Harbin Institute of Technology

Reported by: LIU Zhongkui
Photographed by: FENG Jian
Translated by: REN Shaorui
Edited by: D. Parker
Date: October 24, 2017

On October 19th, 2017 the 19th International Symposium on Computing in the 21st Century, jointly sponsored by our school and Microsoft Asia Research Institute, was held in Harbin. Turing Award (Nobel Prize in Computer Industry) winners and other world-class computer experts shared the latest academic research from popular fields in computer science. The nearly 1,600 college teachers and students explored “the Road Ahead”. Several leaders were in attendance and addressed the conference. Among them were SUN Dongsheng, Vice Governor of Harbin, ZHOU Yu, President of HIT, and HONG Xiaowen, the senior Vice President of Microsoft, Chairman of Microsoft Asia Pacific R & D Group and Director of Microsoft Research Asia.

In his speech, ZHOU Yu congratulated HIT and Microsoft on jointly organizing the International Symposium on Computing in the 21st Century in Harbin. He pointed out AI was changing the way people work, communicate and live, enabling them to become more capable, more insightful, and more knowledgeable. It is truly having profound effects on our world! Recently the State Council issued the Development Plan for a New Generation of AI. It calls for the construction of a global center for AI and asks for early preparation and planning, anticipating progress and success. As HIT was selected as a double first-class initiative for A class colleges and universities and Computer Science and Technology as a double first-class discipline, Turing Award winners, ACM fanciers, IEEE Scholars, and AAAI factions gathered in Harbin, sharing the latest academic ideas and research results concerning AI and exploring the Road Ahead. This will further promote the development of Computer Science and Technology and AI at our school. In the past 20 years, Microsoft and HIT have carried out long-term, fruitful cooperation in personnel training, scientific research, and the transformation of results. In doing so they have made tremendous contributions to China's research and education in computer science. HIT hopes to deepen exchanges and cooperation with Microsoft and further improve our international academic reputation and influence, speeding up the realization of double first-class initiative and the goal of becoming a world-class university with Chinese characteristics and HIT specifications.

According to SUN Dongsheng, as a school from the double first-class list, HIT has always stood at the forefront of computer development with outstanding achievements in human-computer interaction, massive data calculation and AI. It is the intention of the provincial government to thoroughly implement the central innovation-driven development strategy and actively implement the related works of next-generation information technology. With a positive attitude toward industrial innovation and technological revolution, we will build a scientific and technological innovation system for industry, academia and research. This will speed up AI research and industrialization in Heilongjiang Province, and vigorously support the commitment to tackling core technology, first-class output and excellent personnel training for HIT and Microsoft, raising the development of AI to a new level.

HONG Xiaowen maintained that HIT, with its long history, has enjoyed the reputation as “The Cradle of Engineers”. In the past few years, HIT and Microsoft have carried out in-depth cooperation with fruitful results in scientific research, personnel training, academic exchanges, and curriculum innovation. Together they have trained a large number of academic talents and IT elites. His hope is that the two entities can enhance cooperation for double first-class initiative and cultivate even more leaders, making new and greater contributions to the revitalization of Northeast China and China's innovation-driven development.

The following scholars gave keynote speeches, including Peter Lee, the senior Vice President of Microsoft and Academician of American Computer Society, John Edward Hopcroft, Turing Award winner, and Academician of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and American Computer Association, Lisa Geitoor, Academician of the American Artificial Intelligence Institute, Raymond Mooney, Professor from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, TENG Shanhua, Academician of American Computer Society, and HONG Xiaowen. The speakers’ topics included: Manual of Artificial Intelligence, Deep Learning about Secrets of Efficient Operation, From Data Science to Effective Inference, Deep Study on Evolution, Scalable Algorithm of Big Data and Network, and Help Machines and Human Learning. In the speeches, the scholars shared their latest academic philosophy and research results in the field of AI as well as Microsoft's unique views and technological innovation for artificial intelligence research.

The award ceremony for Microsoft Scholars was held during the conference. A total of 10 doctoral students received awards. The Microsoft Scholarship is a project launched by Microsoft Research Asia in 1999 for outstanding doctoral students from computer science and related fields in the Asia-Pacific region. It is designed to explore, support and encourage excellent and prospective doctoral students to carry out research work. As of 2017, over 300 outstanding doctoral students have received the title of Microsoft scholar.

The International Symposium on Computing in the 21st Century is a heavyweight academic conference hosted by Microsoft Research Asia. It has become one of the largest and most influential events in the fields of computer science education and research in China and the Asia-Pacific region. The conference has met 18 times throughout China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and other countries. More than 40,000 participants, including 33 Turing Award winners have attended.

LI Sheng, the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Computational Linguistics Society and former leader of our school also attended the conference along with domestic representatives of teachers and students and related college leaders.