Julia has been asked to become a founding member of the Guest Expert Group for the newly opened Pudong Smart City Research Institute in Shanghai. The Institute is a non-government organisation, backed by local government. It provides consultancy services and project execution through government grant funded projects. It is a think tank. The institute will be headed by Mr Feng Songlin (President). Mr Wu Hequan will be the chair of the Expert Committee. They are both national ICT figures in China. The Guest Expert Group is a group of invited experts from outside China to provide consultant service, event support, training and even project implementation coordinated and organised by the Internation Dept of the Insititute, headed by Chongyou Du. The Group will be coordinated by Alex Bassi and Rob van Kranenburg and aims to establish long-time cooperation.