From August 31 to September 4, 2020, according to the cooperation and exchange agreement between EEA of Tsinghua University and ECE (Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering) of Virginia Tech, more than 50 teachers and students of EEA were invited to the first academic annual conference of VT CPES (Centre for Power Electronics System) and PEC (Power Energy Centre). VT attaches great importance to the participation of teachers and students from Tsinghua University, and particularly sets September 3 as "VT-THU Collaboration Day"). During the conference, teachers and students of both sides had in-depth exchanges and discussions on cutting-edge technical issues in the field of electrical engineering.

Professor Kang Chongqing, Dean of EEA, was invited to give a report on the development of China power system on September 3, focusing on the latest technological progress in significantly improving the permeability of renewable energy in China power system in recent years. and potential technologies to further improve the flexibility of the power system, including solar photothermal power generation and cloud energy storage, etc. The conference report was co-chaired by Professor Dushan Boroyevich, Director of VT CPES and an academician of NAE (American National Academy of Engineering) and Professor Chen-Ching Liu, Director of PEC and an academician of NAE, and 196 people from the two sides including Professor Arun Phadke, an academician of NAE, listened to the reports.

Following theme of Professor Kang Chongqing's conference report, two discussion sessions were arranged, and Associate Professor Zhang Ning of EEA participated in the discussion, and exchanged ideas with Professor Dushan Boroyevich and Professor Chen-Ching Liu on hot issues including the role of power electronic converters in the future high proportion renewable energy grid and the flexiblity of flexible DC transmission in the power system.

7 doctoral students including Li Hai, Liu Wei, Tang Kexuan, Shi Bochen, Xu Xiaona, Liu Jiapeng and Li Zhengxuan and and postdoctoral Huang Xuanrui made thesis reports at the conference, introduced the latest academic achievements of EEA in the fields of power electronics, power system and comprehensive energy, shared their views and research progress with participants from China and the United States, and had a warm exchange and discussion with the participants on the contents of the report.

Virginia Tech is an internationally renowned university in the field of engineering education, especially the electrical engineering discipline (power system, power electronics) has long been in a leading position in the global universities. The Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering has 4 academicians of NAE and 15 IEEE fellows, two international top research platforms, namely the CPES (Centre for Power Electronics System) and PEC (Power Energy Centre). CPES is the first engineering research centre in the field of electrical engineering approved by NSF (Natural Science Foundation) of the United States, it has become the most famous power electronics research institution and led the development of power electronics science and technology in the world for more than 30 years since it was established. Professor Fred C. Lee, founder of CPES and an academician of NAE, is a famous international scientist in the field of power electronics. He has long followed and supported the development of power electronics at Tsinghua University. He was appointed as a chair professor at Tsinghua University in 2017, and led the establishment of a power electronics faculty to teach the course "Modeling and Control of Power Electronic Converters" for graduate students in Tsinghua, which is popular among teachers and students. CPES academic annual conference, held in April every year, is a special academic conference of power electronics with important international influence. In 2020, CPES held its first joint academic annual conference with PEC. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the conference was fully held online. More than 900 scholars and students from 119 institutions registered to participate in the conference, and there were more than 2,300 participants in the discussions of all sessions.