On the afternoon of March 2, 2010, Prabhakar Raghavan, Head of Yahoo! Research, Chen Zhang, General Manager of Beijing Yahoo! Global R&D, Hao Zheng, Chief Architect of Beijing Yahoo! Global R&D, and Yong Gao, Architect of Beijing Yahoo! Global R&D paid a visit to ITCS. Professor Yao held a friendly and productive talk with them.

Professor Yao first appreciated the competitiveness of Yahoo! Research as it has differentiated itself from other R&D centers. According to Chen Zhang, Yahoo!, with core technology and global perspectives always values the opportunity to meet talents in China. It has extensively engaged with such top universities as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University in China and those in the US to take scientific challenges.

Yao believed that Yahoo!’s focus on the quality of human source in China is bringing benefit to its Asia operation. And he went further to share his ideas on how to use information technology in education and how to design a systematic and doable course against the background that China is in lack of talents at cutting-edge levels. Dr. Raghavan also presented his thoughts on the development of scientific capacity among young people.

As Gao has been amazed at the Tsinghua University Special Pilot CS Class of ITCS, Yao introduced the characteristics and recruitment procedure of Yao Class. He said that ITCS hosts many junior research fellows such as postdocs to teach courses which enable elite students to stand out. And ITCS also carries out exchange programs for students to study at MIT and other prestigious institutes.

（Professor Yao talks with Dr. Raghavan ）

Dr. Raghavan thought it has been very encouraging to know the development and success of ITCS. And it would be great to push forward science agenda, see the results and encourage more people to embark on the scientific road.

On the cooperation of both sides, Zhang agreed with Yao that Tsinghua has made a great contribution to Yahoo! as a big portion of its employees graduated from the University. Yahoo! thinkers are delivering talks in universities including Tsinghua. And because of its location in Tsinghua Science Park, Beijing Yahoo! has attracted a good number of Tsinghua students as interns and research fellows. And Yao believed that it would be good to arrange talks and exchange research ideas both at ITCS and Yahoo!.