In August 2019, the First "Future City" Application Design Competition jointly sponsored by Tongji University and Covestro came to a successful end. As two of the champions, He Ziyan, Zhang Huirong, from the Institution of Environmental Science and Technology, IESD were invited by Covestro to visit the headquarters and participated in the 2019 Germany International Plastic and Rubber Exhibition (K Exhibition). The K Exhibition, held by the Dusseldorf Exhibition Company, is the largest and most influential plastic and rubber exhibition in the world.

At the exhibition, Ms. Lei Huanli, head of Covestro's Asia operations, communicated with the champion team and introduced the high-tech materials used by Covestro in the exhibition to the students. Ms. Lei Huanli said, ‘if you want to be success, you need patience and persistence,' which encouraged students to be motivated and persistent. Through the introduction of experts, the students feel the great potential of Covestro’s materials in energy conservation, environmental protection and future intelligence, which is conducive to the students to think about how to use these sustainable materials to provide solutions for the future city. 

On the booth, the champion team showed the winning works of this competition. The work involves a conception of the ‘Intelligent City Farm’, creatively putting forward the concept of moving agriculture into urban communities, reducing the emission of  food transportation and excessive packaging, and improving the output of agricultural products through the use of polyurethane foam in soilless culture. Ecological environmental protection can also improve the efficiency of urban land use. It is a combination of ecology and economy. After the exhibition, the students actively interacted with the audience, and put forward their own ideas for the future city and sustainable development, which was affirmed and supported by the experts of Covestro.

Through this activity, the students have improved team cooperation, communication skills. From urban environmental issues interested by private sectors, the students explored more possibilities for future cities with innovative thinking, which is conducive for creating a better sustainable world.