Introduction

Abstract

Machines are widely used in almost every aspect of human society, such as industry, defense and daily life. A middle school student can easily speak out a long list of machine names. College students in mechanical engineering around the world are in millions. People working on mechanical related jobs, including production, maintenance, research and education etc. are estimated in the scale of tens of millions. The number of people who have the opportunity to operate a machine is even larger. The automotive vehicles running around the world are estimated more than 1 billion. The industries relating with mechanical engineering contribute 9% of the nation’s total GDP in China.

With copper as a mirror, you can dress up.

With others as a mirror, you can learn much.

With history as a mirror, you can know prosperity and decline.

—Li Shimin (an Emperor in Tang Dynasty of China, 598–649)

Chasing of relevance and balance between science and art, technology and humanities, is the instinct of human creativity. Exploring the potential of young students is an important task of modern universities.

—Tsung-Dao Lee (Chinese-American physicist, Nobel physics award winner, 1926–)