5th Shanghai-Stuttgart-Symposium has started

The first day of the Shanghai-Stuttgart-Symposium has started today on the Jiading Campus of Tongji University in Shanghai. For the first time, the symposium takes place on site as well as online. This was not only a great challenge in terms of preparations, but also places high demands on the on-site organizers throughout the conference.

At 9 am Shanghai time (3 am at night in Stuttgart) the conference started with greetings of high-ranking personalities of universities and politics. Among others, Dr. Wolfgang Holtkamp, Senior Advisor International Affairs as well as Michael Kleiner, Ministerial Director at the Ministry of Economics Baden-Württemberg were present with their welcome messages. Keynote speeches by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Wagner, Chairman of the Board of the FKFS and Chair of Automotive Engineering at the IFS, and by Dr. Christian Salzmann, BMW R&D China, kicked off the scientific program of the symposium.

This was followed by presentations on current trends and challenges of the automotive industry by scientists from China and Germany in four different sessions, led by session chairs in Stuttgart who moderated these sessions from their PCs. Presentations were given both live on-site, live via Teams software, and with pre-submitted videos. Questions to the presenters could also be posed from the audience on-site as well as via Teams.

Further keynotes in the afternoon by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter F. Tropschuh of the Technical University of Munich and AUDI AG, Mr. Frank Klaas from Geely Europe as well as Mr. Gary Zhong from Infineon Technology Greater China rounded off this exciting day.

Unfortunately, the participants from Stuttgart and the surrounding area will not be able to attend today's festive evening. However, we very much hope that it will be possible again next year!