Atlanta, Georgia; Gainesville, Florida US, Oct 20^th, 21^st—Prof. WANG Guangbin, Deputy Dean of SEM, Tongji University led a delegation to visit Georgia Institute of Technology (GT) and University of Florida (UF) and met with Prof. Steven French, Dean of College of Design of GT and Prof. Chimay Anumba, Dean of College of Design, Construction and Planning of UF. Both parties have explored deeply potential collaborative possibilities in student exchange, faculty exchange and joint research in the areas of construction management, project management and BIM technology facilitated teaching and research. Collaborative MOUs are expected to be signed in the near future.

Founded in 1885, the Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, Tech, or GT) is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States. Together with MIT and Caltech, they are the three most well-known science and technology institutions. According to 2016 US News and world report, Georgia Tech is ranked the 36^th among all national universities in United States and the 7th among all public national universities. GT industry engineering program is the top in the US. It is well recognized for its degree programs in mechanical engineering, information technology, materials engineering, and construction engineering. The student body consists of more than 20,000 graduate and undergraduate students and more than 1000 full-time academic faculty, among whom 94% are holding doctor degrees and 64% are lifetime professors.

University of Florida, founded in 1853, is a top researching public university in Gainesville, Florida. University of Florida, commonly known as the Public Ivy, boasts more than 40 academicians of the US National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medical. In its 2016 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the University of Florida as the 14th-best public university in the United States, and tied for 47th overall among all national universities, public and private. The university offers multiple graduate programs—-including engineering, business, law and medicine—-on one contiguous campus, and coordinates 123 master’s degree programs and 76 doctoral degree programs in 87 schools and departments, with totally 49000 students, which is the 3^rd largest university in United States.