Zhuang Jide, a well-known scholar in the field of automotive engineering and former president of Jilin University of Technology, passed away at the age of 95
A reporter from The Paper learned from the funeral committee of Professor Zhuang Jide that Professor Zhuang Jide, an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a famous Chinese educator, a well-known scholar in the field of automotive engineering, former president of Jilin University of Technology, director of the National Automotive Professional Teaching Steering Committee, deputy director of the Ground Machinery System Research Association of the Chinese Agricultural Machinery Society, model worker of Jilin Province, and the third vice chairman of the Jilin Provincial Science and Technology Association, died in Changchun at 6:30 am on June 26, 2024 at the age of 95 due to illness.
Zhuang Jide, born in March 1929 in Zhenhai, Zhejiang, is an automotive engineering expert. He graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University in July 1952, worked as an assistant teacher at Shandong Institute of Technology in Jinan from August 1952 to July 1954, joined the Communist Party of China in March 1954, and graduated from the Moscow Institute of Automotive Mechanics in the Soviet Union from August 1955 to February 1959, and obtained a Ph.D. in Technical Science. Since 1959, he has served as an associate professor, professor, department head, president, and doctoral supervisor at Jilin University of Technology. He is a core member of the Off-Road Vehicle Group of the China Automobile Society, deputy director of the Ground Machinery System Research Association of the China Agricultural Machinery Society, a model worker of Jilin Province, and vice chairman of the Jilin Provincial Science and Technology Association.
After returning to China from the Soviet Union, Zhuang Jide has been engaged in teaching and scientific research in the automotive field. He has taught many courses such as "Automobile Structure", "Automobile Design" and "Automobile Ground Mechanics". He has a solid theoretical foundation and strong scientific research ability. He has made remarkable achievements and innovations in the long-term research on off-road vehicle theory and design. His early papers, published in the Soviet magazine "Automobile Industry", attracted widespread attention and were cited many times in the works of some Soviet scholars. He has unique research in "Automobile Ground Mechanics" and "Off-road Vehicle Design", and his research results are in the leading position in the country. He has compiled a large number of high-level textbooks. In 1954, he translated and published the Soviet Higher Industrial College textbook "Automobile Structure and Calculation"; in 1961, he edited and published the first domestic textbook "Automobile Design"; in 1980, he compiled and published the textbook "Ground Vehicle System Analysis and Design". During his 10 years as the director of the National Automobile Professional Teaching Steering Committee, he guided the formulation of a unified national automobile professional teaching syllabus and teaching plan, organized the compilation of more than 20 series of professional textbooks, and made important contributions to the modernization and standardization of the automobile talent training system. A series of research results in automobile ground mechanics and off-road vehicle passability are at the leading level in China. Among them, the research results on sand passability - "Dynamic characteristics of sand and improving automobile passability" have been applied to EQ2406D desert vehicles, which are at the international advanced level. He has also written two monographs, "Automotive Ground Mechanics" and "Automobile Passability", which were first published in China and abroad. He was the first in China to creatively integrate multidisciplinary theories such as "system analysis", "technical economy" and "ground mechanics" into the interdisciplinary comprehensive theory of "ground vehicle system analysis and design", providing a systematic engineering comprehensive analysis method for automobile development. His pioneering new research field of "vehicle bionic engineering" has achieved internationally leading research results in "camel sand crossing mechanism", "sand bionic tires" and "theory and key technology research of ground bionic machinery".
During his eight years as president of Jilin University of Technology, Zhuang Jide devoted himself to the study of higher education management and served concurrently as director of the Higher Education Research Institute of Jilin University of Technology. He published several influential papers in China, such as "How can single-discipline institutions give full play to their advantages and characteristics" and "On the introduction of competition mechanism into higher education". He also made Jilin University of Technology realize four transformations: from a single-discipline institution to a multi-discipline institution, from a pure teaching type to a teaching and research type, from a closed type to an open type, and from a pure undergraduate training type to a balanced emphasis on undergraduates and postgraduates. He has made outstanding contributions to the establishment and development of my country's automotive talent training base and the improvement of the automotive discipline education system.