Decorated with two Gold Awards and two Silver Awards, the new energy team led by Professor Chen Weirong from the School of Electrical Engineering at the University outshined their fellow participants at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva 2021 in March.

Among the University’s four winning projects, the ones of Fuel Cell Hybrid Power Tramway and High-power and High Performance Fuel Cell Hybrid Power System won the Gold Award while those of Fuel Cell Shunting Locomotive and Fuel Cell Hybrid Power System for Rail Traffic the Silver.

The International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, founded in 1973, is one of the world’s oldest, largest and most well-known exhibitions of inventions sponsored by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Swiss Federal Government and the City of Geneva. Aiming to showcase a variety of innovative technologies and inventions of the world, the exhibition attracted more than 600 projects from over 20 countries and regions. The University’s projects stood out among the exhibits and gained international recognition for their pioneering innovations in the field of new energy rail transit.

As the first in the Country, Chen’s team commenced on the research on the application of hydrogen fuel cells in rail transit in 2008, and have made many breakthroughs in the core technologies of high-power fuel cell optimization control, energy management of hybrid power system, fault diagnosis and life prediction. Spearheading the development of hydrogen rail transit technology in the country, the team developed China's first fuel cell electric locomotive and the world's first fuel cell hybrid tram, and provided the core technology for China's first hydrogen fuel cell hybrid locomotive.