Francesco Serdoz at Cosmartor Intelligent Suspension Tech. (Qingdao) Co., Ltd [Photo provided to China.org.cn]

This spring is an exciting period for Francesco Serdoz, an Italian postgraduate majoring in automation and control engineering at Politecnico di Milano, a public scientific-technological university located in Italy. For the last three months, he has been an international academic visitor at an intelligent suspension company in Qingdao, a seaside city located in east China's Shandong province.  

"For me, it is a unique opportunity to make an important first practice in a company and collaborate with a Chinese team," Serdoz told China.org.cn during a recent interview.

After applying for a research group based at Politecnico di Milano, which collaborates with the School of Vehicles and Mobility of Tsinghua University in Beijing, Serdoz received the chance to spend three months as an intern at Cosmartor Intelligent Suspension Tech. Co., Ltd. His daily work mainly included checking cars' setup and calibrating parameters. "It is really a rewarding position since I need to collaborate with the team both from Italy and China, and in an international environment that is the fundamental key of the success of the company," he said, referring to his internship experience.

Cosmartor Intelligent Suspension Technology (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. manufactures intelligent suspension systems for the automotive industry by utilizing magnetorheological suspension technology created by the School of Vehicles at Tsinghua University and the Automation Department of Politecnico di Milano, according to the company's official website. Cosmartor Intelligent Suspension Technology (Qingdao) Co., Ltd. was co-founded in 2019 by Professor Wei Yintao from the School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, and Professor Sergio Savaresi at Politecnico di Milano. It is located in the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area (SCODA) in Jiaozhou, a county-level city of Qingdao.

In the past few years, Qingdao has aimed to attract more international companies to encourage high-quality development and enhance its efforts in becoming an innovative scientific hub. To this end, Jiaozhou has created and disseminated a series of support policies for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that use special and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products. The area has also built a high-quality enterprise echelon cultivation system and established a three-level enterprise cultivation system ranging from the municipal to the national level. 

As a coastal city, Qingdao is inherently open and inclusive, with a local objective of becoming a nationally recognized important open city. The establishment of the SCODA, which emerged as an essential hub for high-tech development and business, has undoubtedly given the city unprecedented opportunities for high-level opening up and high-quality development. 

The SCODA has established incentives for companies that focus on high-tech development to quickly begin projects in the area. In the case of Cosmartor, project inspection and project signing were completed in just half a month, according to Li Xuebing, the general manager at Cosmartor. "This is not only recognition and support for the project, but also a reflection of Qingdao's great openness," he added.

"Working in a continuously growing environment makes me give all that I can offer for taking the company even farther," said Serdoz, sharing what he gained during his time at Cosmartor. "I think the open environment will attract more and more international cooperators to come," he told China.org.cn while also expressing that, as a student who likes to travel abroad, he has never felt as safe and happy as he has during his time in China.

"I would like to learn Chinese and continue to collaborate with Chinese companies after my graduation," he added, saying that he will encourage more of his classmates to apply for this internship position.