- History
The Department of Heat and Refrigeration Engineering, a unit of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, was established on January 22, 2002. The forerunners of the Department were the Research Center for Thermal equipments and Renewable energy founded in 1986 and the Department of Fluid Mechanics – Thermal Engineering established in 1975. With a long history of development, the HRE Department currently manages the undergraduate and postgraduate programs (Master and Ph.D degrees) in Thermal Engineering. Fields of expertise include: industrial boilers, heating systems, drying machines, refrigeration and air conditioning, renewable energy, energy efficiency and saving, etc. In addition, the HRE Department also focuses on studying, designing, and manufacturing the equipment in thermal engineering and participates in many scientific activities both in the country and abroad.
Figure 1: Department of Heat and Refrigeration Engineering
- Educational Philosophy – Vision and Mission
- Educational Philosophy
To achieve the learning outcomes of the curriculum, teaching and learning approach plays a significant role. This can be only fulfilled as long as each lecturer and student at HRE Department keeps in their mind the educational philosophy that teaching and learning is for making students become individuals complete in intellectual capability, skills and personality
- Vision
– Becoming the leading center in Vietnam for training and doing research in the fields of heat, refrigeration & air conditioning, energy conservation and renewable energy;
– Keeping up with the related divisions of highly-qualified universities in Southeast and Northeast Asia.
- Mission
-Training highly-qualified graduates who are expected:
+ To contribute tremendously to develop engineering fields such as heat, refrigeration & air conditioning, energy conservation and renewable energy in the country;
+ To be able to work in interdisciplinary and multicultural environments;
– Combining effectively training activities with research and technology transfer activities;
– Playing an important role in promoting related activities in Vietnam.
- Undergraduate and postgraduate training
Every year the HRE Department receives 70 to 90 undergraduate students and several graduate students. According to statistics, recent graduates can find a job quickly and easily suitable for their major. Compared with the current demand for recruiting engineers in the field of thermal engineering from industry and society, the number of student graduated from the Department has not been enough to meet the demand of the society and even many last – year students have been employed by business before graduation.
In 2018, the Thermal Engineering Program that the Department is managing was certified to meet the Southeast Asian training standard AUN-QA.
Figure 2: AUN-QA certificate in 2018.
Figure 3: Thermal engineering students on their graduation day.
- Facilities and infrastructure
The HRE is one of the Departments equipped with many modern equipment for research and training of undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of heat, refrigeration, air conditioning, effective use and energy saving. Currently, the Department’s experimental area has more than 40 types of machinery and equipment, enabling undergraduate and postgraduate students to access laboratory equipment and technical models through many experimental and practical subjects managed by the Department.
Figure 4: Laboratory and facility of the HRE Department
- Annual scholarship opportunities for students of Thermal Engineering Program:
Due to the close cooperation with many domestic and foreign enterprises, the HRE Department is one of the leading units in the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology which has great funding resources for students. Continuously from 2014 to now, the HRE Department receives an annual average amount of scholarship from 100 to 150 million VND. This funding resource is usually sponsored by large companies in the field of thermal engineering, typically include:
- Daikin Vietnam;
- Mitsubishi Electric;
- Bitzer;
- Hisense – Hitachi;
- Coteccons;
- Etc …
With the average value of each scholarship of about 5 million VND per student, the annual scholarship fund has been awarded to 20-30 students of Thermal Engineering program each year. This scholarship has helped many students of good academic achievement or financial difficulties to have extra funding and better motivation to continue their studies.
Figure 5: Mitsubishi Scholarship Award Ceremony
- Job opportunities:
Graduates of Thermal Engineering can work in the following areas:
- Jobs related to the field of refrigeration & air conditioning such as:
+ Design of industrial refrigeration systems, air conditioning and other related thermal equipment;
+ Supervision and implementation of industrial refrigeration, individual & central air conditioning systems;
+ Trading in thermal equipment and related accessories;
+ Operation and maintenance of industrial refrigeration and air conditioning systems in industrial factories, office buildings, commercial centers, seafood companies, cold storage warehouses;
– Jobs related to the field of thermal power plants, industrial heating systems such as:
+ Design of thermal equipment (boiler, calorifer, …) for the processes in factories related to applications of paper mills, food processing, textiles, sugar cane, plastic – plasticizers, pharmaceutical production, …;
+ Manufacturing, producing and trading the above-mentioned equipment;
+ Supervision and implementation of equipment in thermal power plants;
+ Operation and maintenance of heat supply systems in industry.
– Jobs in the field of renewable energy and energy efficiency such as:
+ Consulting design and construction of systems using renewable energy;
+ Consulting solutions for energy efficiency and saving in fields related to industrial and civil applications;
+ Trading in energy saving equipment and systems using renewable energy.
- Domestic and international cooperation
The Department has a close relationship and strong cooperation with many large domestic and foreign enterprises operating in the field of refrigeration, such as Daikin, Mitsubishi, LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Coteccons, Arico, Martech, etc. Every year, the Department organizes many visits and internships to help students gain practical experience at companies. Besides, the Department also regularly organizes domestic and international scientific conferences. These activities have attracted the participation of not only students but also lecturers and experts from many universities, companies and organizations.
Figure 6: Visit at Daikin Vietnam company
Figure 7: The 3rd international conference on sustainable energy organized by the HRE Department.
Figure 8: The signing ceremony of cooperation agreement between Mitsubishi Electric Vietnam and the HRE Department
For more detailed information on other activities of the Department of Heat and Refrigeration Engineering, please refer to the website: www.nhietlanh.net.
- Contacts
Address: Building B5, 268 Ly Thuong Kiet Street, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Telephone: (84.8).38 647 256 ext.5897
Email: cnnhietlanh@hcmut.edu.vn
Website: www.nhietlanh.net
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