On the morning of December 18, 2021, the Inauguration Ceremony of the School of Intelligent Science and Technology (SIST) of Peking University was held in the Sunshine Hall of Yingjie Exchange Center. Attending the ceremony were Qiu Shuiping, Party Secretary of Peking University, Hao Ping, President of Peking University, Zhang Pingwen and Huang Ru, Vice Presidents of Peking University, Sun Qingwei, President's Assistant and Secretary-General, as well as other university leaders. Experts and scholars present included Chi Huisheng, former Executive Vice President of Peking University, Dai Qionghai, Dean of the School of Information Science and Technology at Tsinghua University and Chairman of the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, and Cheng Heping, Academician of the Future Technology Academy at Peking University, Peng Lianmao, Academician of the School of Information Science and Technology, and representatives from Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, Zhongguancun Management Committee, Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence, relevant functional departments and schools of Peking University, as well as faculty, students, and alumni representatives from SIST. The event was hosted by Prof. Zhu Songchun from Peking University.
Inauguration ceremony
Huang Ru, on behalf of the university, officially announced the establishment of SIST.
Huang Ru announces the establishment of SIST
Huang Ru expressed her hope that the scholars at Peking University would carry forward the glorious tradition, shoulder their responsibilities and missions, and make new and greater contributions to talent cultivation, academic development, and national prosperity. Firstly, she emphasized the importance of training high-level innovative talents in the field of artificial intelligence to fill the talent gap. Secondly, she encouraged active exploration of leading technologies for the future, pushing China's intelligent science and technology to the forefront of the world. Thirdly, she called for the gathering and cultivation of outstanding scholars to build a high-level faculty team in the field of artificial intelligence. Lastly, she emphasized the need to strengthen external exchanges and cooperation, actively promote the transformation of achievements, and serve the economic and social development.
Academician Han Qide, Vice Chairman of the 10th and 11th National People's Congress Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Honorary Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, inscribed the words "走自己的路" for the establishment of SIST.
Han Qide's inscription
Li meng, a member of the Party Group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, congratulated the establishment of School of Intelligent Science and Technology through a video message. He pointed out that the Party Central Committee attaches great importance to the development of artificial intelligence, and General Secretary Xi Jinping has made important instructions on the development of artificial intelligence on multiple occasions. He expressed his hope that SIST would fully leverage the advantages of Peking University's comprehensive talent cultivation system and strong appeal to attract and cultivate more outstanding talents and high-level innovation teams in the field of artificial intelligence, creating a world-class base for talent cultivation in artificial intelligence. He also encouraged the school to make full use of the advantages of Peking University's rich disciplines and deep accumulation of basic research, aim at the bottlenecks of artificial intelligence's basic theories, actively undertake major tasks in key frontier areas of artificial intelligence, gather innovative forces from multiple disciplines, strengthen cross-disciplinary integration and innovation in frontier fields, and strive to produce more original achievements with significant impact, laying a solid foundation for the development of weak artificial intelligence towards general artificial intelligence. Furthermore, he emphasized the need to take advantage of Peking University's rich resources and extensive cooperation network with top overseas universities, advanced regions in AI research and development, prestigious schools, and research institutes, improve open cooperation mechanisms, and engage in in-depth exchanges to build a new pattern of cooperation.
Li Meng giving a speech
Zhu Songchun reported on the history, progress, and plans of the intelligent discipline at Peking University. Peking University is one of the earliest teaching and research units in China to explore artificial intelligence, with a strong academic strength. In 1985, under the joint initiative of senior Peking University figures such as Cheng Minde, Shi Qingyun, Chi Huisheng, and Tang Shiwei, the Information Science Center was established with the Departments of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Radio as the main units, marking the university's entry into interdisciplinary research in information science. In the 21st century, intelligent science has become one of the most promising and challenging research fields in information science. In 2002, relying on the Information Science Center, Peking University established China's first Department of Intelligent Science and formed a complete education system for bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the field of artificial intelligence as early as 2007 in China. Zhu acknowledged that figures like Cheng Minde, Wang Xuan, Shi Qingyun, Chi Huisheng, He Xingui, Tang Shiwei, Zha Hongbin, Xie Kunqing, Wu Xihong, and other pioneers and past leaders have laid a solid foundation for Peking University to continue to lead and achieve brilliance in the field of artificial intelligence. He emphasized that SIST will carry forward the past achievements and actively respond to the national strategic deployment in artificial intelligence, supporting the construction of an international "innovation source" for artificial intelligence in Beijing, supporting the construction of new engineering disciplines, new humanities and social sciences, and new medical disciplines at Peking University, and promoting the construction of an artificial intelligence experimental class education system to cultivate world-class top-tier talents in artificial intelligence.
Zhu Songchun giving a speech
Opening Ceremony
PKU Council Chair Qiu Shuiping, PKU President and other esteemed members of the PKU administration jointly unveiled the School of Intelligence of Peking University.
We are confident that SIST will soar to even greater heights!
