Visit of Nursing Students from Haute École De Santé Vaud (HESAV)

April 25, 2018

By Jing Yuan, Project Leader of Academic Relations

On April 20, led by Mr. Christophe Gueniat, 10 students from Haute École De Santé Vaud (HESAV) visited swissnex China to learn about what we do and to talk with the Swiss interns currently working at swissnex China about their life in Shanghai.

The students had just finished their Summer University Nursing Program at Wuxi University and paid the visit to swissnex China as the end of their China trip.

First, Rahel Gruber, Operations Manager of swissnex China, gave a presentation about our activities in China.

Then the stage was given to the four Swiss interns currently working at swissnex China as the students were very keen on hearing about their peer’s experiences. The discussion was done in a lively atmosphere, the students talked about what they have discovered during their stay in China and the interns shared their experiences about working and living in Shanghai.

Zentrum für Produktentwicklung, Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil (HSR), visited swissnex China

April 25, 2018

By Xu Yuzhuo, Junior Project Leader Academic Relations

On April 24, 28 bachelor students from HSR Switzerland visited swissnex China. Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China, welcomed the delegation and gave a presentation about our activities.

Then Quentin Gigon, Junior Project Leader Innovation and Entrepreneurship, introduced the current innovation landscape in China.

Quentin’s presentation was followed by a presentation held by Xu Yuzhuo, Junior Project Leader Academic Relations, who informed the students about WeChat.

It was a great pleasure having the delegation from Zentrum für Produktentwicklung, Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil and we wish them an interesting and successful trip in China!

Swiss Education Fair

April 18, 2018

By Xu Yuzhuo, Junior Project Manager in academic relations

Organized by the Swiss Busines Hub China, the first Swiss Education Fair was successfully held on 17 March 2018 at Swissôtel Grand Shanghai. swissnex China participated at the fair to represent all Swiss public universities. The well-received event was joined by more than 150 visitors.

The fair started with speeches given by the Consul General of Switzerland in Shanghai, Mr. Alexander Hoffet, and the Head of Business Hub China, Mr. Yves Morath. They introduced Switzerland and Swiss educational institutes to interested students and parents. Furthermore, two alumni were invited to share their valuable experience about studying in Switzerland.

The second part of the fair consisted of individual Q&A sessions. Students and parents were invited to walk around to consult with representatives of different Swiss schools and educational institutes about different study programs and Switzerland in general. The swissnex China team not only displayed brochures of public universities but also offered personal advice, which was provided by alumni of the University of Zurich, University of Lausanne, University of St. Gallen and the University of Lugano. Currently doing an internship at swissnex China, they were pleased to answer questions and share their experience of student life in Switzerland with the interested visitors.

Insight China visited swissnex China on 13 April 2018

Insight China is a prestigious project in its 17th year at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) and offers ambitious students the opportunity to gain insight into China’s cultural and economic diversity.

A delegation of 30 bachelor students of FHNW led by the Dean of School of International Business Management spent an interesting and insightful afternoon with swissnex China on 13 April 2018.

Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China, welcomed the students and introduced swissnex and its mission and activities in China.

Lijun Zhang, swissnex China’s Project Leader for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, gave a presentation on innovation & phenomenal trends in China.

The afternoon continued with a presentation of Patrick Glauser, Head of Operation & Business Development China of M-industry. Also invited were his colleagues Lisa Liu, General Manager of E-commerce, who later gave a presentation on the e-commerce landscape in China, and Damian Bürgin, Trainee M-Industry China.

Currently having shops on the e-commerce platforms T-mall and Kaola, M-industry set up its presence in China less than two years ago, providing authentic Swiss products to Chinese consumers.

We wish the Insight China delegation a successful trip and look forward to welcoming the next year’s delegation at swissnex China!

ETH Zurich Study Tour on ‘How to do business in China’

March 27, 2018

By Xu Yuzhuo, Junior Project Manager in academic relations

From March 19 to March 23, MAS ETH group(40 ppl), in which all participants are specialists and prospective managers with technical background and professional experience, stayed in Shanghai for one week study tour with focus on “How to do business in China”.

In the morning of 19th March, the group was warmly welcomed by Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China. He talked about the mission of swissnex in China, which includes tech scrutiny and trend spotting. The morning then continued with presentation from Ms. YE Mingya, Trade Promotion officer of Swiss Business Hub, on the topic of how to assist Swiss companies in doing business in China.  

@swissnex

In the afternoon, the group was split into two groups, one group visited XNode and the other one went to TechTemple. Xnode and TechTemple are well-developed accelerator/incubator for startups. ETH MAS group had opportunity to visit their high quality co-working space and exchange with startups based there.

