(I) Program overview
Rail Transit Signals and Control is 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. Its predecessor was the Railway Signals Program, which has been offered by many major universities in China for more than 60 years.
The Rail Transit Signals and Control Program is designed for the field of rail transit communication signals. This program has established an Industry-University-Research Strategic Alliance with Shanghai Shentong Metro to serve the industrial economy. In recent years, excellent results have been achieved in terms of program development. It was approved as a national-level specialized program in 2009, sponsored project under the “Undergraduate Education Heights” (Phase IV) of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, one of the first batch of pilot programs under the “Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program” by the Ministry of Education in 2011, and postgraduate program in 2014.
(II) Talent training
This 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, this 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”, this program delivers advanced application engineers for the rail transit signal industry.
(III) Curriculum
The curriculum of this 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. Practical courses comprise a total of 16 courses including Basic Practice in Urban Rail Transit, Practice in Train Operation Automatic Control, etc. 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, Urban Rail Transit System Introduction, Digital Signal Processing, Station Automatic Control Technology, and Urban Rail Transit Communication Technology.
(IV) 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.).
