Nanjing Turing AI Institute was officially established at Qixia District, Nanjing, a new research and development institute headed by Prof. Andrew Chi-Chih Yao, winner of the A.M. Turing Award in 2000, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dean of IIIS, Tsinghua University. The inauguration ceremony for this institute was held on April 20, 2018, in Nanjing. Prof. Yao, Mr. Jinghua Zhang, Member of Standing Committee of CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Secretary of the CPC Nanjing Municipal Committee, Mr. Yuejian Jiang, Vice Mayor of Nanjing, attended the ceremony, signed the contract and unveiled the plaque. The event was also witnessed by Prof. Zheng You, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Vice President of Tsinghua University, and relevant members of Nanjing Municipal Government.
During the ceremony, Prof. Yao’s team and Nanjing Municipal Government signed an all-round cooperation agreement on “Artificial Intelligence +”, while Tsinghua University and Qixia District Government signed one for the joint establishment of Turing AI Institute. Meanwhile, nine “AI+” projects were also signed, including Qingjiao Tech, new generation data network project, AI+ new drug R&D project, thorough image R&D center project, AI+ cell therapy project, intelligent social therapy consultation center project, smart justice Big Data project, Moses Man-Machine Dialogue Brain Intelligence Government Affairs Project, and Everchain Project.
Nanjing was not only an ancient capital of history and culture, said Prof. Yao at an interview, but also a city of innovation. The new research and development institute in Nanjing can both stimulate the vitality of scientific research and draw on strengths of enterprises and markets, which is exactly the path of industry-university-research cooperation Prof. Yao has been looing for.
Prof. Wei Xu, Assistant Dean of IIIS, introduced that IIIS undertook the research on AI+, quantum information and FinTech. The basis for cooperation lies in the harmony between Prof. Yao’s expectation towards industry-university-research cooperation and projects launched by Nanjing Government on scientific and technological achievements, new R&D institutes and integrative development between campus and local governments.
With the scientific and technological support from Prof. Yao and IIIS, Nanjing Turing AI Institute will strength the construction and improvement of functions in areas such as major scientific and technological innovation in AI, talent cultivation, technology service of traditional industry, industrial development cluster, and equity investment institute cluster, and promote technology innovation and achievement transformation in AI. Nine signed projects are all based in Xianlin Software and Service Outsourcing Industrial Park, Qixia High-tech Industrial Development Zone. Tsinghua University and Nanjing Municipal Government will work together to create high-end AI and FinTech innovation centers.
(By Shuai Sun)
