Northwestern Polytechnical University

Northwestern Polytechnical University (abbreviated as NPU) is located in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. It is a multidisciplinary, research-oriented, open university with the characteristics of talent training and scientific research in the fields of aviation, aerospace, navigation, etc. It is a national "first-class university" construction university (Class A) and is affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The school was identified as a national key university by the State Council in 1960. It was listed as one of the 15 national universities for key construction by the State Council in the "Seventh Five-Year Plan" and "Eighth Five-Year Plan". It was included in the "211 Project" in 1995 and the "985 Project" in 2001. It is a member of the "Excellent University Alliance" and a founding university of the "Belt and Road" Aerospace Innovation Alliance. Since its establishment, the school has fully implemented the party's education policy, adhered to the school motto of "honesty, courage and perseverance", promoted the school spirit of "three realities and one newness" (solid foundation, down-to-earth work, simple style, pioneering and innovative), and determined the "five-based" (student-oriented, people-oriented, scholars-oriented, academic-oriented, and responsibility-oriented) school-running philosophy. In the process of taking root in the west and dedicating itself to national defense, the school has always insisted on cultivating people with morality and cultivating leading talents, always insisted on scientific and technological innovation and casting the country's heavy tools, always insisted on keeping pace with the times and shouldering the great responsibilities of the times, and made important contributions to the development of the party and the country. It has written many "firsts" in the history of New China, and has provided strong support for the development of weapons and equipment, the independent, safe and controllable key core technologies in the field of national defense, and the construction of the west. It is the only university that has been jointly awarded the "Major Contribution Award" by the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission for two consecutive times. The school has successively won honorary titles and commendations such as "National Civilized Unit", "National Civilized Campus", "National Graduate Employment Typical Experience University", "National Model Collective for National Unity and Progress", and "National Advanced Grassroots Party Organization for Pioneering and Striving for Excellence". Today, we are accelerating the construction of world-class universities and first-class disciplines with Chinese characteristics.

The school is rich in educational resources and has distinct disciplines. There are more than 36,000 students and more than 4,300 faculty and staff, covering an area of ​​more than 3.1 million square meters. There are 27 colleges including the School of Aviation, Aerospace, Navigation and International Education, the School of Educational Experiments, and the School of Engineering of Queen Mary University of London, Northwestern Polytechnical University. It has 74 undergraduate majors, 38 first-level authorized disciplines for master's degrees (including 1 interdisciplinary discipline), and 25 first-level authorized disciplines for doctoral degrees (including 1 interdisciplinary discipline). Seven disciplines, including materials science, engineering, chemistry, computer science, physics, earth science, and mathematics, have entered the top 1% of the ESI international discipline rankings. Among them, materials science and engineering have entered the top 1‰, forming a discipline system led by the three aviation (aviation, aerospace, and navigation) discipline groups, and coordinated development of the 3M (materials, electromechanical, and mechanics) discipline group, the 3C (computer, communication, and control) discipline group, the science discipline group, and the humanities and social sciences discipline group, laying a good foundation for building world-class disciplines.

The school adheres to the principle of cultivating people with moral integrity and has achieved remarkable results in educating people. Adhering to the "three-in-one" talent cultivation concept of value shaping, ability cultivation, and knowledge imparting, the school strives to cultivate leading talents with a sense of home and country, the pursuit of excellence, and leading the future. Historically, the first doctor of engineering in the country in six disciplines, including casting, aerospace manufacturing engineering, flight mechanics, aeroengines, underwater weapons, and rocket engines, was cultivated by our school. According to incomplete statistics, among the more than 320,000 alumni who have contributed to the development of national defense science and technology and national economic construction, there are 50 provincial and ministerial leaders and 66 generals, 51 academicians of the two academies, and 6 of the top ten outstanding young people in China. In the field of aviation, more than half of the chief designers and deputy chief designers of major models are alumni of our school. Among the five winners of the "Aviation Patriotic Merit Award" commended for the 70th anniversary of the founding of China's aviation industry, four are alumni of our school, and among the 10 winners of the "Aviation Patriotic Outstanding Award", six are alumni of our school. Among the winners of the 14 Aerospace Laurel Awards from 2005 to the present, 23 have studied and worked in our school. In the field of aerospace, from Zhang Qingwei and Lei Fanpei, two of the "Three Young Marshals of Aerospace" in the early years, to Wu Weiren, the chief designer of China's lunar exploration project, a large number of outstanding alumni have served as party and government leading cadres and deputy chief engineers or above in large central enterprises and affiliated enterprises and institutions managed by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and have successively made outstanding contributions to the rapid development of my country's aerospace industry. In the field of navigation, there are also a large number of outstanding alumni active in important management positions and core technical positions in the shipbuilding industry and underwater weapons industry, and there are too many outstanding talents to list. A large number of NPU students have become industry elites and pillars of the country, forming a unique "NPU phenomenon" in the field of talent training, and are praised by the society as the "cradle of chief engineers".

