Spotlight on the North Building

【Editor’s Note: Located in the west district of Zijingang Campus, the North Building, also called Duan Yongping Teaching Building (named after Mr. DUAN Yongping, '82, Wireless Electronics Engineering), was recently put into use. This 40,000-square-meter building complex has nearly 200 classrooms with various functions, offering more than 12,300 seats for students’ daily use. Empowered by AI and ZJU Cloud, the highly smart North Building delineates the borderline of cyber space and the reality in classrooms, networking teachers and students more closely than ever before.】

Smart classrooms at a glance

To catering for different needs of lecture, discussion and online-course recording, classrooms in North building have a clear division of functions and generally take a great stride from the traditional classrooms with the assistance of the high-end supporting facilities.

Classrooms for lectures

There are 88 lecturing classrooms capable of online and offline hybrid teaching modes. The 4K HD image quality of the screen and the subtitles generated by auto speech recognition in ZJU Cloud allow for students attending class remotely. To arouse the devices, the teacher just needs to press on the main switch, then the classroom can begin to work within only 40 seconds. Classes are also recorded and instantly uploaded to the website “Study at ZJU” and “Smart ZJU Cloud”, where students can review the lessons online anytime, anywhere.

Classrooms for discussion

In addition to classrooms for lectures, there are 60 other rooms designed for discussion class, where desks can be split and combined to drive in exchanges of views when necessary. Each group of desks is equipped with a middle-size screen, making it more convenient to give presentations.

Classrooms for MOOCs

Knowledge knows no bounds, so does ZJU’s excellent classes. To promote ZJU’s high-level teaching resources, the advanced studio is constructed, where all-around camera positions can seize every sparkling moment in class. The professional shooting equipment and the expert photography team will help to polish more classes to facilitate the sharing of educational resources.

Supporting facilities around

Outside classrooms, there are also information commons where students can continue their discussions after class.

The study hall, with more than 220 seats, provides abundant cubicles for students to dive into immersive study.

“My Sweet” Café in the building never fails to provide students refreshments to pump up.

Plus, Yinquan Student Canteen is around the corner to the North Building. Dishes of all flavor await to support the faculty and students at meal time.

Last but not least, outside the North Building, the shuttle bus connects the dots between the west and east districts on campus. Welcome your footprints in the North Building.

Writers: KE Yineng, YE Linxiao

Translator: ZHANG Jinmei

Photo: Gaoxingjiuhao, HUANG Jian, ZHAO Wenting

Editor: TIAN Minjie