International students from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Xi'an Jiaotong University won the first prize and third prize at the inaugural ICIM Student Competition in Intelligent Manufacturing, held recently at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre alongside the 2026 China College Students' Mechanical Engineering Innovation and Creativity Competition.

The event marked the first time the competition was opened to international students. The international track — the ICIM Student Competition in Intelligent Manufacturing, organized by the International Consortium of Intelligent Manufacturing — attracted more than 50 participating institutions from over 30 countries and some 200 teachers and students, including more than 100 overseas students. Organizers required students from different countries and universities to be mixed into teams, competing side by side and being judged against the same standards.

Contestants from the School of Mechanical Engineering at the ICIM Student Competition in Intelligent Manufacturing.

Four international students from Morocco, Italy and Pakistan represented the school, forming two teams that each paired two international students with an undergraduate from Fuyao Institute of Education, in line with the mixed-team rule. The cross-border, cross-university lineups became one of the most distinctive sights of the contest.

The first-prize team at the awards ceremony.

The third-prize team at the awards ceremony.

The first-prize team comprised EL'houssine Labtaimi, a full-time international student from Morocco, Lorenzo Lagna, an exchange student from the Politecnico di Torino, and one Fuyao undergraduate. The third-prize team featured Muhammad Iftikhar, a full-time international student from Pakistan, Giada Rossignoli, an exchange student from the Politecnico di Milano, and one Fuyao undergraduate.

Teams competed in an "intelligent recognition and flexible assembly" scenario, in which they had to integrate industrial cameras — including 3D cameras — edge control units and pneumatic actuators to automatically identify a product's appearance, colour, size and pose, and then complete a flexible assembly task accordingly. Working side by side with students from other universities, the school's international students demonstrated both the results of its "convergent training" approach for overseas students and a new model of joint cultivation and cross-institutional collaboration.

Award List

Event	Award	Students
ICIM Student Competition in Intelligent Manufacturing	First Prize	EL'houssine Labtaimi (Morocco), Lorenzo Lagna (Italy), one Fuyao undergraduate
ICIM Student Competition in Intelligent Manufacturing	Third Prize	Muhammad Iftikhar (Pakistan), Giada Rossignoli (Italy), one Fuyao undergraduate

"Preparing for and taking part in the competition sharpened our engineering practice and innovation skills, and gave us a close-up look at how far China's intelligent manufacturing industry has advanced," the students said. "It deepened our understanding of, and identification with, China's engineering education and 'Made in China.'"

In recent years, the School of Mechanical Engineering has refined its systems for joint programs and talent development, building an international training framework that runs multiple tracks in parallel — joint Chinese-foreign programs, all-English instruction, dual degrees, industry-education integration, short-term advanced study and inter-university exchange — with notable progress in international cooperative education. This latest award is a significant reflection of the quality of the school's international student training, and has generated valuable experience for organizing international students to take part in high-level academic competitions. The school will continue to use competitions as a lever to cultivate high-quality engineering talent with an international outlook and with a genuine affinity for China.