ODUT History

Dalian University of Technology
Overseas Alumni Association History
March 16, 1999

Birth and Evolution of an Idea: (August 1989)
The idea of connecting overseas alumni of Dalian University of Technology was first born in August 1989, when a small group of alumni met on Lake Michigan (USA) for vacation. They were

Zhu Dongping (EE772, then PhD student at Virginia Tech and now President of Zaptron Systems, Inc., CA, USA),

Yan Zhiquan (ChE771, then PhD student at University of Cincinnati, OH, now Senior Scientist at Westvaco Corp, Sorth Carolina, USA)

Zhao Yilin (EE776, then PhD student at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and now Senior Engineer at Motorola, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA)

Kong Yuhang (Architecture faculty, then MS student at Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, and now Chairman of Architecture Department at DUT, PRC), and

Julia G. Bentley (English faculty, then officer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Ottawa, and now First Secretary at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, PRC) .

At the meeting, they exchanged information on overseas DUT alumni, and initiated an overseas alumni email list with a dozen alumni names.

DUT-Directory
With the help of many others, a DUT-Directory was first edited from the above email list in late August of 1989 by Yan Zhiquan at University of Cincinnati, OH. Afterwards, Zhu Dongping (Virginia Tech) and Ding Kequan (MATH77, then a PhD student at University of Wisconsin at Madison) managed the directory until March of 1993 when Lu Mingliang (ChE77, then a PhD stuent at University of Leeds, UK) built and maintained the DUT-Net in the chemical engineering department at the University of Leeds.

Creation of Alumni Association
Based on this network, on January 6 of 1993, DUT Alumni Association Overseas (DUTAAO) was formerly founded in an election via email from alumni in many countries. Ding Kequan was elected the first President of the overseas alumni society, the 5 others elected as Vice President for different countries.

In late 1994, Lu Guang and Xu Xun at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in Manchester, UK, took the responsibility to manage the mail network (DUT-NET). In the middle of 1995, Fei QIAN of Japan set up an automatic mailing list server ,called ODUT-L, for managing our alumni network, which replaced the previous DUT-NET. The responsibility of managing the ODUT-L, though, still belonged to Xu Xun at UMIST, UK. From May 1996, Li Yongcheng took over the responsibility of managing the directory. The next manager has been Yang Gang at U of British Columbia in Canada ever since.

Alumni Foundation (1993)
Alumni Foundation was proposed and created by Zhu DongPing, Wu Ping, Wang Jun, Liu MingYe and Gu ZhiHao, and has been chaired respectively by Wang Jun (1993-1994), Gu ZhiHao (1995-1996), Jim Yang (1997-1998), and Zhang JiGuang (1999-2000). Many alumni contributed to the fund and helped on fund-raising campaigns. In the past 7 years, the fund has granted many Awards to DUT undergraduates, graduates and professors. Some alumni donated books, computers, other equipment and software to DUT in their individual efforts over the years. All these efforts have promoted study and research in DUT.

ODUT Homepages (1990)
ODUT Homepage was pioneered by Lu MingLiang (Japan, 1990), and upgraded by
Lei Jiang (US, 1990), Zhu DongPing (CA, USA), Li YongCheng (FL, USA), Xu Xun (UK, 1991), Sun Lian Kui (CA, USA), Wang WenHua (NY, USA), Tang Qian (GA, USA), Sun Bo (Singapore), Cui Zhan-Feng (GA, USA), Zhang Jiguang (CA, USA), and many others. Two mirror-sites of DUT homepage were built later by Lei Jiang (MI, US) and Lu MingLiang (Japan). ODUT virtual office was developed by Li YongCheng (US, 1996). This was followed by the ODUT On-Line database by Xu Xun (New Zealand, 1997), and ODUT auto-mailer by Sun Lian Kui (US, 1998).

Permanent ODUT Web Site and Database (Dec 1, 1998)
Permanent ODUT web site and on-line database at http://www.zaptron.com/odut was developed from Dec 1, 1998 and finished by Dec 31, 1999. It was designed by Wang WenHua (US), with program assistance by Qian Tang (GA, USA), Xun He (OH, USA), and Sun Bo (Singapore) and others.

DUT 5oth Anniversary and Donation Sections
They were developed at the web site http://www.zaptron.com/odut/anniv by Qian Tang (GA, USA), Cui Zhan-Feng (GA, USA), and Zhang Jiguang (CA, USA). In the mean while, many other alumni have contributed to them in various ways.

