I. History

The Department of Communication Signals was established in January 2005, under which the Electronic Information Engineering (Urban Rail Transit Communication Signals) Program was set up. In 2012, the Program was renamed as the Rail Transit Signals and Control as an ad hoc program newly added in the revised Undergraduate Program Catalogue (2012) of the Ministry of Education and belongs to the category of automation. With Shanghai Shentong Metro to serve the industrial economy, the Rail Transit Signals and Control Program is designed for the field of rail transit communication signals.

1. Program history

(1) The Electronic Information Engineering (Urban Rail Transit Communication Signals) Program was established in January 2005 and started official enrollment in September 2005 to grant degree in engineering;

(2) National enrollment kicked off in 2010 to cultivate talents for rail transit signal control in the Yangtze River Delta and nationwide;

(3) In 2011, the Program became a pilot under the “Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program” of the Ministry of Education;

(4) In 2012, the Program was renamed as the Rail Transit Signals and Control Program by the Ministry of Education, and a complete credit system training plan was implemented to form a basic platform for transport disciplines;

(5) In 2014, the Program was approved to set up a postgraduate program in Traffic Engineering.

2. Quality development

(1) In 2009, the Program became a national-level specialized program;

(2) In 2010, the Program became Shanghai’s Education Heights Project (Phase IV);

(3) In 2011, the Program became a pilot under the “Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program” of the Ministry of Education (Batch II).

II. Program Features, Faculty and Employment

1. Program features

The Program aims to train advanced rail transit engineering talents with strong problem analyzing and problem solving skills. Guided by the rail transit industry needs, and focusing on the theories and technologies relating to rail transit signals and control, the Program features a perfect integration of knowledge, ability and engineering practice, by combining theory with practice, in a bid to improve students’ engineering awareness, engineering quality and engineering practice ability. Using a unique training approach of “industry-academic cooperation, work-study rotation, and discipline/program chain matching industry chain”, and “theory + technical practice + in-program application of new technology”, the Program delivers advanced application engineers for the rail transit signal industry.

The Program focuses on the cultivation of students' practical ability. The curriculum of the Program consists of two parts: Theoretical courses and practical courses. Theoretical courses cover electronic science and technology, computer science and technology, information and communication engineering, rail transit signal and communication, and automatic control and detection. The following main courses are offered: Circuit, Analog Electronic Technology, Digital Electronic Technology, Microcomputer Principle and Interface Technology, Object-Oriented Programming, Automatic Control Theory, Artificial Intelligence Foundation, Computer Network And Communication, Signal and System, Urban Rail Transit Signal Detection Technology, Communication System Principle, Station Computer Interlocking Control Technology, Train Automatic Operation Control Technology, Introduction to Urban Rail Transit System, Digital Signal Processing, Station Automatic Control Technology, and Urban Rail Transit Communication Technology.

In addition to theoretical courses, the Program offers 12 practical teaching courses with a total of 37 credit points. Based on the university-enterprise cooperation platform, the practical teaching has created an all-round training system integrating in-class theoretical teaching, extracurricular experimental training and engineering field practice. There are 6 on-campus laboratories, including: The Rail Transit ATO Function Simulation Laboratory, the Rail Transit Signal Control Laboratory, the Rail Transit Station Interlocking Laboratory, the Rail Traffic Communication Control Course Group Laboratory, the Rail Transit Communications Technology Laboratory, and the Rail Transit NDT Technology Laboratory. The Program has established 3 off-campus practice bases together with Shentong Metro, namely: Shanghai Shentong Metro Longyang Road Base, Shanghai Shentong Metro Jianchuan Road Base and Shanghai Shentong Metro Jiuting Base. Practical courses comprise a total of 16 courses including Basic Practice in Urban Rail Transit, Practice in Train Operation Automatic Control, etc.

2. Faculty

There are 15 full-time faculty members in the Program, 12 of whom have professional backgrounds, 3 of whom have industry backgrounds, 5 of whom have working experience in enterprises. 2 faculty members, 2 professors and 3 associate professors have overseas background. In addition, 67% of the lecturers have a doctoral degree, and 33% of the them have the deputy senior professional titles or above. The Program has established a rail transit signal and control teaching team. In accordance with the implementation goals of the teaching incentive plan for core faculty members, the teaching team combines teaching and scientific research to promote scientific research through teaching and improve teaching with scientific research. The team building has cultivated a group of outstanding teaching and research personnel who can undertake teaching and research projects and achieve high-level teaching and research results. Starting from Grade 2014, the Program provides all undergraduates with professional tutors since the freshman year, and provide overall guidance for the students in the field of course selection through full credit point system, career planning, etc.

3. Employment

Graduates are mainly employed in the rail transit industry across the whole life cycle of rail transit signaling, including rail transit signal system research and development, production, engineering design, operation guarantee and maintenance, fault diagnosis and repair. In recent years, the employment rate has been 100%. Major employers include railway bureaus (Shanghai Railway Bureau, etc.), subway companies (Shentong Metro Group, Hangzhou Subway Company, etc.) and signal equipment suppliers (Casco, Thales, etc.).

The Program focuses on talent training so as to improve the teaching quality. Since its establishment, the Program has delivered nearly a thousand talents for the rail transit industry, and these graduates have played an important role in various posts in this industry.

III. Teaching Programs and Outcome

In recent years, focusing on the development of specialized program, the Department of Communication Signals has carried out various teaching development activities, implemented more than 20 teaching development programs and achieved a series of development results. The Department has one Shanghai Excellent Course and one university-level golden course”. The Specialized Program Group Development, Teaching System Development and Results Application of Urban Rail Transit and the “Exploration and Practice of Practice Teaching System of Specialized Program Group of University-enterprise Cooperation Urban Rail Transit” won the second prize of Shanghai Teaching Achievement Award. In addition to regular teaching reforms and research, the Department has introduced German ASIIN engineering certification system in 2020 so as to launch professional accreditation.

List of Teaching Development Projects

Awards for teaching achievements

IV. Research Direction, Scientific Research Projects and Achievements

In recent years, the Program’s faculty members have carried out various scientific research projects and achieved certain results. The Program undertakes 8 longitudinal projects, including 1 national project, 2 provincial and ministerial projects and 4 projects at the commission level, and has been approved for 24 horizontal projects with a funding of more than RMB 12 million. In addition, the Program’s faculty members have published dozens of high-level academic papers on SCI, EI, etc. Among them, the Critical Technology of Vision and Inertia Integrated Rail Geometric State Measurement Project won the third prize of the Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award in 2017. A series of research results have been commercialized and applied in the rail transit industry. A large number of research achievements have been commercialized and applied among metro enterprises, such as self-developed Research and Development of Line 2 Vehicle-to-ground Communication Portable Detector and Monitoring System, Research on Safety Control and Monitoring Device of Centralized Platform Screen Doors, Research on Countermeasures for Improving the Power Quality of Vehicle Signal System” and Simulation Training Platform of Rail Signal Infrastructure”.

Scientific Research Projects in Recent Years

V. Student Innovation and Competition Awards

In recent years, the team’s faculty members have guided students to participate in various college student competitions such as the Freescale Cup Smart Car Competition, the Electronic Design Competition, the Mathematical Contest in Modeling and the Transportation Science & Technology Competition, and have achieved good results. More than 100 students have won more than 20 national awards such as the National Contemporary Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling, the US Mathematical Contest in Modeling, the National English Competition for College Students, etc., as well as the Shanghai Creation Cup Competition, the Shanghai College Student Electronic Design Competition, and the Shanghai College Student Computer Application Ability Contest and other municipal-level awards.

Competitions Awards in the Past Three Years