The School of Information Science and Technology (SIST) of Tsinghua University, with a focus on building a world-class university, has been actively expanding exchanges and cooperation with well-known universities, enterprises and research institutions at home and abroad, in efforts to create excellent external conditions for scientific research and discipline construction. The SIST strengthens international exchanges and cooperation through international exchange programs, the Tsinghua Information Forum, the Dengfeng Fund, and university-enterprise joint institutions.
The SIST carries out international exchanges and cooperation with the Viterbi School of Engineering of the University of Southern California (USC), and jointly held the “Tsinghua-USC Undergraduate Summer Exchange Program” and the “Tsinghua-USC Faculty Forum”. From 2014 to 2023, a total of 8 faculty forums were held, with 167 participations of professors from both sides. The summer exchange program has been carried out for 10 terms, involving 132 undergraduates from two universities.
The SIST has hosted and organized many large-scale and high-level international academic conferences and academic reports. From 2014 to 2023, a total of 77 lectures were delivered in the “Tsinghua Information Forum”, building an excellent communication platform for faculty members, students and scholars from the world's leading disciplines.
To support the SIST students to attend high-level international academic conferences abroad, to promote direct communication between students and top international scholars, and to understand the latest progress and trends in their research fields, Mr. Deng Feng, an alumnus of Tsinghua, donated money to launch the Graduate Student International Conference Attendance Fund at the SIST in 2004, which was renamed the “Dengfeng Fund” in 2010. During its development, the Fund has successively received donations from Mr. Deng Feng, Tsinghua University, Nomura Research Institute, Wuxi Ru’an Technology Co., Ltd. and Mr. Zhao Shiqin. From 2014 to 2023, the Fund supported 782 SIST students (including 757 graduate students and 25 undergraduate students), who traveled over 40 countries and regions, and more than 40 of whom won various awards such as Best Papers in the conferences.
To further strengthen the training of the SIST’s international talents and improve students’ academic and innovation ability, since September 2017, the SIST has expanded the scope of the “Dengfeng Fund” to support SIST students to participate in high-level international competitions. From 2017 to 2023, a total of 21 high-level international competition teams were funded, all of which achieved excellent results in their competitions.
