Unlike traditional universities in China, the new breed of software school aims to provide practical experience, encouraging students to work on real software development projects.
For her thesis, Zhu is creating a model information system for the Chinese Olympic Committee to use to track results and manage the games when Beijing hosts the 2008 Summer Olympics. She works in the computer lab every morning. Once a week, she takes classes in Web services, data mining and customer-relationship management, all taught by professors from the United States.
"A lot of my classmates have gone to many big companies such as Intel, Microsoft, IBM and Motorola for there internships," she said.
The campus seems light-years away from typical Chinese universities. A fiber-optic network runs through the campus, and each student has a computer in his or her dorm room with broadband Internet access. In Luo Xiao Chuan's dorm room, a picture of a silver BMW with a California license plate hangs on the door. Thick cables taped to the wall snake around bunk "
'beds, mosquito netting and drying laundry, connecting to a blinking Ethernet box.
Nearby, students in the school's new computer lab talked about their aspirations with a reporter, speaking fluent English. China's booming economy and resolve to build a world-class "
Beijing's high-tech district of businesses, research institutes and universities, known as Zhongguancun, "is already like Silicon Valley," said Jim Jia, 24.
Jia, who is from the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, is studying toward a master's degree in embedded software systems while working part time as an intern at Motorola in Beijing. "
Students said they were inspired by recent Chinese contributions to mobile phone technology. Chinese mobile phone equipment maker Datang developed a new Chinese standard for the latest generation of wireless technology, bypassing the American and European network standards.
But technology is just one part of the equation. Developing a strong software industry in China also will require better business management, students said. "Foreign companies have good salary and management that attract me,' Jia said. Management at Chinese companies is poor, he said, with a hierarchy and reward system based more on personal connections than merit.
Western support
To introduce concepts and practices from abroad, the school has recruited U.S. technology executives and academics as its department heads, including professionals from Microsoft, the University of California-Berkeley and Renssealaer Polytechnic Institute.
Unlike most Chinese universities, the software school gets much of its funding from foreign companies. They have given more than $2 million in donations, grants and equipment, with IBM accounting for about one-third of the total.
Western companies see their support of the school as good for their expanding business in China. "By training the future players of technology in China," IBM will gain access to skilled technical talent, said Xiaoping Qiu, manager of university relations at IBM China.
The software school has even launched a venture-capital business to attract investment, help graduates spin off start-ups and provide long-term funding. It closed its first round of fundraising in th fall with $20 million, including $5 million in foreign investment.
With the benefits of massive foreign investment and training, a booming economy and a national mandate, China is poised to surge ahead -- and perhaps to one day rival American leadership in technology.
Nothing reflects that potential more than the software students' confidence and desire to become the country's new tech pioneers. "