The school innovates talent introduction and cultivation, and has a strong faculty. Adhere to the first standard of teacher ethics and style, adhere to the strategy of "talent-strengthening school", and build a high-level faculty team that adapts to the development of world-class universities. Establish a talent special zone, build a talent gathering platform, and support the development of high-end talents; implement the "Soaring Talent Plan" to build a characteristic ladder-type talent training system to help young talents grow; deepen the reform of education evaluation, grasp the law of talent growth, and highlight morality, ability and performance; create high-quality basic education, create a people-oriented talent development environment, and enhance the sense of belonging, gain and happiness of talents. The school has gathered a team of high-quality teachers with more than 700 national high-level talents as the backbone, with a moderate scale, reasonable structure, excellent quality and distinctive characteristics, including 37 academicians of the two academies (including external appointments), 35 Yangtze River Scholars, 25 leading talents of the "Ten Thousand Talents Plan", 25 winners of the "National Outstanding Youth Science Fund", 5 national teaching masters, 28 national teams, 99 national young talents, and 21 postdoctoral mobile stations.

The school strengthens educational research and has achieved fruitful teaching results. In the selection of national teaching achievement awards, which represent the highest honor of national education and teaching, the school has won many outstanding achievements: in 2014, it won 2 first prizes and 4 second prizes in national teaching achievements; in 2018, as the first completion unit, it won 2 first prizes and 4 second prizes in national teaching achievements, and as a participating completion unit, it won 1 first prize and 1 second prize. It has built 4 national experimental teaching demonstration centers, 2 national virtual simulation experimental teaching centers, and 3 national talent training model innovation experimental areas. It is the only initiator and general coordinator of the EU QB50 project (EU Atmosphere Exploration Program) in Asia. The school promotes innovation and entrepreneurship education and has won the honorary title of the first batch of "National Demonstration Colleges and Universities for Deepening Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Reform"; the National University Science and Technology Park has been approved as the "National Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Demonstration Base", and was named the "National Excellent National University Science and Technology Park" in 2021; Feitian Maker Space was selected as the "National Specialized Mass Innovation Space for Intelligent Manufacturing". Since the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan", our students have repeatedly achieved outstanding results in domestic and international competitions. In the national competition of the "Internet +" competition, the school has won 6 gold, 7 silver and 16 bronze medals. Among them, the "Aoxiang Series Microsatellite" won the national championship of the 2nd China "Internet +" Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in 2016. In the past three years, the school has made important breakthroughs in the "Challenge Cup" National College Students' Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Works Competition, the "Challenge Cup" China College Students' Entrepreneurship Plan Competition and other series of competitions, and the school has won the "Champion Cup" consecutively. At the same time, the school ranks among the top in many competitions such as the China Robot Competition, the National College Students' Intelligent Car Competition, the China University Computer Competition, and the China Graduate Students' Innovation and Practice Series Competition.

The school strengthens scientific research and innovation, and makes outstanding contributions to science and technology. Give full play to the characteristics and advantages of the "three aviations", focus on national strategic needs and the world's scientific and technological frontiers, and make significant contributions to the development of my country's national defense science and technology and national economic construction. Historically, the country's first small drone, the first ground effect vehicle, the first 50 kg underwater unmanned intelligent vehicle and the first aviation airborne computer were all born in our school. There are currently 8 national key laboratories, 2 national engineering research centers, 4 national international science and technology cooperation bases, 1 national defense science and technology innovation center, 5 national and local joint innovation platforms, and 140 provincial and ministerial scientific research platforms. The school has focused on the demonstration and scientific research of 10 major national projects such as large aircraft, manned spaceflight and lunar exploration, and has deeply participated in the demonstration of two aircraft projects and the development of the Shenzhou series of spacecraft. It is one of the two universities that "contributed to China's first manned space flight". The school pioneered the development of UAVs in my country, and achieved the export of my country's first complete set of UAV systems and the first UAV production line overseas. It has the only national key laboratory for special technology of UAVs and the national engineering center for UAV systems in my country. It has built the only UAV professional flight test base in Chinese universities, and comprehensively promoted the development of UAV scientific research and industry. In the 60th anniversary of the National Day military parade, the entire UAV team was independently developed and produced by our school; in the 90th anniversary of the founding of the army military parade, our school's UAVs were included in the military parade for the second time as a whole team, and were reviewed by the party and the people; in the 70th anniversary of the National Day military parade, our school's UAVs passed through Tiananmen Square again for review. Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, the school has won 20 national three major awards, 58 provincial and ministerial first prizes, and the cumulative amount of scientific research funds has exceeded 17 billion yuan, ranking among the top universities in the country.

