Tongji University Hosts its first ever multilingual

 International Collegiate Conference

On 25th May 2019, Tongji University hosted the FifthInternational Collegiate conference in its first ever multilingual coordination.Over 20 universities nationwide took part in this event through live streams, thatwere simultaneously broadcast on national television.

  The conference, was organized by the College of English, at TongjiUniversity in conjunction with the School of International Studies,Sino-Italian Campus, Sino-Spanish Campus, Sino-German Institute of Engineering,Sino-French Institute of Engineering and Management, as well as UNEnvironment-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD) asco-organizers. China ESP Association, which is affiliated to Association forComparative Studies of English and Chinese (ACSEE) as well as China EAPAssociation (CEAPA) and Tongji University hosted the event.

 The ceremony kicked off at the 4th floor auditorium of ZhongheBuilding, Siping campus with opening remarks from the Vice president of TongjiUniversity Prof. Lei Xinghui followed by speeches from leading dignitaries inacademia. Thereafter, parallel sessions were held simultaneously throughout theafternoon and at various university venues including Tongji.

Ms. Anne Wambui Mumbi a youngPhD graduate student at IESD was among thekeynote speakers and tackled AI-aidedHuman Existence and Sustainability which she related to her research on transboundary water resources andtheir management. Ms. Mumbi holds a first-class Bachelor’s degree inEnvironmental Studies, from Kenyatta University in Nairobi Kenya. A Master’s ofScience in Environment and Engineering from Tongji University and a 2017 presidential awards recipient from the sameinstitute of higher learning. A consummate scholar with publications in theInternational Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, Water UtilityJournal, as well as the International journal of advanced Research. 

Researchfocus: 

Decoupling the relationship between water consumption and waterdemand linked to economic growth and modelling future scenarios.

Case Study: River Nile in Kenya and Egypt and the role of AI in managingthe resources.

Summary:

Water resources are key in development and growth of any countrieseconomy, water steers the economy, unfortunately the resource is marred bymassive challenges resulting from pollution, scarcity, and climate change.Transboundary resources are at the centre of controversy of ownership andmanagement worldwide and major conflicts arise from utilization of theseresources, this thus necessitates the need to study these resources and solveany problems that could arise form sharing these resources. With the aid of AIand Artificial Neural Networks future scenarios, real time assessment of waterquality and quantity can be done to manage these resources. Decoupling the useof the resource and its demand could set the right pace and direction not onlyfor water resources but for other resources available to man on the planet. ANN was selecteddue to the Ability to learn and model non-linear and complex relationships,applicable in reality as many of the relationships between inputs and outputsthat are non-linear as well as complex. Additionally, many studies have shown that ANNs can better model datawith high volatility and non-constant variance. Therewere future prospects suggestions that were stated :such as Incorporation ofthe obtained  results to managementmodels for effective resources management communication, solutions for bettertransboundary management and access to critical data and cooperation  models for countries sharing resources toalleviate any Potential  conflicts. It is thusimperative and timely that such research can be undertaken to address futureuncertainties of the resources through modelling future scenarios.

For any questions relating to this research pleasecontact:

Ms. Anne Wambui Mumbi

Tongji University

College ofEnvironmental Science and Engineering

Institute ofEnvironment for Sustainable Development.

Tel: +86 15316166387,

Email: anne.mumbi@tongji.edu.cn