The proram is innaugurated at the ceremony.
(From L: Luming Duan, Amy Wang, Andrew Yao, Robin Li, Haifeng Wang, Shijie Yu)

Prof. Andrew Yao, Robin Li, Prof. Amy Wang, Dr. Haifeng Wang and CC Yao Professor Luming Duan, Tsinghua University Publicity Office Vice Director Shijie Yu unveiled the golden key together and inaugurated the program. 
 

Prof. Yao remarks at the ceremony.
 

The collaboration between IIIS and the national leading enterprise Baidu aims to create a model for nurturing top-notch talents. Baidu will set up scholarships for IIIS students who are encouraged to solve key research problems in four categories.

Robin Li remarks at the ceremony.

In 2005, Prof. Yao founded the Tsinghua Xuetang Special Pilot CS Class (Yao Class) with a view to nurture promising undergraduate students in the field of computer science. Yao Class has since set up a model for cultivating innovative talents in accordance with their aptitude and developed an extensive international teaching program. Its distinctive talent cultivation model has been highly acknowledged and strongly supported. 

In her remarks, Prof. Amy Wang introduced that up until now, Yao Class students have published 45 papers during undergraduate studies. Among them, 10 have presented talks at top academic conferences and 96% pursue further studies upon graduation and are now making remarkable achievements in the field of computer science. The SOSP 2011 paper by Dong Zhou has been the first accepted paper from mainland. Tiancheng Lou has won dozens of gold medals and ranked first in ACM Programming Contests, which has been reported by New York Times and others. In the International Academic Review on Computer Science and Technology of Tsinghua University in August 2010, the Committee Chair, Turing Award laureate Prof. John Hopcroft has remarked Yao Class program as the best program with top undergraduates. 

 

Prof. Wang introduces Yao Class program.

Prof. Yao said that the success of Baidu has demonstrated that top-notch innovative talents are essential to an enterprise. And its advantage in innovation meets the demand for more talents in China’s rapid development. With science and education being high in national agenda, the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents is critical to the long-term prosperity of China. Yao Class, the leader in this endeavor will further promote the successful model.
 

Dr. Wang introduces the most valuable problems on Internert.

Prof. Wang and Dr. Wang take questions from media after the ceremony.

In the exclusice interview following the ceremony, Prof. Wang and Dr. Wang take questions from media and further elaborate the ideas of the program. When asked about the allocation of intellectual properties, Prof. Wang said, “We both share one common goal, that is the nurturing of talents. And we will accomplish one thing, which is the top-notch innovative talent. ”