Hairy crabs to trains: Local unis win big
SHANGHAI universities scored big at the 2019 Shanghai Science and Technology Awards announced yesterday.
He Jifeng, dean of the software engineering institute at the East China Normal University, and his team won a top prize with technologies for software testing, analyzing and assessment to ensure development of safe and credible core controlling software for key industrial equipment.
Their technologies have supported the success of many important Chinese space missions, including the launch of the Fengyun-4 satellite and the docking of the Shenzhou-8 spacecraft and with the Tiangong-1 space lab.
The University of Shanghai for Science and Technology won two first prizes and four seconds. Five were led by the university and one second prize involved its teachers.
In one of its first-prize programs, a team led by Professor Liu Ping developed a high-performance copper alloy for the production of overhead wires that provide power for highspeed trains.
High speed rail
Team member Professor Zhou Honglei said China had been using German wires in highspeed railways but from 2008 it began to use products developed by the team.
With their high electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, thermostability and anti-friction capacity, the wires have enabled China’s high-speed trains to increase their speed from 100 to 400 kilometers per hour.
They have also helped produce new output value of over 3 billion yuan in the past three years and saved at least 1 billion yuan in electricity costs each year in the operation of highspeed trains.
About 70 percent of the railway systems that run at 350 kilometers per hour are equipped with its products.
The Shanghai Ocean University’s hairy crab breeding and raising program also won a first prize. Hairy crabs in Shanghai were of low quality, low output and low price.
A team from the university led by Professor Wang Chenghui, after 10 years of research around the world developed a new variety called “Jianghai 21” which grows fast, is large and has a high yield. The team has also established the largest hairy crab database.
Its breeding and raising technologies have been adopted around China, including in Jiangsu Province’s Sheyang County, the country’s largest crab breeding base.