The University of Essex welcomed business and technology leaders from Jiangsu province in China as part of a special visit co-ordinated by Essex International, Essex County Council’s international trade team.

University vice-chancellor Professor Anthony Forster said: “We were delighted to have the chance to talk to business leaders from China who are working across a number of technological fields which are also strengths at the University of Essex including data analytics, robotics, intelligent systems and artificial intelligence.

“Essex International is helping us build strong links with Chinese entrepreneurs and the Jiangsu Provincial Government. We are confident these connections will lead to new partnerships which will take forward our international mission to deliver excellence in research and excellence in education.”

The delegation included Sun Lihua of Chinese-based company Wow Face, He Liwen from the Jiangsu Industrial Technology Research Institute, Wang Rong Chuan from the Robotics and Intelligent Equipment Institute, Shan Liang from Institute of Jiangnan University (Yangzhou), Ji Cheng from the Jiangnan Graphene Research Institute, and Zhou Jun from the Nanjing Institute of Advanced Laser Technology.

The visitors, who were accompanied by the head of Essex International, Peter Manning, viewed facilities at the university’s Colchester campus including the Bloomberg trading floor at the Essex Business School, research laboratories in the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering and the Parkside Office Village on the Knowledge Gateway research and technology park.