On the afternoon of November 7, the 24th Sino-German Industrial Design Workshop on the theme of “Design of New Energy Heavy-Duty Truck”, co-organized by Hefei University(HFU) and Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Germany, officially opened in HFU. Chen Xiu, Vice President of HFU attended the opening ceremony. Professor Falk Hoehn and his student team from Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, along with Shan Changzhou, Director of the Body Engineering Department at Anhui JAC Motors Group, and his delegation were present.

In her remarks, Chen Xiu emphasized, HFU is committed to exploring innovative cooperation projects; through activities like the Workshop, HFU aims to promote the cultivation of applied talents by integrating corporate projects into teaching, thereby forming a practical teaching model that combines industry and education, characterized by “industry-proposed topics, project-driven learning, real-world problem solving, and market-based validation.”

Professor Falk Hoehn expressed his anticipation for deepening the communication and friendship between Chinese and German faculty and students through this event and creating outstanding design works.

Over the following ten days, Chinese and German students collaborated under the guidance of industry experts and teachers, focusing on the design theme. This collaboration stimulated brilliant ideas and innovative thinking, resulting in a series of refreshing design solutions that successfully fulfilled the project objectives.

On the morning of November 18, the closing and award ceremony of the Workshop was held. Wang Qidong, Chair of HFU Council, attended the ceremony, together with Professor Hoehn and executives and experts from JAC Motors Group, Heli Forklift, and iFlytek and other companies. Student representatives from both universities delivered speeches.

In his concluding remarks, Wang Qidong stated that through this event, faculty and students from both countries witnessed the process of transforming innovative design thinking into tangible outcomes, achieving significant results and looking forward to broad cooperation prospects in the field of industrial design.

This Workshop resulted in a total of 23 works, six of which were awarded prizes, including one First Prize, two Second Prizes, and three Third Prizes.