Recently, the 2020 China Industry-University-Research Cooperation Innovation and Promotion Award announced its list of winners. The "Key Technology for Collaborative Development and Engineering of Waterfront Spaces in Port Cities” project, which was conducted by our university in collaboration with Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai China Communications Water Transportation Design and Research Co., Ltd, and North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, received the Outstanding Award for Innovation Achievement. HUANG Tianrong and WANG Yu, faculty members of the School of Civil & Transportation Engineering, were among the main participants of the project.

The project focused on engineering design, construction, green operation and maintenance of waterfront spaces through industry-university-research cooperation, pioneered a new model of green integrated retrofit and construction, proposed intensive design and low-impact construction techniques for water transport projects, developed green energy and green building technology for ports, and established a key technology system for the functional transformation and engineering construction of urban waterfront spaces. The overall project results reach the international advanced level. Projects such as the retrofit of Shanghai's old port areas and the Huangpu River banks have achieved good economic and social benefits. The port of Shanghai with its technological progress ranks the first in the world for many years, which propels Shanghai into an international shipping centre.