The opening ceremony of Shanghai Institute of Design and Innovation(SIDI)was held on January 5, 2017 at Tongji University College of Design and Innovation (Tongji D&I). Representatives from the local government, domestic partner Universities, and enterprises attended the Ceremony. Chen Mingbo, director of the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology, said during the ceremony, “Design is the key factor for Shanghai’s industrial upgrade and restructure.”


Prof.LOU Yongqi, Dean of Tongji D&I was appointed as the Principal Investigator and the Director of SIDI. Mr.ZHOU Ping, who is former COO of Google Great China, was appointed as the Executive Director of SIDI. Prof.Zhong Zhihua, the President of Tongji University, said, “With the joint efforts of Shanghai municipal government and Tongji University, the SIDI will endeavor to establish a world-class international and interdisciplinary platform for design research and innovation transformation, bringing together technologies, capitals, and human resources, to empower and enable top talents to achieve the goal of changing the world with design and innovation.”

In 2016, Design discipline of Tongji University was selected as one of the Category IV Peak Discipline Construction Program, which is a key higher education and research development agenda of Shanghai. It means the College of Design and Innovation at Tongji University (Tongji D&I) will take the coordination role of design education in Shanghai. SIDI is one of the key actions of this Program. The main mission of the SIDI is to support Shanghai to transform itself into a global center of innovation in science and technology, through developing world-class design education and research.

“The SIDI will focus on three main thematic clusters: transportation design, design driven entrepreneurship, and TMT.”said by Mr.Zhou Ping. Dean LOU Yongqi believes that SIDI will not only support developing state-of-the-art design education and research in Shanghai, but also get the technologies, innovations and creativities from university to market, enabling paradigm shift of economic and social development.