At 3:00pm of May 12, 2018, the inauguration ceremony of the West Research Center of the National Research Center for Steel Construction begins in the hall of the first floor in No. 2 Comprehensive Building, Campus B, Chongqing University, Zhang Zongyi, CQU president, Yue Qingrui, an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of NRCSC, Zhou Xuhong, an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, director of the Technical Committee of NRCSC, director of Technical Committee of the West Branch and director of the Steel Construction Research Center of Chongqing University, Yang Yongbin, an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and the emeritus dean of the School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chen Xiangsheng, an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and a chief engineer of Shenzhen Metro Group, Pan Biyi, vice chairman and deputy secretary of CPC Committee of CISDI Group Co., Ltd., and director general of the West Branch, Hu Chaohui, vice president of CISDI Architectural Design and Research Institute and director of the West Branch and Luo Fusheng, vice president of CISDI Architectural Design and Research Institute and president of the West Branch are all present at the ceremony. Liu Hanlong, vice president of Chongqing University, presides at the ceremony.

At the inauguration ceremony, Yue Qingrui and Zhou Xuhong jointly inaugurate the West Branch of the National Research Center for Steel Construction.

The National Research Center for Steel Construction is an R&D platform and scientific research entity for steel construction research as granted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and it undertakes a variety of comprehensive services for R&D and application of steel structure technology. Yue Qingrui states in his speech that the West Branch, as the first comprehensive steel structure application research platform established by the National Research Center for Steel Construction in west China, will play a significant driving role in the development of steel structure in west China and the development of the National Research  Center for Steel Construction.

The West Branch is co-sponsored by CISDI Group Co., Ltd. and Chongqing University. With support of China MCC5 Group Corp. Ltd. and China Metallurgical Construction Engineering Group Co., Ltd., a cooperation mechanism integrating production, learning, research and application has been built up. Pan Biyi indicates that such a cooperation mechanism will aggregate first-class professional talents specialized in the related engineering technology, equipment and fields. Given the new environment protection policy conditions of China and the national requirements for high-quality development, sectors such as transportation, municipal works and public building will see the historic development peak of application of steel structure.

Zhou Xuhong says that the development of steel structure in west China is lagging far behind that of economically developed areas in east China. The timely establishment of the West Branch will be of remarkable significance for the development of steel structure industry, technological progress of enterprises, and disciplinary construction and talent cultivation of colleges and universities in West China. As the director of the Technical Committee of the West Branch, Zhou Xuhong proposes suggestions for the West Branch on how we should strengthen the technical innovation capacity of enterprises, enhance the core competitiveness of the industry, promote the close cooperation among enterprises, universities, research institutes and users and cultivate high-quality talents, so as to facilitate upgrading and transformation of the steel structure industry of west China and contribute to the construction of an energy-conserving and environment-friendly society.

Zhang Zongyi gives an introduction to the progress made by Chongqing University in the steel structure discipline construction and the current development situation of the University. He says that Chongqing University was selected as one of the class-A universities under the “First-Rate University Construction” Program of China and 3 disciplines including civil engineering was selected as the “First-Rate Disciplines” of China . Now Chongqing University is going through a historic new period and it will carry forward the comprehensive, extensive and in-depth cooperation with the well-known research institutions and enterprises at home and abroad, and will concentrate efforts on the construction and development of the Branch. He also extends his wish that the West Branch will make continuous achievements in areas such as fundamental research, industrial technical application, talent cultivation and discipline construction.

After the ceremony, the officials and honored guests at the ceremony take a group photo. The responsible persons from various functional departments and schools and teacher and student representatives have also attended the ceremony and witnessed the inauguration.