Abstract

200,000 years ago, some 60,000 human beings walked out of Africa. Now, the human population has topped 7,800,000,000. Along the way, human beings changed the world far beyond any animals have done. In Chinese, the old wisdom is that living is just clothes, foods, living spaces, and traveling means. It is through the making of these basic needs; humans changed the world. This talk is a short version of my second book: “Manufacturing the world”, in which the human journey on making ever improved clothes, foods, living spaces, and traveling means are presented. Though, in this talk, owing to the time constraints, only the making of clothes is discussed. It consists of five parts: materials, spinning, weaving, dyeing, and sewing.

20万年前，大约6万人离开了非洲。现在，世界人口已经超过78亿。在这个过程中，人类对世界的改变远远超过了任何动物。在中国有一句至理名言：生活就是衣食住行。正是通过对这些基本需求品的制造，人类改变了世界。这篇演讲是我第二本书《制造地球》（Manufacturing the world）的一个简短版本，在这本书中，展示了人类不断改进制造衣服、食物、住所和旅行工具的过程。不过，由于时间所限，本次演讲只讨论服装的制作。它由五部分组成：原料、纺纱、织布、染色和缝纫。

Speaker Bio

Professor Ruxu Du graduated from Wuhan Institute of Iron and Steel (now Wuhan University of Science and Technology) in 1980, received his Master Degree from South China Institute of Technology (now South China University of Technology) in 1983, and Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan in 1989. He has taught at the University of Windsor in Canada, the University of Miami in USA and the Chinese University of Hong Kong for 27 years. He is the founding director of Institute of Precision Engineering, Chinese University of Hong Kong, director of Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, and Dean of Shien-Ming Wu School of Intelligent Engineering, South China University of Technology. He is currently professor of Shien-Ming Wu School of Intelligent Engineering, South China University of Technology. Professor Du's main research interests include mechanical design and manufacturing, robotics and automation.

杜如虚教授于1980 年在武汉钢铁学院（现武汉科技大学）毕业，1983 年在华南工学院（现华南理工大学）获得硕士学位、1989 年在美国密西根大学（University of Michigan）获得博士学位。曾在加拿大温莎大学（University of Windsor）、美国迈阿密大学（University of Miami）、香港中文大学任教27 年。是香港中文大学精密工程研究所创所所长、广州中科院先进技术研究所创所所长、华南理工大学吴贤铭智能工程学院创院院长。现任华南理工大学吴贤铭智能工程学院教授。杜教授的主要研究方向包括机械设计与制造、机器人与自动化。