From July 20 to August 3, 2026, Dr. Jodie Wen, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy (CISS), Tsinghua University, led the Overseas Practice Team from Tsinghua University’s Wuqiong College on an overseas field study in Switzerland and Germany. Setting out from Geneva and traveling across the Alps and the Rhine region, the team visited more than ten academic institutions, international organizations and industrial parks over the course of two weeks. Looking beyond academic papers and data, the team sought to explore what AI development actually looks like on the ground across continental Europe. This question also clearly defined the two main strands of the field study: “the real-world pulse of governance and industry” and “diverse explorations at the academic frontier.”