East China Normal University broke ground on its third campus in Shanghai's Lin-gang Special Area on Saturday, marking an expansion aimed at strengthening the institution's technological development and educational innovation.

Ma Yugang, president of the university, said that the Lin-gang campus represents far more than geographic expansion. "It serves as our integration into national strategy and our commitment to taking root in the fertile ground of our times," Ma said.

"This campus construction is both a strategic move to support the university's optimized educational layout and a critical step for Lin-gang to deepen industry-education integration and accelerate our innovation ecosystem," Zhao Yihuai, deputy director of the Lin-gang Special Area management committee, said.

The university launched its new intelligent interaction institute during the ceremony. The institute will focus on human-computer interaction research, exploring areas such as human-AI collaboration and human-machine collaborative creation to develop innovative talents.

The university has committed to establishing priority disciplines, including human factors engineering, maritime and aerospace equipment technology, intelligent perception systems, digital entertainment, cryptography, and advanced statistics.

Under the university's emerging three-campus model, the Minhang campus will concentrate on fundamental liberal arts and sciences, the Putuo campus will focus on applied social sciences and governance, while Lin-gang will specialize in information technology and interdisciplinary studies supporting strategic emerging industries.