On the morning of July 25th, Professor Huang Yuandong, Dean of the School of Environment and Architecture, presided over the opening ceremony of the summer school in the Lecture Hall of Guohe Building; Cai Yonglian, Vice President of USST, delivered a welcome speech and expressed her great hope and blessings to the young students attending the summer school. Professor Zhu Yingxin from Tsinghua University, Director of the Teaching Guidance Sub-committee of Building Environment and Energy Application Engineering in National Higher Education Institutions, delivered an opening speech, stressing the value and significance of the summer school in promoting cultural exchanges and students’ growth and success. Dr. Kamiel Gabriel, selected fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (C.A.E) and professor of Ontario Tech University, also delivered a speech, expressing his congratulations and recognition for the summer school.

Next, Mrs. Xu Lin, Deputy Director of International Affairs Office of USST, briefed the international exchange work of the department. Lv Xiaowei, a student from the University of Reading, the UK, spoke as a representative of the summer school students, expressing her gratitude to the organisers and lecturers. Finally, Mrs. Kong Na, Archivist Director of USST, gave a lecture entitled “100 Years of USST: From Architecture to People, introducing the historical buildings and humanistic development of the university. After taking the group photo, Professor Huang Yuandong introduced the history, achievements of research and teaching of the School of Environment and Architecture. Mr. Cao Guifu, Deputy Secretary of the party committee of the school, introduced how students were cultivated in the school. The second half of the opening ceremony was chaired by Professor Wang Lihui, Vice Dean of the School of Environment and Architecture.

In the afternoon, associate professor Wang Xin, Director of the Department of Architectural Environment and Energy Engineering, Wang Haidong, Deputy Director, Wang Fei, Director of the Lab Centre, and Li Zhao briefed on the majors, the offline labs and virtual labs of the department. Following that, Professor Weng Wenbing and Yu Guoqing also gave their lectures entitled “Air Conditioning System Independently Controlling the Capillary Temperature and Humidity and Analysis of Typical Problems of Solar Energy and Building Integration.

On the morning of July 26th, associate professors Qu Minglu and Li Yilin, deputy director and deputy secretary of the party branch of the Department of Architectural Environment and Energy Engineering, presided over three lectures hosted at German Cultural Exchange Centre.

The first lecture was given by Dr. Duan Xili, Associate Professor from Memorial University of Newfoundland, on the theme “Thermal Energy Storage-concepts and Applications”, expounding on the latest progress in researching the latent heat storage using wind power and advanced phase change materials. Next, Dr. Hu Maomao, an outstanding alumnus of USST and postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, expressed his gratitude to USST and gave an academic lecture entitled Decarbonization of building and urban energy systems: A multiscale data-driven approach, focusing on carbon reduction at multiple scales from equipment to buildings, communities to cities. Finally, Prof Wang Lihui from USST explained the main ways to reduce carbon emissions in metro stations through her lecture entitled Exploring the Path of Low-carbon Metro Stations.

In the afternoon, four presentations were given by the director and a member of the National Education Steering Committee for this summer school, which were hosted by Professor Chen Jianbo. Firstly, Professor Zhu Yingxin from Tsinghua University introduced in detail modern digital indoor environment creation strategies to meet the requirements of health, comfort and low carbon in her presentation entitled Prospects of Indoor Environment Creation Technology Development under the Goal of Carbon Neutrality. Next, Professor Li Zhengrong from Tongji University presented under the title Research on Environment of Complex, which innovatively reveals the significance and law of building environments in energy saving and carbon reduction. It was followed by Mr. Xu Hongqing, Senior Engineer of Beijing Institute of Architectural Design who introduced the exemplary engineering solutions for low-energy buildings to achieve thermal comfort in the context of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality strategy in his presentation entitled Research on Designing Ultra-low Energy Consumption Venues for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Finally, Professor Yao Runming from Chongqing University and University of Reading, the UK, gave a lecture entitled Sustainable Building Environment under the Targets Confronting Climate Change, focusing on the strategies and technical routes for building environment under the low carbon targets of the Yangtze River Basin in China.

On the morning of July 27th, Professor Huang Chen and Associate Professor Li Zhao from the department moderated three wonderful lectures. Firstly, Professor Huang Xiang from Xi'an Polytechnic University gave a lecture titled Evaporative Cooling Technology for Data Centre Energy Saving and Carbon Emission under the Background of Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality Strategy, which focused on the key issues of the application of evaporative cooling technology, and put forward the development trend of the future data centre cooling technology. Next, Associate Professor Josephine Lau from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln gave an online lecture entitled Healthy Air and Environment for Occupants' Health and Performance, focusing on the strategies and mechanisms for maintaining indoor air quality in buildings. Finally, Professor Luo Zhiwen from Cardiff University presented Assessing Overheating Risk in Urban Environments, demonstrating an integrated approach to thinking about architecture and urban design in the context of low carbon emission reduction.

In the afternoon, associate professor Wang Haidong, Secretary of the Party Branch of the department, and associate professor Sun Chanjuan, Young Oriental Scholar, hosted four offline lectures. Firstly, Professor Zhai Zhiqiang from the University of Colorado, the USA, emphasised the importance of integrated building design and economic research in building energy efficiency under the title of Energy and Low Carbon Development: Impacts and Contributions of Buildings. Next, Professor Deng Shiming of Qatar University pointed out the technical key to optimising the dehumidification and frost suppression performance of building equipment systems through his presentation entitled From Dehumidification to Frost: Operational Performance Mapping of Inverter Direct Expansion Air Conditioners/Air Source Heat Pumps. Following that, Professor Shen Zhao from Harbin Institute of Technology gave a lecture entitled Solar Spectrum Regulation Technology for Capacity and Intelligent Buildings, focusing on solar photothermal regulation, thermoelectric regulation and full-spectrum air abatement technology in buildings. Finally, Professor Xu Xinhua from Huazhong University of Science and Technology gave a lecture entitled Upgrading Energy-saving Controls in Metro Stations and Sharing Experiences, demonstrating the control strategies and engineering cases of digital and intelligent upgrading of metro stations.

In addition, during the summer school, USST had talks with professors from Cardiff University in the UK and Qatar University, which is along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative to seek inter-university cooperation on research and talent training on a preliminary basis. The closing ceremony of the summer school, accompanied with other interactive activities, was held on July 28th.