Beijing, 15th November 2024 (BISTU)--- Co-sponsored by Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, Tianjin Municipal Commission of Education, Hebei Education Department, Shanxi Education Department, and Inner Mongolia Education Department, organized by BISTU and co-organized by Management Committee of Beijing Future Science City, the 11th North China Five Provinces (Municipalities and Autonomous Regions) University Students Robotics Competition greeted its grand opening ceremony and Artificial Intelligence Seminar & the 2nd Seminar of Integrated Development of Advanced Technologies among Universities in Shahe Higher Education Zone on 15th November 2024 at Shahe Campus of BISTU. BISTU officially announced establishment of Artificial Intelligence Institute, serving national strategy and municipal sci-tech innovation. The opening ceremony, chaired by President Guo Fu, was attended by Academician Zhou Zhicheng of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Second-tier Inspector Yang Jianglin of Beijing Municipal Education Commission, and Chairman Xie Jiangling of BISTU University Council.

Yang Jianglin stressed that North China Five Provinces (Municipalities and Autonomous Regions) University Students Robotics Competition has effectively enhanced professional skills of students, strengthened their team spirit and innovative awareness, and built a platform for inter-university exchange and communication. Having been successfully organizing this Competition for ten successive years, BISTU showed its professional competence and enthusiasm in scientific and technology innovation. Beijing Municipal Education Commission would support integrated development of AI and higher education and encourage universities to offer more AI-related programs. He said that the Competition is a great opportunity for students to strengthen their innovative capacity and hands-on skills while contributing to the great rejuvenation of Chinese nation. He is convinced that BISTU would make greater contributions to development of AI industry in China with its efforts invested in sci-tech innovation and talent cultivation.

Xie Jiangling addressed the opening ceremony. Following the warm welcome to all leaders, experts, faculty and students, he offered an introduction to educational features of BISTU, the competition, and the AI Institute, highlighting BISTU’s vision, measures, and achievements in seizing the opportunity of AI development to facilitate educational development. Xie Jiangling pointed out that BISTU is now on a phase of high-quality development. Successful organization of the Competition owed much to trust and encouragement of Beijing Municipal Education Commission and other supervising institutions and support and help from other universities. He added that BISTU would continue to provide sound service with the Competition, share latest progresses in AI research, and explore new pathways for integration of industry, learning, research and application so as to make contributions to sci-tech and educational development of China.

Guo Fu pointed out that the past 11 years of organizing North China Five Provinces (Municipalities and Autonomous Regions) University Students Robotics Competition have witnessed BISTU’s endeavor to explore “information plus and intelligence plus” areas and contribute to new breakthroughs in the field of robotic technology. Seizing new opportunities and facing with future challenges, BISTU would like to work together with friends of all social circles to make greater contributions to sci-tech progresses and social advancement of China. Then he announced the list of members for Strategic Consultancy Committee of BISTU AI Institute.

A video clip was shown to review the past sessions of the North China Five Provinces (Municipalities and Autonomous Regions) University Students Robotics Competition.

The Competition was unveiled jointly by First-tier Investigator Rong Yanning of Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, Deputy Director Wang Huan of Higher Education Division of Hebei Education Department, Deputy Director Su Xiaowei of Higher Education Division of Shanxi Education Department, Lang Huize of Higher Education Division of Inner Mongolia Education Department, Deputy Director Mai Wei of Academic Affairs Office of Tiangong University, and BISTU Vice President Wang Xingfen.

BISTU AI Institute was jointly unveiled by Vice President Chen Xin and Professor Tang jie, Director of Strategic Consultancy Committee of BISTU AI Institute. Aiming at building BISTU into a platform for AI education, high-level international cooperation in AI, and cross-disciplinary and inter-school AI research, the AI Institute would bring together available resources and provide quality service with national and municipal development in the field of artificial intelligence.

Agreement on Jointly Building the Innovation Center for Future Robots was signed by Vice President He Wei and Chairman Chen Yong of Jingyi Zhengbei (Beijing) Science and Technology Company Limited.

Xie Jiangling and Guo Fu presented letters of appointment to members of Strategic Consultancy Committee of BISTU AI Institute.

Themed “New Trend and Future Intelligence”, the Competition carried forward the tradition of “integrating social demands, quality, and talent cultivation”. It is aimed at nurturing team spirit of students, strengthening their capacity in robotic products design, development of intelligent algorithms, development of robotic technologies, and enhancing their scientific literacy and research competence. Nine categories of the Competition this year, attracting over 500 teams from Tsinghua University, Beihang University, Nankai University, etc., would see robot martial arts challenge, humanoid robot sports challenge, service robot contest, underwater robot contest, robot calligraphy and drawing contest, AI and robot innovative design contest, self-driving contest, industrial meta-university and virtual digital scenarios for robotic engineering challenge, national technological development contest, speed challenge among clustered drones, and flight skills challenge among clustered drones.

Artificial Intelligence Seminar & the 2nd Seminar of Integrated Development of Advanced Technologies among Universities in Shahe Higher Education Zone saw keynote speeches delivered by experts and scholars from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Beihang University, Tianjin University, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Tiangong University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinasoft International Education, and China Academy of Information and Communications Technology. Topics discussed included integrated development of AI and advanced technologies, empowerment of digital and intelligent technology in industrial transformation, etc.

The Competition has actually been built into a platform of innovation for science and technology competitions, academic research, school-enterprise communication and cooperation, and integration of industry, learning, and research.

The opening ceremony was attended by administrators of education departments of the five provinces, Beijing Future Science City, scholars, experts, corporate representatives, faculty of institutions, representatives of contestants, representatives institutions of Shahe Higher Education League, and directors of BISTU divisions.