Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) is a public university located in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China. It was established in October 1952. In Chinese, the university name is sometimes shortened to Nanhang (南航). The university is operated by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and is one of China's leading universities on research and education. As per QS World University Rankings, it is one of the top 250 universities of the world in Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering and one of the top 200 universities of Asia. It is regarded as one of the top engineering universities in China and also has a great influence on China's aerospace industry.[citation needed] It is the nucleus of most of the studies done on Grey System Theory in the world. The research group of Professor Sifeng Liu, the renowned Grey Systems scientist and Distinguished Professor of the University, is the main driving force behind this phenomenon.