On the afternoon of June 7^th, XJTU and Microsoft (China) signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation to development partnership in collaborative student education, research, and integration of industry and school education.

XJTU has been the first among the universities in C9 League (nine elite universities in mainland China) to establish a university-level strategic partnership with Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd.

XJTU President Wang Shuguo stated that XJTU aims to educate students to have advanced knowledge in science and technology, strong leadership, proactiveness, and innovation capability. With deep cooperation with Microsoft (China), XJTU will be able to educate the students to become high-level and innovative talents, promote development in future information industry. President Wang also expressed his hope that XJTU and Microsoft (China) will make good use of the Western China Science & Technology Innovation Harbour and carry out more extensive cooperation.

“Western China Science & Technology Innovation Harbour is an excellent technological platform providing an open stage for innovative output and school-enterprise cooperation,” stated Alexandros Papaspyridis, the general manager of Microsoft Global Education in Asia-Pacific region. He went on to state that Microsoft has always worked toward promoting reform and innovation in both higher education and basic education, as well as popularizing educational information technology. Through substantial cooperation, both parties will pioneer and accelerate the digital education, blended education and distance education in the world, laying a solid foundation for cultivation of high-tech information talents.

Yuan Ning, the Secretary of Academic Degrees Committee of Shaanxi Provincial People's Government also attended the signing ceremony and made a speech.

According to this agreement, XJTU and Microsoft (China) will cooperate in the following aspects:

● Reinforcing undergraduate education in XJTU by integrating various resources of Microsoft Asia Research Institute, including student education, high-level academic exchange, and joint frontier research projects.

● Cooperating research on the basis of Microsoft technologies, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data, Internet of things, virtual reality, and others.

● Collaborating in developing the Experimental Class of Computer and Artificial Intelligence to cultivate top-notch talents in information technology.

● Constructing future classrooms at Qian Xuesen School, as well as a new generation of smart classrooms to serve the need of information education in XJTU.