The Combustion course taught by Associate Professor Dezhi Zhou at Shanghai Jiao Tong University Global College (SJTUGC, abbreviated as GC) has been honored with the 2025 Global MOOC and Online Education Alliance (GMA) Award, recognizing its excellence in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into engineering education.
The Global MOOC and Online Education Alliance, abbreviated as GMA, is an international organization founded in 2020 to promote innovation and collaboration in higher education. Its annual awards commend outstanding courses worldwide that leverage AI and digital technologies to enhance teaching and learning. In 2025, a total of 20 courses received recognition globally—10 with the “GMA Award” and 10 with the “AI Special Recognition Award.”
Combustion is one of SJTU’s classic engineering courses, with a history spanning several decades. Offered in English to senior undergraduates and first-year graduate students at GC, the course serves students majoring in energy, mechanical engineering, and thermal power. The curriculum integrates chemical kinetics, fluid mechanics, and computational science, covering key topics such as chemical kinetics, simple reactors, transport equations for reactive flows, laminar diffusion and premixed flames, and turbulent combustion.
As a model of applying AI for Science (AI4S) in engineering education, the course refines the mathematical and physical foundations of combustion and uses AI as a cognitive framework to reconstruct traditionally separate fields, including thermodynamics, kinetics, and fluid mechanics, into a unified AI4S structure. Through a self-developed AI4S solver and teaching platform, students conduct intelligent simulations and visual analyses of complex combustion processes in their projects.
The course has been recognized as a Key Course of Shanghai Municipality and an Outstanding “AI+ Education” Case at SJTU. The teaching team also received First Prize in the university’s Teaching Innovation Competition. Its innovative “AI4S + Engineering Education” model has been featured on the official SJTU website and the SJTU Academic Affairs Office WeChat account, highlighting its impact as a leading example of educational reform.
