ConnectING 13

ALUMNUS IN DE KIJKER
LIN ZHANG:
CHAIRMAN OF KU LEUVEN
ALUMNI CHAPTER BEIJING
A living signboard of the Faculty of Engineering Technology and at the same time a
model ambassador of KU Leuven abroad. Both descriptions apply to Lin Zhang. As
an alumnus of Group T Leuven Campus, he is not only a brilliant engineer, but also a
driven entrepreneur and an inspiring educator. It was therefore obvious that he was
appointed as the first Chairman of the new KU Leuven International Alumni Chapter
Beijing.
Lin Zhang arrived in Leuven together with 30 fellow
students from Beijing Jiaotong University (BJTU) in
2003. It was a record number of students that has
not been matched since. “It was quite a job before we
could leave”, he remembers vividly. “We arrived with a
month’s delay due to the consequences of the SARS
epidemic. It was hard to make up for the missed lessons,
but once we had met, everything went smoothly”.
At Group T Leuven Campus, Lin Zhang studied
Electronics & ICT Engineering Technology option Hardware
Design. He gained his first business experience at
the high-tech company Agilent during his master’s
thesis. It prompted him to follow an extra master’s in
Industrial Management at KU Leuven after his engineering
study. Both master’s degrees formed a solid steppingstone
for an academic career, first as a teaching assistant
on Group T Leuven Campus, then as a PhD student and
postdoc at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of
KU Leuven.
STEM education
In 2017, Lin Zhang decided to take a different approach
and took his chance as an entrepreneur in China. He had
already discovered a niche in the market in Belgium: a
dire shortage of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics) teachers to interest young people in
the jobs of the future. In China, high schools appeared
to be struggling with the same problem, so Lin Zhang
started his own business as an educational consultant in
STEM matters. His clients are high schools that he
advises on the development and implementation of a
STEM policy. This also includes educating teachers
according to the ‘train-the-trainer’ principle and
developing educational materials that teachers can use
in their own class.
Steering Committee
When on 24 August 2019 a new International Alumni
Chapter was officially installed in Beijing together with the
commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Double
Degree Programme in Engineering Technology from KU
Leuven and BJTU, Martine Torfs, Director of the
university’s International Office did not have to look for a
pioneer for long. All the tracks led to the BJTU student
who came to Leuven in 2003 to study and to teach and
who runs his own business in Beijing today. Together
with five like-minded colleagues, Chairman Lin Zhang
forms a steering committee that is committed to
connecting the 200 KU Leuven alumni in China’s capital
with each other and with their alma mater in the far
Leuven.
Yves Persoons
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