Danish-Chinese Research Centers

CTIC is commited to basic research in the area of the theory of computation. The theory of computation is a mathematical discipline making the foundations for the information technology of the future. The research of the center will focus on four subareas that all includes interaction between computational agents as a central concept: computational complexity theory, cryptology, quantum informatics, and algorithmic game theory.

Not only will the research revolve around interactive computation – the research itself will be highly interactive and based on a firm and ongoing collaboration between ITCS (Institute of Theoretical Computer Science) at Tsinghua University in Beijing and the theory of computation groups at Aarhus University.

Both institutions are highly esteemed centers of theoretical computer science. In the case of Tsinghua University, Turing Prize winner Professor Andy Yao has put ITCS on the map by initiating what is probably the best elite undergraduate program in the world within the area of the theory of computation. This program is enabled in part by a supreme team of “chair professors” within theory of computation, in particular from the US and Israel, who all make regular visits to Tsinghua, enriching the research as well as the educational environment. In the case of Aarhus University, the esteemed status is to a high degree a consequence of the Danish National Research Foundation’s former involvement in the Center of Excellence and PhD School BRICS that in the period 1994-2004 took theory of computation research in Aarhus to new heights. Theory of computation is a discipline where the most important tools are paper, pencil, whiteboard and markers – and minds. Thus, the allocated funds will be used mainly to bring brights minds from the two institutions together and thereby helping especially the younger bright minds to shine even brighter. For this purpose, the elite undergraduate program at Tsinghua and the elite PhD program at Aarhus make a perfect fit.

Error-correcting codes and cryptography

When you send a message to a friend over the Internet or a mobile phone, you want to be sure that it arrives correctly, unchanged and that no third party can understand it. This is not as easy as it may sound as digital communication errors are unavoidable and the surveillance possibilities numerous. But it is actually possible if you use advanced mathematics.

More precisely, error-correcting codes are used to ensure that the errors may be corrected before the recipient sees them. Cryptography guarantees secrecy and authenticity.

Recently, the classical mathematical discipline algebraic geometry has turned out to be applicable for the construction of error-correcting codes and cryptographic systems that are better than the ones currently in use.

Further development of the research

The participants in the new Danish-Chinese research center have contributed significantly to this development. The objective of the centre is – through cooperation – to further develop the research in this field.

 The Chinese group has mainly worked on the cryptographic aspects while the Danish group has primarily concentrated on error-correcting codes. Consequently, the two groups complement each other very well. Since the underlying mathematics is the same, the collaboration potential is obvious.

 Extremely fast communication systems

Even though this is basic research, the overall issue is definitely technical. In the long run we hope that the results of the research will contribute substantially to the development of extremely fast communication systems.

The Sun is an almost inexhaustible source of energy and a major part of the answer to the challenge of providing the world’s population with sustainable energy in the future. However, mankind has not managed to take advantage of solar energy efficiently yet, and today solar energy contributes very little to our total consumption. The existing solar cells based on crystalline silicon has been in existence for more than 50 years, and the technology offers in practice efficiencies of up to 15-20%, but at a fairly high price. It has taken decades to bring the price down slowly. A clear goal is < € 1 per watt, there is still a long way to go to for crystalline silicon. However, there is also the possibility to think about completely new types of solar cells, which basically breaks with the cost-ineffective processes as the traditional photovoltaic’s offers.

This is the basis for building a bridge between solar cell research in China and in Denmark. The center is a collaboration between one of the most prestigious Chinese research laboratories Zhejiang University, Aalborg University and Risø DTU. These laboratories have combined experience, and equipment to ensure the center a place in the international solar cell community. The center will reinforce the cooperation between both Danish and Chinese research environments, each with their expertise in the field of new types of solar cells.

Goal of the Centre

The growing implementation of renewable energy sources needs conversion of energy, e.g. from electricity to fuel and from fuel to electricity. This can be done by means of electrolyzers and fuel cells. The centre aims at development of novel materials for a new generation of the technologies. The key material is proton conductors that are operational in a temperature range of 200-400°C. In this temperature range, kinetics for chemical and electrochemical conversion of renewable energy carriers such as methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether and other biofuels will be much faster with a wide selection of other construction materials including potentially non-noble metal catalysts. The latter is also a focus of the centre research.

