On August 11, Professor YAO Qizhi, Turing Awardwinner, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, member of U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Dean of Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS) at Tsinghua University, was appointed as Honorary Professor of Tongji University.The appointment ceremony was held at the Siping Campus of Tongji University. Present at the ceremony were: FANG Shouen, Secretary of the Party Committee of Tongji University, President CHEN Jie, and SONG Yang, Director of Department of Basic Research of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality.FANGpresentedAcademician YAOwith a letter of appointment of Honorary Professorand wore the badge of Tongji University for him. President CHEN delivered a speech and introduced Academician YAO’s academic curriculum vitae.
After the ceremony, Academician YAOgave an academic report entitled “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI).”In the report, he elaborated on the scientific basis of AI, and introduced three new directions: neural topology as a new perspective on neural network research, privacy protection learning and controllable super AI.He pointed out that basic research is crucial to the development of AI. Some of the eye-catching achievements in AI today are the accumulation of basic research for many years. To ensure the sustainable and significantadvances in AI in the near future, wemust make more efforts in the basic research of AI today.
Academician YAO is a world-renowned scientist in computer and artificial intelligence and is recognized as an international pioneer in cryptography and quantum computing.In 2000, he won the Turing Award (the most prestigious award in computer science), making him thefirst Asian Turing Award winner.Academician YAO had led a delegation to visit Tongji University in October 2019 to carry out academic interactive exchanges with experts fromthe Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems (hereinafter referred to as the “Institute”) led by Tongji Universityon AI research.Academician YAOaffirmed the Institute’s development plan to strengthen interdisciplinary integration and focus on such key scientific issues as “independence and perception,” “intelligence and emergence,” and “collaboration and collective wisdom.” Besides, he also gave guidance and advice on how to strengthen AItalent training and scientific research and carried out a series of scientific research cooperation with the Institute in intelligent construction.
President CHEN said that in the new era, all developed countries attach great importance to AI, and China regards artificial intelligence as an important national strategy.At present, it is the best era of AIdevelopment, and AI research is in the most prosperous period. Academician YAO has made outstanding contributions and proposed unique scientific insights in the field of AI.We are very honored to engageAcademician YAO as Honorary Professor of Tongji University to jointly make new contributions to the development of AI in China, to the cross-integration of AI with other disciplines at Tongji University, and the further transformation and upgrading of traditional disciplines of Tongji University for the prosperity of the country and the rejuvenation of the nation.
After the report meeting, Academician YAO and his delegation, accompanied by President CHEN, visited the Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems.In front of the exhibits and experimental platforms, Academician YAO said that Tongji University had made ambitious plans and efforts in the field ofAI by relying on the Institute,which was a key task for the country tostrengthen areas of weakness in AI. In the future, he will continue to work together with Tongji University to jointly create a new atmosphere and make contributions to promoting the development of AI inthe country.
Since its establishment at the 8th Plenary Sessionof theConstruction Office for Promoting Shanghai into a Science and Innovation Centerin December 2018, Shanghai Research Institute for Intelligent Autonomous Systems has made a series of significant progress in building talent teams, serving national strategies and local needs, building platforms and disciplines, and constructing major scientific facilities.The Institutegathers Shanghai and global pearls of wisdom to solve major cutting-edge scientific problems of AI, cultivate high-end AI talents in short supply in China, andstrive to achieve several original innovative research results. In addition, the Institute focuses on promoting industrial change in the intelligent city, intelligent construction, intelligent manufacturing, intelligent medical treatment, intelligent agriculture, and intelligent transportation, and strives to build an influential AIscience and technology innovation center in the world.
The Institute has been fruitful since its establishment: it has successfully introduced a number of outstanding young talents from AI-related disciplines at home and abroad; it actively serves the national strategy, and a number of national key research and development projects, such as “Key Technologies and Demonstrations for the Internet of Things and IntelligentCities” and “Network Collaborative Manufacturing and IntelligentFactories”, have been approved; it actively serves the construction of the Institute, and many projects, such as “Inclusive Model of AI-driven Community Governance and the Top-level Design of its Scientific and Technological Support Program” and “Key Technologies Research and Demonstrations of AI-driven Intelligent Community Integrated Management Platform”, were approved; the construction of major platforms andscientific and technological infrastructure is advancing steadily; the mode of five-school collaboration and cross-school double appointment starts the construction of “Intelligent Science and Technology”, a Shanghai summit discipline,and is committed to cultivating outstanding young talents with basic research and cross-application capabilities in AI; after the graduation of 118 doctoral students in AI, 170 doctoral candidates will be welcomed this fall semester; with strong support from ShanghaiMunicipality, the Institute will belocated in the Zhangjiang Science City in Pudong New Area, which is listed as a major construction project in Shanghai in 2020.
Tongji University was approved to build the first batch of AI undergraduate majors in 2019. Many majors related to AIwere offered in the same year, such as intelligent construction, intelligent manufacturing engineering, data science and big data technology, microelectronics science and engineering, etc. Tongji University is using AI to empower traditional advantageous disciplines and emerging disciplines, including humanities and social sciences, promote interdisciplinary development, and stimulate new momentum to drive talent training and discipline construction.
Report by AI Jiao;
Photo by JIANG Ping;
Video by LI Hua
Source: https://news.tongji.edu.cn/info/1002/74612.htm
