UW-Madison faculty and students assembled at the Bascom Hill Telepresence Classroom in the Education building to unveil a video-conferencing device new to the university Friday.
Chancellor Biddy Martin, who was in Beijing, China, spoke with 14 UW-Madison students from the Grand Strategy Programs, a policy-making student group, through the new Cisco-Telepresence system.
Martin spoke about her week-long trip to China and mentioned how China and Wisconsin are similar.
""The similarities between the state of Wisconsin and the provinces that we learned more about by meeting the heads of the provinces are really striking,"" Martin said. ""Everything from agriculture, to interests, to biomass and alternate energy sources, the value of education and the dairy business is relatable.""
Chinese universities have become very interested in different international universities, particularly UW-Madison, according to Martin.
""The Wisconsin Idea, and the relationship between the state and UW-Madison, is turning out to be fascinating for the people of China,"" Martin said. ""I don't believe there's a counterpart in China.""
UW-Madison history professor, Jeremi Suri, asked the chancellor how people in China have reacted to the recent United States elections, specifically the Wisconsin elections and candidates.
""The provincial governors were very interested in the Wisconsin elections, specifically because Governor Doyle has visited [China] several times and they wanted to know the possible impact of change in the administration in the state.""
Along with the unit in the Education building, another teleconferencing system was installed in the new Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery building that will open Dec. 2.
