To further deepen industry-university cooperation, promote the integration of industry and education, and foster a two-way empowerment of technological innovation and talent cultivation, an exchange seminar between Lizhong Group and Yancheng Institute of Technology (YIT) was grandly held at the Lizhong Research Institute on March 25, 2026.

Yancheng Institute of Technology President Shao Rong led a delegation to the event. The visiting university leaders included Zhou Linzhen, Director of the Personnel Department; Gao Jian, Director of the Science and Technology Department; Luo Juhua, Dean of the School of Materials Science and Engineering; Huan Haixiang, Dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering; and Zhang Guangdong, Associate Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering. They were warmly received by Lizhong Group Founder Zang Ligen, Lizhong Group Co-founder Zang Liguo, and Lizhong Wheel Group President Ye Zhen, who also attended the seminar. Leaders from relevant departments, including the Science and Technology Department, Personnel Department, School of Mechanical Engineering, and School of Materials Science and Engineering, also participated. Both sides engaged in in-depth discussions on existing cooperative achievements, the future deepening of strategic partnerships, and the joint cultivation of graduate students. During the event, President Shao Rong presented Ye Zhen, President of Lizhong Wheel Group, with the certificate for "Jiangsu Province Industry Professor (Graduate Supervisor Category)" on-site.

At the seminar, Shao Rong reviewed the cooperative journey between Yancheng Institute of Technology and Lizhong Group, describing it as a relationship of "mutual achievement and win-win benefits," and expressed the university's gratitude to Lizhong Group for its support of the school's development. He provided a detailed introduction to the university's history and its disciplinary strengths, particularly its two ESI-advantaged disciplines: Materials Science and Engineering. Shao pointed out that Lizhong Group, as a leading enterprise in the aluminum alloy wheel industry, possesses strong comprehensive capabilities and突出的 professional advantages. He noted that the two parties have long maintained highly aligned research interests and established a stable industry-university-research-application partnership. Looking to the future, he stated that Yancheng Institute of Technology will focus on the development needs of Lizhong Group, transforming the university's strengths in talent, research, and innovation into shared developmental advantages. He expressed hope that, at this critical juncture of launching the "15th Five-Year Plan" and the university's key initiatives for advancement, both sides would further deepen their strategic cooperation. He proposed establishing an all-weather strategic partnership focused on key areas such as the R&D of key technologies for recycled aluminum alloy wheels, joint graduate training, and graduate employment.

Lizhong Group Co-founder Zang Liguo and Lizhong Wheel Group President Ye Zhen extended a warm welcome to President Shao Rong and his delegation. Zang Liguo expressed strong agreement with the proposed strategic cooperation. He pointed out that, building upon the existing innovation consortia in Hebei Province and Yangzhou City, both sides have identified six core areas for cooperation. These include research on the extreme service behavior and reliability evaluation of recycled aluminum wheels, intelligent design and manufacturing, and simulation automation. He added that they would jointly establish provincial-level research platforms and explore broader cooperation in emerging fields such as the low-altitude economy and embodied robotics. Ye Zhen spoke highly of the effectiveness of the cooperation since 2022, describing it as capable, implementable, and result-oriented. He emphasized the significance of the jointly developed wheel automation simulation system for lightweight design, cost reduction, and efficiency improvement, noting that the related achievements received the Third Prize of the Hebei Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award in 2025. He proposed that, in light of the industry trend of carbon reduction in the automotive sector, they hope to leverage the university's research teams to study new recycled aluminum alloy formulations, AI-based lightweight wheel design, and manufacturing and performance analysis. This would safeguard the "three-high" development goals of "high efficiency, high metal utilization, and high quality" for recycled aluminum alloy wheels. He stated that being appointed as an industry professor is both an honor and a responsibility, and that during his term, he would fully leverage his professional expertise in the aluminum alloy wheel field to promote the deep integration of industry and education and advance the university's disciplinary development.

During the visit, accompanied by Zang Liguo, President Shao Rong and his delegation toured the Lizhong Research Institute, the Lizhong Wheel intelligent production line, the Silicon-Aluminum Dispersion Composite New Materials Division, and Lizhong High-End Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd. They gained a detailed understanding of Lizhong Group's technical capabilities, production scale, and development layout in areas such as the R&D and production of new aluminum alloy materials, intelligent manufacturing of aluminum alloy wheels, and the R&D and manufacturing of high-end molds. They spoke highly of Lizhong Group's modern production processes, intelligent manufacturing, strict quality control, and continuous innovation capabilities.

The successful holding of this seminar further solidified the consensus on industry-university cooperation between Lizhong Group and Yancheng Institute of Technology, clarified the direction of collaboration, and built a solid bridge for technological exchange and talent co-cultivation. The past industry-university-research cooperation between the two parties has already achieved all-around breakthroughs, from technology R&D to achievement transformation and talent cultivation. The proposed strategic cooperation agreement will elevate their partnership from point-to-point collaboration to comprehensive, in-depth, and long-term strategic synergy. In the future, both sides will take this exchange as an opportunity to strictly implement the content of the strategic cooperation agreement, fully leverage their respective advantages, focus on core areas such as tackling key technologies for recycled aluminum wheels, talent introduction and cultivation, and joint platform construction. By promoting the deep integration of industry, academia, and research, they aim to achieve collaborative development and mutual benefit, injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of the aluminum alloy new materials industry.