Our New Engineering Education attaches more importance to ability in practice and innovation, and requires students to pay more attention to the overlapping and integration of multiple disciplines in addition to possessing the expertise of a certain discipline. The focus is more on the ability to acquire knowledge than the acquired knowledge itself. Students’ capability to solve existing problems is fostered along with the ability to foresee any problems with what they learned. They gain the ability to look ahead to see technological and industrial developments, and grow into high-quality inter-disciplinary talents with dominant functionality and international competitiveness for the future development of industries and technologies.

The new engineering program system is student-centric. While satisfying the demand for the personal development of the students, the system can meet the needs for high-profile engineering science and technology talents of the industry. When designing a program, it is necessary to explore the cohesive knowledge structure, program system, cultivating mode and supporting system during the transition from undergraduate into postgraduate, forming a multi-channel development path for students. Meanwhile, it is required to improve learning efficiency and results of the students through integrating, optimizing and reorganizing the foundation course system of the engineering majors, following the requirements for cultivating new engineering talents. Furthermore, it is needed to explore the way to effectively develop the critical thinking, design thinking, engineering thinking, mathematical thinking, engineering management thinking, engineering ethics, and cross-cultural communication literacy of the engineering students. It is also necessary to study the mathematical thinking and abilities required for the new engineering talents, and carry out the reform and practice of general education course system in computer science towards non-computer engineering majors.

In 2019, SDIM founded the Da Vinci Challenge Camp to adapt the design and cultivating mode of the new engineering program system. As a complementary module of the school education system, the Challenge Camp offers students broader and comprehensive learning modes and innovative resources.