Penn Wharton China Center opens its doors

This week marked the grand opening of the Penn Wharton China Center (PWCC), in the Central Business District of Beijing, following more than two years of planning. To celebrate, Penn Provost Vincent Price led a delegation of more than 40 faculty and senior administrators – including Dean of the Wharton School Geoffrey Garrett and Wharton CIO Dan Alig – for a two-day series of academic discussions and a roundtable with Chinese university leaders. These inaugural events will kick off six months of local engagement, set to culminate in September with a dedication and gala celebration hosted by Penn President Amy Gutmann.


And for the more than 10,000 Penn alumni currently spread throughout Asia (and 1,800 Wharton grads in China alone), there is, indeed, plenty to celebrate. More than two years in the making, the Center’s highly anticipated opening ushers in a new era of overseas accessibility to University resources and state-of-the art research facilities – that’s where Wharton Computing continues to play a major role.

In addition to Alig, numerous Wharton Computing staff members have worked tirelessly with a cross University team over the past year to ensure the Center’s technology foster the same world-class learning environments that Wharton’s Philadelphia and San Francisco campuses are known for, such as real-time interpretation in classroom (i.e., headsets that allow for direct translation), HD Telepresence that allows the PWCC to seamlessly connect with our U.S. campuses, a massive video wall bordering the entry, and – given the cross-school nature of the space – flexible classroom designs that provide the ideal support for a wide array of teaching needs.

“The Penn Wharton China Center reaffirms the Wharton School’s commitment to serving as the premier innovator in global business education and to strengthening relationships across the globe,” according to Dean Garrett,” who noted that it will “further enhance Wharton’s position as a training ground for current and future global leaders across public and private sectors in China.”