@TechTemple and Xnode

The ETH MAS group also visited Geek+’s smart warehouse in Kunshan. Geek+ is a fast grow startup established less than 4 years ago, which leads the technology revolution by advanced robotics and AI technologies to realize high-flexibility and intelligent logistics automation solution. The group learnt about how Geek+’s robots operate to realize a smart logistic process with reduced demand of manpower as well as the rapid development of Chinese smart logistics.

@Geek+

In the same afternoon, the ETH MAS group visited Swiss Center Shanghai, a non-profit organization serving the Swiss economy by providing adapted services for SME’s intending or entering the Chinese and Asia market. Ms. Emmanuelle Roduit, operation manager at SCS, gave an informative presentation on how Swiss Center operates in China. Then Mr. Joe Liu, managing director of Fraisa China, shared Fraisa’s experience in “conquering” China as a Swiss SME. In the evening, the group was invited to a reception at the residence of Mr. Alexander Hoffet, Consul General of Switzerland in Shanghai, which was also joined by external guests. The group was warmly welcomed by Mr.& Mrs. Hoffet and enjoyed a very delightful evening.  

@China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park

@GCL

The next day, the ETH MAS group took a day trip to Suzhou, where they visited Suzhou Industrial Park and GCL, the world’s champion manufacturer of high quality photovoltaic material located at Suzhou Industrial Park. 

@CEIBS

After three days of visit, the group spent the fourth day at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) where they were joined by CEIBS students for a design thinking workshop, to put what they’ve learned and observed in the past days of the week into practice. During the day, the group also had the pleasure to welcome Mr. Nicolas Musy, who is the founder of Swiss Center China and learnt about “where is Chinese economy heading – Challenge and Opportunities” from Mr. Musy.

On the last day of the China trip, the ETH MAS team came back swissnex for a wrap-up session and final presentation of their work that they did at the workshop the day before. In the afternoon, they visited the art district in Shanghai to experience the artistic side of the city. 

@swissnex

This China study trip was a good opportunity for the group to learn about innovation in China and how startups and companies grow. swissnex China very much looks forward to welcoming the next ETH MAS MTEC class in 2019!

Social Interactions in Virtual Reality

By Valentin Beuchat, Junior Project Manager

On Thursday, February 8, a diverse audience of 35 came to swissnex China to hear Prof. Marianne Schmid Mast present her research on virtual reality. This event was organized by HEC Lausanne, the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne, and swissnex China, which hosted the event in its premises.

After a few words of welcome, Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China, gave the stage to Marianne Schmid Mast, who is full professor of Organizational Behavior at HEC Lausanne and also active as editorial board member of Leadership Quarterly and associate editor of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior. But even more impressive, she has been awarded in January 2018 as one of the top 50 most influential living psychologists in the world (according to TheBestSchools.org).

The main topic of the conference was about how we can use virtual reality to study human social behaviors and to train social skills such as public speaking and job interview to mention few examples. Virtual reality enables us to have an interpersonal behavior simulator, creating any sort of social behavior, studying what people do or training them to behave in a specific way, and interacting with virtual humans. And as Marianne Schmid Mast said, “a virtual human can interact: make eye contact, talk, and move around”.

Then, she explained the three main advantages of using immersive virtual reality for interpersonal interaction research. The first advantage being standardization, meaning that virtual human interviewers (in the case of a job interview) behave in the same way with all applicants. The second one is the logistics and costs, with a specific focus on how to empower women in leadership tasks such as public speaking. Results of Marianne Schmid Mast’s study showed that if you are a woman faced with a leadership task, you should get inspired by a successful female role model. Furthermore, if you are a successful female role model, you should get visibility. The third advantage is called manipulation, meaning the environment within the virtual world shapes our interpersonal behavior. For instance, results demonstrated that if you want a male leader to be charismatic, you should give him a posh office!

“Changes in the environment that are hard to do in reality can be done in virtual reality”, summarized Marianne Schmid Mast.

The second part of the conference was dedicated to the use of immersive virtual reality for social skills training. Highlights of this part were that VR allows an easy access to a training partner who is available anytime and never tired. Also, participants suffer from double reality, or as Marianne said: “Experiencing double reality: I know this is not real but I am still afraid of falling”. Another great feature of VR is that you can have an adaptability and variability of the training scenarios (e.g. your training partner can be kind, unpleasant, male, female, etc.). In addition, the audience is now able to provide feedback to the speaker by showing its boredom or chatting with each other for examples. VR is also the place where new experiences are made possible. Imagine yourself in front of an audience, but the venue is a closed-down factory and you speak from the last floor under the roof while being afraid of heights. Last but not least, “you can encounter yourself in VR” said Marianne Schmid Mast.

