News Website Report (Qin Nan, Wen Kunmei, Correspondents) The seminar on the application of AI technology in Higher Education Informatization was held at the Lecture Hall of Building No. 8 on July 12. This seminar was held on online and offline in the meantime, during which the method, strategy, technical scheme and effectiveness of this application were discussed and shared.
Wang Shixian, director of the Network and Informatization Office, presided over the first stage of the seminar and expressed sincere gratitude to the Informatization Branch of China Association of Higher Education for its guidance and assistance, and extended a warm welcome to experts and colleagues who attended the seminar.
As for such AI application, Song Shibin, Executive Vice Secretary-General of the Informatization Branch, made a speech and put forward three suggestions: firstly, since AI is an emerging technology, based on the principle of "Method overweighs Technology, Organizational Innovation overweighs Technological Innovation", colleges and universities shall be familiar with the basic meaning and operation rules of AI and take a holistic and systematic approach, instead of pursuing rash construction and development beyond objective laws. Secondly, the AI application shall closely adapt to the core tasks of schools and play a positive part in breaking down the concept of preferring diplomas, seniority and academic papers over actual contributions, exploring data value, and objectively evaluating the quality of teaching and scientific research. Thirdly, management on the AI application in higher education, data security and legal risks involved shall be in full consideration and never go beyond authorities and against laws. He also mentioned that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Informatization Branch of China Association of Higher Education, and it has continuously renewed its work methods and obtained great results in such fields as the research on big data monitoring for higher education informatization, scholar forums and research projects on higher education informatization.
A speech by Wu Qiang, Vice President of Zhejiang Tonghuashun Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., indicated that the company, focusing on R&D, is serving over 500 colleges and universities across the country, in order to accomplish its mission of improving education in China by applying AI technology. He hopes that the company's AI technology will be deeply integrated in the IT infrastructure of colleges and universities for their IT development.
Professor Chen Wenzhi, director of the Information Technology Center of Zhejiang University, made an online opening report themed intellectual technology empowering IT application. In this report, he demonstrated the research hotspots and developments of intelligent technology and education in a visual and clear way through bibliometric methods. Moreover, he shared the application of AI technology in such fields as IT environment, teaching practices, scientific research innovation and educational governance of Zhejiang University. The successful cases of ZJU Intelligent Hybrid Cloud, Learning in ZJU, SmartCloud Classrooms impressed attendees.
A report named Overview of AI Technology and Typical Applications made by Professor Tan Yihua from the School of Artificial Intelligence and Automation of HUST covers the meaning and history of artificial intelligence as well as its current situations and trends. In addition, Professor Tan shared its typical applications at home and abroad and relevant results his research team had achieved. This report, simple but profound, gives attendees a more holistic approach to AI technology, and also enlightens them about its application in higher education informatization.
The second stage of the seminar was hosted by Ji Qun, director of the Information Management Department of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law. In this stage, there are three reports. The first one themed Management Innovation and Information Enabling was given by Zhang Xiaowei from the Financial Department of the Union Hospital affiliated with Tongji Medical College of HUST, in which he shared the application of AI technology in the financial management information system of the Union Hospital of HUST and showed scenarios where software robots manage scientific research expenses, drug consumables and other materials in storage and automatically process accounting documents. With the AI application, the financial operations become more efficient, greatly reducing the workload of financial and administrative personnel.
The second report themed Case Sharing of AI Application in Education by Rui Tong from the Service Business Department of Zhejiang Tonghuashun Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., introduced the company's services in terms of digital campus, smart research and practical teaching.
The third report themed Intelligent Q&A and Recommendation System of Higher Education by Qin Nan from the Network and Computing Center of HUST shared the thoughts and methods of development, technical schemes and main algorithms of the system and the results of its application.
The discussion was chaired by Zhang Miao, director of the Education Technology Center of South-Central Minzu University. The attendees included Li Zhenhua, deputy director of the Informatization Office, China University of Geosciences, Guo Yifei, deputy director of the Information Management Department, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Tang Hua, director of the Information Technology Center, Hubei University of Technology, Huang Guofeng, director of the Information Technology Center, Wuhan Institute of Shipbuilding Technology, and Rui Tong from the Service Business Department of Zhejiang Tonghuashun Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. They had a thorough discussion on "The application of AI technology in education, teaching, peaceful campus, IT O&M and other scenarios" and on "How to create a cooperation mode of "one university's innovation available to multiple universities?" among universities in Central China. Experts argue that there is still a large potential for the application of AI technology in the fields of education and teaching, scientific research, management service, scientific decision-making, teachers' development, campus network and IT operation and maintenance and cyber security. Hence colleges and universities may, based on their actual conditions, pursue the intelligent application with their own characteristics from three aspects of concepts, technology and platform, and expand the application of AI technology in informatization through cooperation with peers in the form of alliances.
The seminar was jointly held by Zhejiang Tonghuashun Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. and HUST under the guidance of the Informatization Branch of China Association of Higher Education, and attended by over 240 IT specialists of colleges, scholars, technical experts and enterprise representatives online or on the scene.
