From Apr. 16 to 26, 2019, under the guidance of Chinese Academy of Engineering, the 51st Silk Road Training Programme on Engineering Scientific and Technological Development was held in the Silk Road Training Base of XJTU, under the auspices of UNESCO International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) and co-organization of XJTU. About 160 foreign students from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Chang’an University and Xidian University participated this programme. They were from over 30 Belt-road countries, such as Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Kazakhstan etc.

The training programme lasted for 9 days, and some of the best teachers in Xi'an Jiaotong University gave lectures on the topics of “Big Data Technology and its Applications in Power System”, “Renewable Energy and Smart Grid”, “HSK Exam (Level-3) Topic Outlines”, “An Introduction to Power Electronics: The Way of Harnessing Electric Energy Elegantly”, “Guidelines for general planning and design of microgrids”, “Harmonic Current Filtering Technology in Distribution Grid” and “Ancient Chinese Philosophy—Confucianism”. The teachers gave clear, vivid examples to make the topic deep-going yet easy to understand. The attendees all benefited greatly and had enthusiastic after-class discussion about what they learned in class.

To make the training more effective, a visit to State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment was also included in the programme. As the key construction project of the “985 Plan” electrical engineering platform, the laboratory is supported by the “211 Project” and the special funds of the State Key Laboratory and was constructed to promote the development of the basic theory and application research in the field of electrical apparatus. During the visit, Lab Manager Dr. Yao introduced in detail to the foreign students the large-scale equipments of the laboratory and had a lively discussion with them.

Up till recently, with the help of Xi’an Jiaotong University, the IKCEST Silk Road Training Base has successfully held 51 sessions of the special training programmes and trained more than 3,000 foreign students from over 100 countries, and staff members from Chinese companies that aim to invest in Silk Road countries. This training programme, as an important work of Silk Road Training Base, will play an important role in training more talents for Belt-road countries and better serving the development of the Belt and Road Initiative. Meanwhile, it was also an exploration of new models for a series of work sponsored by Xi'an Jiaotong University, such as the University Alliance of Silk Road etc. It also made important contributions to the economic and social development of European, Asian and African countries along the Belt and Road Initiative.