To conclude this very interesting conference, will machines teach us interpersonal skills as the new scientific empire described in the Brave New World novel by Aldous Huxley? Marianne Schmid Mast claimed that VR is a tool that does not replace the trainer or the expert but can replace the social environment (e.g. the training partner) and it can outsource some aspects of the training for the coach.

After the presentation, a moderated Q&A followed by a networking reception allowed the audience and Marianne Schmid Mast to exchange and further discuss the topic. We would like to extend a warm thank you to Prof. Marianne Schmid Mast for her remarkable presentation, and to the audience – all of whom took part in making this event a success. 

Testimonials

“The warm welcome I got from the swissnex China team was simply outstanding! I also appreciated the exchanges, interest, and open-mindedness toward the topic. It was very inspiring for me.” Prof. Marianne Schmid Mast.

Visit to the University of Zurich

The swissnex annual meeting was held from 11-15 December 2017, various meetings and visits on topics of research, education and innovation were organized during the week, among which the visit to UZH on 14 December to learn about the latest research development there. 

UZH is known for its stand at the forefront of cutting-edge researches, and the visit highlighted its efforts on digital society. Welcomed by Prof. Christian Schwarzenegger, Vice President of UZH, the delegation had the pleasure to learn about the following nine research projects that are currently being conducted by different researchers at UZH: 

Prof. Michael Baudis, “Life Sciences Data” 

Prof. Baudis’s research focus is on the analysis of structural variations in cancer genomes by computational genomics, including bioinformatics and systems biology methods. His work centers around their collection of genomic tumor data, assembled from copy number screening experiments in cancer. More details: http://www.imls.uzh.ch/en/research/baudis.html 

Prof. Patricia Schlagenhauf, “ITIT-Illness tracking in travelers” 

Patricia Schlagenhauf is a Scientist and Professor at the University of Zürich, WHO Collaborating Centre for Travel Medicine, Switzerland and is active in research, teaching and travel clinic duties. She explained how digital tool can be used to collect data about illness and disease among travelers. More details: https://www.ebpi.uzh.ch/en/aboutus/departments.html

Prof. Anita Gohdes, “Politics in the Digital Age” 

Prof. Gohdes’s research focuses on political violence, state repression and the measurement of human rights. Her research project theoretically and empirically investigates how governments use digital communication technology to inform their strategies of violent repression. More details: https://www.ipz.uzh.ch/en/institut/mitarbeitende/staff/gohdes.html 

Dr. Amani Said, Science matters (UZH Startup) 

“Stories can wait, science cannot” - Being aware of the difficulties that scientist have been facing when publish articles, instead of publishing stories, Matters and Matters select publish single, validated observations, thus highlighting the fundamental unit of scientific progress – the observation. More details: https://www.sciencematters.io/ 

Prof. Abraham Bernstein, “digital Society Initiative” 

The digitalization is fundamentally changing science and society. This process challenges existing paradigms, enables novel approaches for research and teaching, and requires new competences in a rapidly changing societal reality. The Digital Society Initiative provides an academic platform for promoting critical, interdisciplinary reflection and innovation on all aspects of the digitalization of society and the sciences.

Visiting Shantou University and Promoting Swiss Education and Innovation

On Nov 15th, the Ambassador, H. E. Mr. Jean-Jacques DE DARDEL, Mr. Didier Boschung, Consul General of Switzerland in Guangzhou, Mr. Rene Baenziger Deputy Consul General of Switzerland in Guangzhou, Dr. Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China visited Shantou University.

Shantou University, a key comprehensive university under the provincial Project 211 program in Guangdong, was founded in 1981 with the approval of the State Council. It is the only public university that receives funding from the Li Ka Shing Foundation. Furthermore, Shantou University holds some “swissness” since it was designed by renown Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, the joint designer of the famous Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, also known as the “Bird’s Nest”.

Under the auspice of the Li Ka Shing Foundation, STU has become one of the few universities in Mainland China that awards full scholarships to overseas exchange students. The university has established close academic ties with nearly 20 universities. Shantou University wished to spread information through swissenx to establish cooperation on student exchange, dual degree and internship. 

Swiss-Chinese Friendship Day in Shantou

On November 15th and 16th, the Consulate General of Switzerland in Guangzhou, together with swissnex China, Switzerland Global Enterprise Beijing, Switzerland Tourism Beijing/Hong Kong organized a Swiss Day to celebrate Swiss-Chinese Friendship Day in Shantou, see the whole series events in CG Guangzhou official WeChat account.

As partner of the event, swissnex China held an “Innovation and education” seminar. Switzerland has enjoyed for a long time a strong reputation as a unique tourist destination, however, the world is discovering the country's world class education, innovation and creativity. This seminar introduces Switzerland in general and examples of innovation, then share experience how education could facilitate the innovation and how it remains a driver for innovation and creativity in Switzerland.

