Shanghai Jiao Tong University
A member of the prestigious C9 League in China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University is one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious selective universities. Sometimes called Shanghai Jiaotong University, or Jiaotong University, it ranks 37th in Engineering education worldwide.
This Shanghai based public university was founded in 1896, and was then known as Nanyang Public School. It was established upon the imperial decree issued by Guangxu Emperor, and was under the jurisdiction of the Business and Telegraphs Office of the Imperial Government. Normal School, School of Foreign Studies, Middle School, and High School composed the four schools of this institution. Sheng Xuanhuai was its first president and is regarded as its founding father.
In 1904, it was taken over by the Ministry of Commerce, and in 1905 it was named as the Imperial Polytechnic College of the Commerce Ministry. The next year it was put under the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, and was changed to Shanghai Industrial College of the Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs.
At the advent of the Republic of China, the school was again changed into the Government Institute of Technology of the Communications Ministry and was run by the Ministry of Communications. In 1918, the PRC government founded the School of Management and became one of the oldest academic institutes in the country; two years later it merged with two other colleges and was named Nan Yang College of Chiao Tung. In 1930, the school was comparable to the American’s MIT after it produced notable engineers and scientists.
It was renamed again as National Chiao Tung University after the Ministry of Education took over in 1938. The Chinese civil war forced Chiang Kai-Shek, together with several faculties and alumni, to establish the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan in 1958. After the war ended, the school in Shanghai was named as Chiao Tung University to emphasize that all universities under the new socialist country would be made public.
In 1950, the Pinyin system was developed in Mandarin, China, making English names of a lot of institutes instead of the original Latin Script. Under this system, the name Chiao Tung University changed to Jiao Tong University. It was not until 1956 that the school was finally named as the Shanghai Jiao Tong University following a rearrangement for the school made by the government, in an effort to build up a top engineering school in the western portion of the country.
Today the school has 31 departments, 63 undergraduate programs, 250 masters degree programs, 203 Ph. D programs, 28 post doctorate programs, and 11 key laboratories and national engineering research centers, with a total of more than 1,900 professors.
To compete in the emerging field of robotics, the university established its own lab, which was founded in October 1979 and was then known as Laboratory of Robotics and affiliated with the School of Mechanical Engineering. Now, with advanced technology, it is known as the Robotics Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Among the projects that they have developed are the Shanghai I welding robot, Shanghai III Spraying robot and the Precision I assembly robot.
From a humble beginning with only 12 faculties and staff, the robotic institute now has 27 members of faculty and staff, and has won a lot of citations and awards, not only in China but also in international competitions.