The Center investigates metals, including alloys, with internal length scales ranging from a few nanometres to a few micrometers. These are termed nanometals. Nanometals have new and interesting properties, which are related to their internal structure. For example, they exhibit exceptional mechanical strength. The scientific focus is to understand and control the mechanisms and parameters determining the mechanical and physical properties as well as their thermal stability.

The internal structure of nanometals is highly diverse, consisting of different types of internal interfaces, spatially arranged in different morphologies, as exemplified by equiaxed grains in aluminium, lamellar nanotwins within equiaxed sub-micrometer grains in copper, and lamellar boundaries between two phases in steel. The morphology as well as the chemical composition of the nanometal can be manipulated and are key features to be optimized for future applications of nanometals.

Danish-Chinese Center for Molecular Nano-Electronics at Nano-Science Center, University of Copenhagen is a Center of Excellence established by the means of a 15 MDKK grant from the Danish National Research Foundation. The Centre is founded in cooperation with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) with the goal of stimulating and furtherance the Danish-Chinese research collaboration.

The common scientific goal of the work in the new centre is to design and synthesize organic molecules that are programmed to self-assemble in predetermined structures with a desired electronic function. The function itself is not carried alone within the single molecules but is created when they assemble in the right order. Thermoelectric-, electric- and optical properties are the focus and the academic root lies within the field of supra molecular chemistry and material science and nanotechnology.

Danish-Chinese Center for Molecular Nano-Electronics was inaugurated in September 2009.

Self-assembly of molecules and molecular recognition underlies all processes of living organisms and the self-assembly and function of molecular nanostructures is therefore a central theme within the emerging field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The exploration of molecular interactions at the molecular level is important to the fundamental understanding of how the immensely complex processes of the molecular machinery in Nature operate. It also provides insight into molecular mechanisms in chemical processes and enables us to design artificial self-assembled structures with desired properties and functions.

Our joint Sino-Danish research plan is organized into three main focus areas; i) Fundamentals of molecular self-assembly on surfaces, ii) Design and on-surface synthesis of self-assembled nanostructures, and iii) Function of molecular nanostructures. The centre thus bridges the gap from basic, fundamental studies of molecular self-assembly, through design and synthesis of desired nanostructures and finally to exploitation of the functional properties of self-assembled molecular nanostructures in a number of application areas.

Initiated in 2009 on a grant from DNRF and the Chinese National Science Foundation

Breast cancer is the second most frequent and second most common cause of cancer related deaths in Europe. In China breast cancer has shown a 38% increase during the last two years. Today, patients are offered standard chemo/endocrine treatment but this is only effective in subsets of patients.

The overall goal is to develop methods that will offer tailored cancer treatment by way of individualized endocrine and chemotherapeutic treatment with an innovative approach to translational science that aims at identifying, developing, evaluating and clinically validating new predictive biomarkers.

Partners are internationally recognized Danish and Chinese scientists in basic clinical cancer research and genomics.

University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, University of Southern Denmark, Technical University of Denmark, Danish Breast Cancer Cooperative Group, Rigshospitalet and BGI-Shenzhen, China.

PURPOSE AND RESEARCH AREA OF THE CENTRE

One of the most important purposes of cancer research is development of new methods for metastasis-inhibiting treatment of cancer patients. The activities of “Danish-Chinese Centre for Proteases and Cancer” aims at developing exactly such methods. The centre works with a group of protein-degrading enzymes, which has been shown to play an important role in cancer spread. These enzymes enable the cancer cells to degrade the surrounding normal tissue, allowing the cancer cells to spread to the entire body. The hope is that the centre by the use of molecular and structural biological methods will be able to development new types of enzyme inhibitors, which can prevent the protein-degrading enzymes from mediating cancer spread. In the long run, investigations of the occurrence of individual enzymes in the patients will allow the use of specific inhibitors of exactly those enzymes occurring in the individual patients. This will contribute to tailored cancer treatment.