Chinese visiting professor arrives at GTK for a year

Professor Xiaobo Chen, a lecturer at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (DUFE), has arrived at the Department of Environmental Economics and Sustainability as a visiting professor for one year under a Chinese research scholarship program. He was interviewed by the faculty website.

Asked what sparked his interest, dr. Chen said he had heard about BME from the director of the international office at his university, and having worked in civil engineering from his undergraduate studies to his PhD, and then spent ten years in economic management, the combination of a university with a strong economic and management background in a university with a natural science and engineering profile was very familiar to him.

"That's the kind of place I wanted to go to."

The professional direction of the department was also a decisive factor. ". I mainly conduct research in urban sustainable construction, sustainable investment in construction, sustainable development of the construction process, sustainable renovation of the built environment, and new energy policies. [...] During my stay here, I will primarily focus on the digital transformation of construction enterprises and its impact on green innovation, as well as researching European new energy policies," he added.

About his own 20-strong home research team, he said that he is working on topics including offshore wind power management policy, enterprise digital transformation and innovation research, application of building information modeling in medical buildings, deep foundation pit automation monitoring and early warning system research, as well as blockchain technology adoption. And he himself wants to research questions such as how Europe promotes the development of renewable energy through policy formulation and advances sustainable economic and social development.

He also spoke about how he considers case study-based teaching to be an effective method: "During the courses, it is important to teach with industry cases, especially focusing on the forefront of the industry. I believe this is particularly important to improve students' understanding of the industry and to better master knowledge." Asked about the combination of research and education, he quoted a Chinese saying:

"Practice brings true knowledge".

Practice here, he said, means that research should be directed at real social processes, so that we can teach students through the problems we find.

He shared two insights from his research experience. The first one is the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, such as the integration of technical disciplines with economic management. The second is the integration of AI methods with different disciplines.

The professor revealed that while he has lived in the United States for many years, this is his first visit to Hungary and even Europe (according to his LinkedIn profile, he has also studied at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and Purdue University in Idiana). He likes that public transport is good and all the facilities are very "foreigner-friendly", making it easy to adapt quickly. He sums up his personal philosophy: "Growth requires self-change, maturity requires understanding others, and success requires perseverance."

Rector's Office, Communications Directorate