Constructing connections

Briseghella (left) takes part in a football game organized by the college of civil engineering in Fuzhou University. Photos provided to China Daily

Italian engineer Bruno Briseghella is building human relationships in Fuzhou, Liu Xiangrui reports.

Bruno Briseghella likes to build bridges-both physical ones and those between people. 

The Italian engineer, who is the dean of the college of civil engineering in Fuzhou University in East China's Fujian province, plays a key role in the college's efforts toward internationalization.

Briseghella's connections with the college started in 2007, when he met its former dean, Chen Baochun, at a seminar in Venice.

Following some collaboration with the college in teaching and research, Briseghella became a visiting professor in 2011.

A year later, he joined the college full time under the central government's Recruitment Program of Global Experts.

"There are more opportunities in China to convert my research to reality compared with other places," Briseghella, 44, says. "China is developing so fast. I can feel the energy. It's like I came to the center of the world."

Briseghella says that, at the beginning, Fuzhou appeared like a tough place for him. The city's big size, population and crazy traffic was in sharp contrast to his hometown.

"There is a totally different relationship between people and the city here," he says, adding that his Chinese colleagues have given hima sense of home.