On the afternoon of November 3, a delegation led by Michael Färber, Chair Professor at the ScaDS.AI Research Center of the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, visited the School of Foreign Languages at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. They held in-depth talks with Tao Qing, the vice dean, Professor Xue Yuan, the head of the German Department, and Professor Ding Hongwei from the English Department, in Room 316 of the School of Foreign Languages. 

Professor Färber has been holding the Chair of "Scalable Software Architectures for Data Analytics" at ScaDS.AI Dresden/Leipzig and TU Dresden since April 2024. His research focuses on artificial intelligence, particularly large language models and knowledge graphs. In the field of academic data mining, Professor Färber's work is dedicated to developing AI systems capable of analyzing millions of scientific papers to facilitate the extraction and validation of scientific knowledge. 

At the meeting, Ding Hongwei first introduced the research of the School of Foreign Language's Speech-Language-Hearing Center in the fields of phonetics and multimodal cross-cultural speech communication. Xue Yuan then introduced the development history, faculty, student training mechanism and international exchange of the German Department.
During the exchange session, Professor Färber shared the latest progress of his team in the field of scientific research and digital humanities empowered by large language models and knowledge graph technology, including topics such as academic text retrieval, language simplification, and the study of large models from a psycholinguistic perspective. Both sides agreed that there existed extensive and complementary potential for cooperation between Professor Färber's team and the School of Foreign Languages in digital humanities, computational linguisitics, and cross-cultural multilingual research. 

Specific cooperation avenues, such as undergraduate exchange programs, joint master's and doctoral cultivation, reciprocal scholar visits, offering block seminars and summer semester courses were also discussed. Tao Qing pointed out that the cooperation between the two sides should not be limited to the German Department alone. In the future, it can be extended to multiple professional directions such as the English Department and the Japanese Department, providing students with more opportunities in professional selection and interdisciplinary experience. Professor Färber expressed an open attitude towards exchanges and cooperation at all levels and stated that he was willing to make efforts to promote a broader and closer cooperative relationship between the two sides. Both sides agreed that based on the exisitng university-level cooperation framework, they were ready to expand the cooperation to the college level, maintain frequent communication, and promote substantive exchanges. 

This visit not only established an academic dialogue platform for the SFL and its German counterparts, but also laid the foundation for future exchanges between teachers and students as well as scientific research cooperation. It was hoped that both sides jointly inititate more collaborative projects in the cross-disciplinary fields such as computational linguisitics and digital humanities. 

The Department of German Studies at the School of Foreign Languages of Shanghai Jiao Tong University began enrolling undergraduate and postgraduate students in 2006. It was granted the right to confer doctoral degrees in 2012 and has consistently ranked first or second among all comprehensive universities in China in terms of German language programs (as per Wu Shulian's professional ranking). In 2022, it was recognized as a national first-class undergraduate major construction point. The department integrates basic knowledge and skills into the teaching of specialized knowledge, emphasizing the cultivation of cognitive, analytical, problem-solving, and innovative abilities. It continuously updates, optimizes, and refines students' knowledge and intelligence structures, thus fostering a group of high-end, versatile German language talents. The internationalization level of students ranks among the top in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, with 100% of them having the opportunity for international exchanges, creating excellent conditions for broadening their horizons and developing cross-cultural communication skills. Many graduates have been qualified to pursue further studies at renowned universities such as Heidelberg University and Munich University in Germany.