Other Activities
In addition, a literature search service was created by Zhang JiGuang and then managed by Zhang JiaGuang and Li YongCheng to provide DUT professors and graduates up-to-date publications.

A forum called "Strategic Discussions on DUT's Development" was started by Wang XiaoGang. A great number of alumni participated in the forum. Many valuable suggestions have been forwarded to DUT leaders through many channels.

School of Information Technology
One of the outstanding ideas from the forum was the suggestion for the establishment of School of Information Technology in DUT, proposed by Alumni Wang WenHua, Liu MingYe, Wang XiaoGang, Ding Kequan and Zhu DongPing. In November, 1996, DUT President (Dr. Cheng Gengdong) appointed Electrical Engineering alumnus Zhu Dongping (CA, USA) an Associate Dean of this School.

ODUT Newsletter
A newsletter, ODUT NEWS, was created and edited by Zhu Yizu, Ding Kequan, Zhu DongPing, Liu MingYe, Huang ZhenJia and Chen Guo-Hua to facilitate a better communication among alumni as well as with DUT. Numerous alumni shared their valuable experience, ideas, and thoughts with alumni and DUT to make a better life abroad and to help DUT in its development.

ODUT Society Officers

Since the formal establishment of Overseas Dalian University of Technology Alumni Association in 1993, the organization has been served by following alumni (President, VP, Committees, Teams):

1993-1994
Ding Kequan, President
VP: Zhu DongPing, Zhao YiLin
Alumni Fund Chair: Wang Jun
Communications -Lu MingLiang,
Newsletter - Yizu Zhu
Web - Lu MingLiang

1995-1996
Zhu Yizu, President
Vice Presidents: Lu MingLiang, Zhu DongPing, Wang XiaoGang, Wang JiFeng, Xu Xun, Liu Jia Shun, Qi RongGang
Alumni Fund Chair: Gu ZhiHao
Liu JiaShun Communications - Xu Xun, Lu Guang, Li YongCheng Wang JiFeng Literature and Lecture Series - Zhang JiGuang, Wang XiaoGang
News Letter - Liu MingYe, Huang ZhenJia Xu Xun
Strategic Forum - Wang XiaoGang, Zhao YiLin
Web - Lei Jiang, Li YongCheng, Zhu DongPing Zhu DongPing

1997-1998
President: Li Yongcheng
Vice Presidents: Chen Guohua, Ding Xiao, Jiang Lei, Lei Lei, Lu Mingliang, Qian Fei, Song Baoming, Wang Yu, Xu Hongqi, Xu Xun, Yang Jianzheng (Jim), Zhang Jiguang,
Committee Members: Feng Hao, Lin Hong, Ji Yong, Jin Chunzhi, Huang Zhenjia, Sun Liankui, Wang Jun, Xie Xueli, Yang Gang, Yang Xiaolin,
Advisory Board: Cui Zhanfeng, Ding Ke-Quan, GU Zhihao (George), Liu Minye,
Wang Wenhua, Wang Xiaogang, Yan,Zhiquan, Zhu Dongping , Zhu Yizu
Home Coordinator: Yang Chuanfang
Li YongCheng, President
Alumni Fund - Jim Yang
Newsletter and DUT Relation - Chen GuoHua
Election Committee - Zhiquan Yan

Directors of the DUTAAO Groups
1. DUTAAO Column on DUT campus news : Chen Guohua and Ji Yong
2. DUTAAO mailing list: Sun Liankui, Wang Wenhuan, Zhu Dongping and Qian Fei
3. DUT Journal Special Issue: Wang Jun
4. Donation: Yang Jianzhen and Gu Zhihao
5. DUT Development Strategy Research: Zhu Dongping, Wang Xiaogang & Yan Zhiquan
6. Directory: Yang Gang
7. Literature Search: Li Yongcheng, Feng Hao, Jiang Lei, Zhang Jiguang, Lei Lei , Lin Hong, Yang Xiaoling, Huang Zhengjia, Jin Chunzhi
8. Home Coordinator: Yang Chuanfang

1999-2000
Wang XiaoGang, President
Alumni Fund/Zhang JiGuang
Web/Wang WenHua, Tang Qian,Cui ZhanFeng,Zhu DongPing, Sun Bo, Sun LianKui

Acknowledgement
We are very grateful to many alumni who have contributed to this historical article. Updates should be sent via email to Yizu Zhu, Editor of ODUT History.

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