On the afternoon of June 12^th 2026, a signing ceremony for a memorandum of cooperation took place at Tongji SEM Building A between Tongji University and SAP (China) Co., Ltd. Professor XU Xuejun, Vice President of Tongji University; Professor Shi Qian, Party Secretary of Tongji SEM; Stefan Steinle, SAP's Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Global Customer Support; and CAI Yanbin, President of SAP Labs China, were in attendance. This signing marks a pivotal moment in a partnership that was first established in 2003. Following 23 years of continuous collaboration, the partnership has officially evolved from a school-level relationship to a university-wide strategic alliance, ushering in a new era of joint exploration in artificial intelligence and digital transformation. Professor LI Wenchao, Deputy Dean of the School of Economics and Management, moderated the signing ceremony.

Signing of the Cooperation Memorandum Between SAP and Tongji University

During the ceremony, Professor XU and Mr Steinle acted as witnesses while Professor ShI and Dr CAI signed the memorandum on behalf of their respective organizations. SAP, Germany's most valuable publicly traded company and one of Europe's top three high-tech firms, and Tongji University, a Chinese institution with over a century of German heritage, are set to set a new benchmark for Sino-German cooperation. The agreement commits both parties to combining their complementary academic and industrial strengths in digital transformation and AI, focusing on joint talent cultivation, frontier technology research, internships and career development. The ultimate objective is to foster a robust university-industry innovation ecosystem and create a flagship model for integrating production, education, and research.

Following the ceremony, Mr. Steinle and Dr. Jens Trotzky, Head of AI for SAP's Customer Support division, gave a joint keynote lecture entitled 'The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence: From Task Execution to Agentic Orchestration'. Drawing on SAP's global experience, Mr. Steinle traced the technological progression of AI — from early rule-based systems, through machine learning, to the current frontier of agentic orchestration. Dr. Trotzky then elaborated on SAP's business AI framework, illustrating how agentic AI can be embedded across enterprise functions, including finance, procurement, the supply chain and human resources, to enable end-to-end business process automation. He also showcased the practical applications of the Joule AI assistant. The lecture provided an engaging narrative grounded in industry that illuminated the journey of AI from theoretical concepts to real-world enterprise deployment, resonating strongly with the faculty and students in attendance.  

Post-Signing Lecture and Interactive Session

Now that the partnership has been elevated to a university-level strategic framework, both institutions are set to achieve greater resource integration and broader synergies. This enhanced collaboration will lay the groundwork for nurturing interdisciplinary talent ready for the digital age, as well as driving the deeper integration of AI technology across academia, industry, and research.