On June 16, Thales SEC Transport System Co., Ltd. (TST) inked an agreement with Tongji University to jointly set up the Engineering Technology Research Center for Smart Rail Transit. The signing ceremony took place on the Siping Road campus of the university.

As the pioneer in China’s rail transit industry, TST has long been engaged in independent innovation and working with customers and industry partners to explore cutting-edge technology and its application in the rail transit sector. The technology center in collaboration with Tongji University this time will focus on ten directions of smart rail transit construction - passenger services, transportation organization, train operation, green and energy saving, intelligent technology, infrastructure, O&M security, network management, cloud computing and big data platforms, and system of technical standards. As part of their industry-university-research cooperation, the two sides aim to develop forward-looking products and technologies and study and incubate technology, equipment, and standards for rail transit.

Being a renowned multidisciplinary university in China, Tongji University ranks among the top in terms of multidisciplinary R&D capacity and owns the country’s first Comprehensive Test Platform for Urban Rail Transit. TST and Tongji University have a long history of collaboration, and the new research center will leverage the university's forward-thinking theoretical research and TST's innovative practice in the rail transit industry. The goal is to encourage the application of relevant research findings and contribute to the development of smart rail transit.

Jia Tinggang, President of Shanghai Electric Automation Group, and Lei Xinghui, Vice President of Tongji University, inaugurated the center. Shen Hong, CEO of TST, and Yin Xuefeng, Deputy Dean of the College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Tongji University, signed the agreement on behalf of the two parties.