The school has accelerated the transformation of achievements and enhanced its ability to serve the society. While encouraging people to focus on teaching and educating people and concentrate on studying, the school fully plays the supporting role of science and technology in regional economic and social development, and strives to promote the integrated development of government, industry, academia and research. The school focuses on major national strategic deployments, aims at development opportunities such as the development of the western region, the new chapter of Shaanxi's new era of catching up and surpassing, the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region, and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and has carried out in-depth cooperation with local governments. It has initiated the establishment of new research and development institutions such as the Shaanxi Aerospace Power Research Institute and the Shaanxi Network Innovation Research Institute, actively integrated into the construction of the Qinchuang original innovation-driven platform, and coordinated the construction of "Aoxiang Town", "Sanhang Town", and "Beilin University Hard Science and Technology Innovation Block", and promoted the construction of innovation institutions in other places such as Shenzhen, Qingdao, the Yangtze River Delta, Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai, and Ningbo. The school actively promotes the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and has been approved as the first batch of scientific and technological achievement transformation and technology transfer bases for higher education institutions. A number of high-tech enterprises such as Polylite, Xinyao, and Huaqin Technology, which have been cultivated based on the innovative achievements of advantageous disciplines, have achieved fruitful results in the fields of additive manufacturing, ceramic composite materials, high-end equipment manufacturing, and intelligent underwater vehicles, becoming the backbone of local economic transformation and upgrading and the source of innovation for regional economic development, and gradually forming an effective "Nanjing University of Technology model" for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

The school promotes global cooperation and enhances its international status. It has built an international cooperation network of world-class universities with Europe as the center, expanding to Russia and Ukraine, and radiating the world, and continuously enhancing its international influence in helping to build a community with a shared future for mankind. The school has established close cooperative relations with more than 300 overseas universities, enterprises, and research institutes, and has cooperated with 58 universities ranked in the top 200 of the world's universities. The ranking of the world's four major university rankings, including QS, THE, U.S. News, and ARWU, has significantly improved, and the ARWU ranking has entered the global top 200. In 2014, witnessed by President Xi Jinping and the Prime Minister of Belgium, the school signed an important partnership agreement with the Free University of Brussels (VUB) in Belgium; in 2016, the School of Engineering of Queen Mary University of London, Northwestern Polytechnical University was officially approved, becoming the first Sino-foreign cooperatively run institution in Northwest my country, and in 2020 it was approved for Sino-foreign cooperatively run qualifications at the master's level. In April 2021, the school was approved to cooperate with the German Brand University of Applied Sciences in industrial design for a master's degree. The school has 14 national international cooperation platforms, including 9 national higher education discipline innovation and talent introduction bases, 4 national international science and technology cooperation bases, and 1 national demonstration base for talent introduction. 180 internationally renowned experts and scholars, including Nobel Prize winners, have been awarded honorary titles such as honorary professors by the school, including 11 foreign experts who have won the "National Friendship Award", ranking among the top universities in China, and the first in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Shaanxi universities. The school has initiated the establishment of multilateral international exchange and cooperation platforms such as the China-Australia Engineering University Alliance and the "Belt and Road" Cultural Heritage International Cooperation Alliance. The school actively expands cooperation with international organizations, cooperates with the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization to establish a space innovation talent training base, and cooperates with the Asia-Pacific Federation of Engineering Organizations to establish the "Belt and Road" Engineering Education and Training Center.

On the new journey of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way, the school will continue to study and implement Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, bear in mind the mission of "educating people for the Party and cultivating talents for the country", take root in the land of China, bear in mind the "great cause of the country", adhere to the world's scientific and technological frontiers, the main battlefield of the economy, the major needs of the country, and the people's life and health, and continuously improve scientific research and innovation capabilities, reform and innovate, forge ahead, unite hearts and minds, and pursue excellence. With a broader vision, a more high-spirited attitude, a more open mind, and more solid work, we will accelerate the construction of a world-class university with Chinese characteristics, and make greater contributions to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the progress of human civilization!

(Data as of November 18, 2021)