On October 25, 2018, the first Session of the Second Governing Board and the first Session of the Second Advisory Committee of the International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology under the Auspices of UNESCO (IKCEST) were held in Deqing, China.

The Governing Board meeting was chaired by Chen Zuoning, Chair of the Governing Board and vice president of CAE, and attended by Mr. Philippe Pypaert, Programme Specialist of UNESCO Beijing Office, CAE Member Pan Yunhe, CAE Member Li Guojie, CAE Foreign Member Prof. Raj Reddy, Prof. Otthein Herzog, Member of German Academy of Science and Engineering, Prof. Narayanaswamy Balakrishnan, Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Jan Eloff at University of Pretoria in South Africa, and Mr. Zhou Jiagui, representing the National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO as a governing board member institution. The meeting announced the lists of the members of the Second Governing Board and the Second Advisory Committee of IKCEST, reviewed the IKCEST 2018 Annual Work Report, and examined and adopted the IKCEST Biennial Work Plan (2019-2020). The attending Governing Board members spoke highly of IKCEST’s work in the past year and gave suggestions on the proposed Biennial Work Plan.

The Advisory Committee meeting was co-chaired by CAE Member Pan Yunhe and Prof. Raj Reddy, the co-chairs of the Advisory Committee and attended by the Advisory Committee members including CAE Member Wu Cheng, CAE Member Wu Zhiqiang, Prof. Zhuang Yueting, Prof. He Liang and Mr. Liu Xiaoyun. The IKCEST General Platform and its four knowledge service systems presented on their work progress and made online demonstrations on Disaster Risk Reduction, Intelligent City, Silk Road Sciences and Technology, and Engineering Education. The advisory committee members respectively had in-depth discussions before giving a series of suggestions including improving the internationalization of the platforms, aggregating resources more widely, clarifying user needs, focusing on prioritized content, and further aligning with UNESCO concerns.

The meetings were also attended by the IKCEST Secretariat and relevant personnel of the IKCEST general platform and knowledge service systems teams.