# Beijing Institute of Technology

The Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) is a public, comprehensive, research university located in Haidian District, Beijing City, China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction.
BIT is one of the top universities in China. It was originally established as the Yan'an Natural Science Academy in 1940 in Yan'an, Shaanxi. Since 2008, it has been affiliated with the MIIT.

## General Rankings

BIT is ranked among the top 15 universities in China and the top 150 in the world by ARWU. In recent national level evaluations BIT was among the first 15 universities to be designated into the "Project 211". It is also the tenth university to be designated into the prestigious "Project 985". Together with Tsinghua University, Peking University, Beihang University, University of Science and Technology of China, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University and Harbin Institute of Technology, BIT is widely considered to be one of the best engineering schools in China.
Subject Rankings
According to the China Discipline Ranking conducted by a research center affiliated with the China Ministry of Education, BIT ranks among top 10 nationally in the following ten disciplines:
* Optical Engineering: ranked 5.
* Aerospace Science and Engineering: ranked 5.
* Mechanical Engineering: ranked 7.
* Information Engineering: ranked 5.
* Metallurgical Engineering: ranked 7.
* Transportation and Traffic Engineering: ranked 9.
* Instrument Sciences and Technology: ranked 10.
* Automation Science and Engineering: ranked 10.
* Chemical Engineering: ranked 10.
Note: According to the ranking's classification of academic disciplines, BIT was evaluated in about 20 disciplines.

## History
### Yan'an period (1940–1946)

Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) has its origins in the Yan'an Research Academy of Natural Sciences (延安自然科学研究院). BIT was established May 1939 in Yan'an, Shaanxi by the Chinese Communist Party with the aim of training science and engineering professionals. In January 1940 when China was undergoing the most difficult phase of the War of Resistance Against Japan the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party reformed the Yan'an Research Academy of Natural Sciences into the Yan'an Academy of Natural Sciences (延安自然科学院). The mission of the academy was to assist industrial development in the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region. Opened on 1 September 1940 it was the first science and engineering university founded by the Chinese Communist Party. Li Fuchun, secretary of the CCP Committee for Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region, was appointed as the first president and was succeeded by educationist Xu Teli.
During the founding period the Yan'an Academy of Natural Sciences received support from international organizations and individuals including Rewi Alley.
In March 1943 the Yan'an Academy of Natural Sciences merged with the newly founded University of Yan'an (延安大学) and was named the School of Natural Sciences University of Yan'an (延安大学自然科学院).
At the end of 1945 the University of Yan'an moved to the north of China.

### Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region period (1946–1949)

In January 1946 the School of Natural Sciences moved to Zhangjiakou. The Central Bureau of Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region decided to settle the School at Zhangjiakou and merged it with Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region College of Technology (晋察冀边区工科专门学校) to form the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region College (晋察冀边区工业专门学校).
At the end of the same year the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region Institute moved to Hebei and merged with the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region Academy of Railway (晋察冀边区铁路学院) to form the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region College of Industry and Transportation (晋察冀工业交通学院). One year later the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region Institute moved to Jingxing County and was renamed the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region Bureau of Industry College of Technology (晋察冀边区工业局工业学校). In August 1948 it merged with the Institute of Technology Northern University (北方大学工学院) to form the Institute of Technology North China University (华北大学工学院).

### Institute of Technology North China University period (1949–1952)

The home campus of Sino-French University (中法大学) and its Departments of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry were merged into the Institute of Technology North China University in October 1950.
During the Cultural Revolution most research at Beijing Institute of Technology came to a halt but quickly resumed after 1976.

### Post-economic reform period (1988–present)

On April 2, 1988, Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) was officially named and defined as a comprehensive university specializing in engineering while integrating science, management, and liberal arts. At that time, it comprised 16 departments and 33 majors, including vehicle engineering, applied physics, foreign languages, and industrial design. The university also housed 22 research institutes and 62 laboratories. In 1994, BIT established an institute dedicated to evaluating degree and postgraduate education. It was selected for China "211 Project" in 1995 and later included in the "985 Project" in 2000. Since 2008, the university has been directly managed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
As of 2015 BIT has established cooperation with more than 200 universities from 58 countries and implemented student exchange programs with more than 40 universities in the world including the Technical University of Munich, Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, University of California and The Australian National University.

## Campus
### Zhongguancun, Beijing

Zhongguangcun campus has an area of 920,700 square meters, including a floor space of 724,000 square meters. It is the oldest campus of BIT. Since the opening of Liangxiang campus in 2007 Zhongguancun campus is mainly used to host higher year undergraduate students and postgraduate students.

### Liangxiang, Beijing

Since 2007 undergraduate students are located on the Liangxiang campus which is based in Liangxiang University Town, Fangshan District of Beijing.

### Xishan, Beijing

Xishan Laboratory Research Center is located in Beijing.

### Fangshan, Beijing

The BIT Fangshan campus was co-founded by BIT and the Fangshan District government and is located in the Fangshan District of Beijing.

### Qinhuangdao, Hebei

Founded in 1984, the Qinhuangdao campus offers one-year pre-university program for ethnic minority students whose first language is not Mandarin. Qinhuangdao campus also accepts pre-university ethnic minority students who will apply to Beihang University, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin Engineering University and Northwestern Polytechnical University.

### Zhuhai, Guangdong

The Zhuhai campus is based in the Guangdong province of China. The speciality of Zhuhai campus lies in providing continuing education, distance learning courses. The campus is managed by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education and focuses on serving the development of the Pearl River Delta region.

## Academics
### Education

BIT has 16 national key disciplines and 25 ministry-level key disciplines. BIT offers bachelor's degrees in 60 majors, Master's degrees in 144 majors and Doctorate degrees in 62 majors. It also has 17 post-doctorate stations.

### Research

BIT's research strength lies in electrical engineering, information engineering, automation, photonics, mechanical Engineering, vehicle engineering, aerospace engineering and chemical engineering. Emerging research areas developed in recent years include Computer Science, Industrial Design and Higher education research.
BIT has five national key laboratories (research centers), six national defense key laboratories (research centers), two MOST key laboratories (research centers) and four Beijing municipal key laboratories (research centers). It also has a national key science park. The annual research expenditure in 2004 was more than 620 million RMB. BIT has a think tank, the Center for Energy & Environmental Policy Research (Chinese: 北京理工大学能源与环境政策研究中心) that conducts research on energy economics and environmental management.

### Library

Renovation of the main library was completed in 2006. The state-of-the-art building has an area of 25,509 square meters and is covered by a wireless network. It has a collection of more than 3 million items, including 1.13 million electronic items.

### Press

The BIT Press was established in 1985 and has published more than 3,000 books.

## Notable alumni

Among the 100,000 BIT alumni there are Fellows of the Chinese Academy of Science and Chinese Academy of Engineering, officials with rank higher than provincial governor and generals of the Chinese military.

### Politicians

* Li Peng, former Premier and Chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China
* Ni Zhifu, former Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress
* Ye Xuanping, vice-president of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Former Governor of Guangdong
* Zeng Qinghong, former vice-president of China
* Zou Jiahua, former Vice-Premier of the China

### Scientists

* Wang Xiaomo, Winner of The State Preeminent Science and Technology Award of China, and also the only one attended college after 1949 among all winners till 2014, Father of Chinese Airborne early warning and control system.
* Huang Chunping, Director of Rocket System for the Shenzhou 5 Spacecraft.
* Peng Shilu, "Father of Chinese Nuclear Submarine".