The Ambassador, H. E. Mr. Jean-Jacques DE DARDEL went to seminar room and deliver a welcome address. Dr. Felix Moesner, CEO of swissnex China intruded Swiss strength in innovation and Swissnex as the Swiss global network connecting the dots in education, research, and innovation. Shi Bodong, project manager embedded in Consulate General of Switzerland in Guangzhou introduced Switzerland in general and Swiss education system. Mr. Didier Boschung, Consul General of Switzerland in Guangzhou also attended the seminar.  

Shanghai International Conference on Interdisciplinarity

Guest blog by Dean AiLing Zhang, GIIT, SISU and former Dean of ETI, Hannelore Lee-Jahnke, University of Geneva

On November 3 and 4, the International Conference on Interdisciplinarity took place at the Shanghai International Studies University (SISU). The aim of interdisciplinarity is to get away from pure specialization and open thus new pathways in training and research, creating new common grounds. This is the reason why universities tend nowadays to break down barriers between disciplines in order to open new possibilities for broader knowledge and creativity.

Language and Translation & Interpretation play a fundamental role in any of the disciplines taught at university level and can hence function as a major player in an interdisciplinary approach. Interdisciplinarity today becomes a must in education since it is based on the possibility to conceive all that links the different subjects together, as well as the aptitude to contextualize and to globalize knowledge.

Its aim is not only to open the barriers between the disciplines, but also to possibly transform what creates those barriers, i.e. the principles which structure knowledge.

Language is certainly a pivot vehicle of and for interdisciplinarity. A fact, which has been stressed within the framework of globalization. Switzerland, as a plurilingual country, is kind of a showcase in terms of language proficiency. With this background in mind, the objective of the interdisciplinary approach is to find ways and means to enhance even more these language skills, in order to make them a pivot- element in training and research, which can help to liaise with and amongst the disciplines.

The conference included fields such as international communication, economy, labor market, training, and community translation & Interpretation. The chosen approach was to foster collaboration with other top faculties and/or universities in the given fields by offering joint training and research facilities for specifically selected students and to spark interest among renowned specialists of the different fields to collaborate in research through finding national funding for PhD and research projects.

Under the leadership of Professor AiLing Zhang, Dean, GIIT, SISU and Professor Hannelore Lee-Jahnke, Co-Chair, Interdisciplinary Research Center, GIIT, SISU, former Dean of ETI, University of Geneva, the conference was a great opportunity for Swiss universities such as University of Geneva, University of Fribourg, or ZHAW to exchange with peers in Shanghai and expend their networks. In the following, there is a small selection of speakers at the conference.

Dr. Feng Jiang, Chairman of the University Board, SISU

Dr. Florika Fink-Hooijer, Director-General, DG-Interpretation, European Commission

Dr. Felix Moesner, CEO, swissnex China

Group picture with speakers

The Challenges on Social Business in China，a Club HEC Lausanne event on 8th July

Each year, HEC Lausanne organizes a summer school in Shanghai managed by Professor Marc Laperrouza, expert in emerging markets at the University of Lausanne. This year, 22 students took part of the program and will spend 10 days studying some parts of the Chinese economy (distribution, luxury), discover some aspects of Chinese culture (calligraphy, kitchen, etc..) and deepen the concepts of "global mindset." 

Within this summer school, one day (8 of July 2014) is dedicated to the relation between Swiss and China in term of business. For this reason, the group has spent the half of the afternoon and the entire evening at swissnex China. 

The activity of the afternoon was dedicated on the import of Swiss products like cenovis or Alp horn in China. In 20 minutes, the student had to draw up a strategy to sell these products in China and had also invented an advertising slogan. After that, each group showed its results in 5 minutes. The presentations were very interesting and creative.

The evening was animated by an event organized by the Club HEC Lausanne with the help of swissnex China. The event started with a conference on the challenges on social business in China and finished by a nice networking apero between the students and the few Alumni from Swiss University. To cover the conference, we had the honor to have Floriane Lemoine, the project manager of Shanghai Young Bakers, as a speaker. She is a graduate from Sciences Po Paris and Peking University. She is passionate by china and sustainable development. That is why she decided to work at Shanghai Young Bakers. Founded in 2008, this association is a charity program providing a fully-sponsored French bakery training to disadvantaged Chinese youth. During the conference, we learnt more about the aim of the program and how does it work in term of logistic and funding.

Finnaly, we had a successful networking apero thanks to the delicious buffet provided by the association itself. The students started a rich exchange with the Alumni from Swiss University who live in Shanghai and discussed about their experiences at the University of Lausanne and more globally in Switzerland or/and in China.