和学生进行他们的日常工作都要牢记这三个原则，这是学院的核心价值和标志。你们即将加入这个社区，我鼓励你们开始准备用创新的头脑思考，按照国际专业标准行事，并交出最高品质的成果。这将是你们在学院未来成功的关键。
再次，祝贺你们进入密西根学院。我期待尽快在我们美丽的校园与你见面。
黄佩森院长及教授
2014，八月24日