From June 17 to 20, 2025, the first bilateral graduate student forum between Tongji University and the University of Cambridge was held in Cambridge, marking the first tangible outcome of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2024 between CCE at Tongji University and the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Centered on the theme “From Concrete to Code: Civil Engineering in the Digital Era,” the forum facilitated dynamic academic exchanges between 13 graduate students from CCE and over 20 faculty members and students from the University of Cambridge. The discourse was advanced by dual keynote presentations: Cambridge’s Prof. Viggiani analyzed the behavior of soil during freezing and thawing, while CCE’s Vice Dean Prof. Fang Liu proposed innovative frameworks for human-centered underground space. This successful inaugural forum, made possible by the MoU, establishes a significant platform for academic collaboration between the institutions.