Beijing, 19th November 2022 (BISTU)--- Sponsored by educational department of five provinces in North China and organized by BISTU, the 2022 North China Five Provinces University Students Robotics Competition welcomed its grand opening ceremony held online on 19th November 2022.  

Distinguished guests attending the opening ceremony included Academician Zhao Chunjiang of Chinese Academy of Engineering (Secretary of CPC Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence Committee ), Director Liu Xiao and First-tier Investigator Rong Yanning of Higher Education Division of Beijing Municipal Education Commission, Deputy Director Xu Jing of Higher Education Division of Tianjin Municipal Education Commission, Deputy Director Gao Ming of Higher Education Division of Education Department of Hebei Province, Deputy Director Su Xiaowei of Higher Education Division of Education Department of Shanxi Province, Director Yi Deren of Higher Education Division of Education Department of Inner Mongolia, Deputy Secretary Zhou Zhicheng of CPC BISTU Committee, Chief of Judges Liu Xuejun of the Competition, Deputy Director Zhao Chunyu of Higher Education Institute of China Jiliang University as well as organizers of sub-venues, members of organizing committee, experts of technical committee and judge committee, and directors of related BISTU divisions and offices. The Opening Ceremony was chaired by Vice President Fang Deying.  

On behalf of the University, Fang Deying extended warm welcome to all distinguished guests and attendants and expressed gratitude to Beijing Municipal Education Commission for the generous support. Fang Deying said that the Competition has been functioning as a high-level platform of innovation for all university students in five provinces of north China. The previous competitions have witnessed more than ten-thousand university students exchange and communication in this regard. Regional and inter-school collaboration was enhanced and firm friendship has been established while a number of innovative achievements in robotics and artificial intelligence have been emerging. Education departments of the five provinces have offered great support and attached great importance to cultivation of hands-on skills, innovative spirit and team spirit of university students.  

Zhou Zhicheng addressed the opening ceremony. He pointed out that the new round science and technology revolution indicated we were stepping into a whole-new era of intelligence. Artificial intelligence was bringing dramatic changes to life and mode of production for human beings. Considering the demand of national strategic development and social economic development, BISTU has built a new engineering education model with coordination and integration between innovation and industrial development. Themed on “Intelligent manufacturing for future China”, the Competition would motivate students to explore robotics and technical application of artificial intelligence to serve national strategy and to create new aspects of future life. It was expected that all attendants would become the most innovative talents of our new era.  

On behalf of Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, Academician Zhao Chunjiang extended warm congratulations to the Competition. He stressed that the report of the 20th CPC National Congress reiterated that “We must regard science and technology as our primary productive force, talent as our primary resource, and innovation as our primary driver of growth.”Robotics competition played an important role in cultivating innovative awareness, innovation competence, and engineering competence of students. Higher educational institutions were on the juncture of science and technology as our primary productive force, talent as our primary resource, and innovation as our primary driver of growth. It was now the time to develop new generation artificial intelligence. And higher educational institutions should constantly facilitate the integration between artificial intelligence and education and between innovation and entrepreneurship and talent cultivation.  

On behalf of all judges, Liu Xuejun made the oath that they will abide by the rules and make judgments on a fair, open, and justice manner. Contestants would be offered enough respect and all judges would ensure that the Competition would proceed with professional judgments and sound ethics.  

Liu Xiao extended gratitude to all sponsors, participant universities, and volunteers of the Competition for their support and to BISTU and other co-organizers for their hard work. Liu Xiao pointed out that China was now on an expressway of education, science and technology, and talents with guidance of the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress. The 2022 North China Five Provinces University Students Robotics Competition was in line with the demand of modern society development. It served as both an examination for teaching achievements and a platform for students to show their skills and gifts.  

Following the opening ceremony, Zhao Chunyu delivered a keynote report on “Assessment of university competitions in China and studies on robotics competitions” which covered three aspects, i.e., assessment of competitions for university students, indexes of robotics competitions, and influences of such competitions.  

The theme of the Competition was “Intelligent manufacturing for future China”. It was aimed at motivating students to explore applications of robotics and artificial intelligence so as to serve our nation and build new, future life. The Competition set innovative design in artificial intelligence and robotics. A platform has been ready for over 1300 teams from more than 80 universities of China to show their creativity in scenarios of applications for high-level robots and artificial intelligence.  

The  North China Five Provinces University Students Robotics Competition was co-sponsored by Beijing Municipal Education Commission, Tianjin Municipal Education Commission, Hebei Province Education Department, Shanxi Education Department, and Inner Mongolia Education Department. The first session was held in Beijing by BISTU in 2013 and since then it has been organized by BISTU for 9 successive years. The Competition aimed at improving science and technology qualities and academic research competences of university students, promoting science and technology exchange and communication among universities, deepening reform of talent cultivation in universities, bringing the role of artificial intelligence and robotics technology in economic development and social advancement into full play, and guiding university students to engage themselves in innovative or entrepreneurial activities.