April 23 - 24, representatives from the University of Geneva came to the Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University to visit the Open FIESTA program. Among the representatives were University of Geneva School of Social Sciences Dean Bernard Debarbieux and Geneva-Tsinghua Institute Professor Francois Grey.
On April 23 the University of Geneva delegation toured GSST’s campus with Open FIESTA professors, learned about GSST and Open FIESTA faculty, academic programs, and student development initiatives, and visited the construction site of the future Open FIESTA Center.
Later that day, Prof. Grey gave a talk titled “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” on the 17 goals that aim to address social, economic, and environmental development problems, which was followed by a lively discussion with students.
On April 24 the Open FIESTA staff members led the University of Geneva delegation on a tour of the Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute, Beijing Genomics Institute, and the Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab. The delegation then met with GSST Associate Dean XIA Guangzi, Director of External Relations MA Zhenyi, and Open FIESTA Deputy Director YANG Sifan. During the meeting Prof. Grey spoke at length about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and expressed his hope for increased cooperation with GSST and Open FIESTA through developing faculty exchanges and academic summer programming for students. Associate Dean Xia described current technological developments at GSST. Both parties discussed plans to provide more online courses.
