On January 4, the first working day of the new year, Lei Jun, founder, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, announced on Weibo that the Xiaomi Group 2021 Million DOLLAR Technology Award was officially announced. This is Xiaomi's third million dollar technology award, and the highest prize is the CyberDog "Iron Egg" bionic robot team. It is worth noting that the team has two members of the 2020 new master's degree graduates, which is the first time in Xiaomi, and it also makes Lei Jun feel particularly surprised. Lei Jun said that "technology-oriented" is the iron law that Xiaomi will never change, and ensuring the sense of achievement and happiness of engineers is the primary priority of the group. Xiaomi will unswervingly continue to increase R & D investment, 5 years of R & D investment will exceed 100 billion yuan, in addition, 2022 will continue to recruit 5,000 outstanding young engineers.
The "Iron Egg" robot won the award, and the fresh graduates brought the biggest surprises
Under the background of continuous research and development for many years, Xiaomi's technological achievements have shown a blowout trend. This has led to fierce competition for the 2021 Xiaomi Million Dollar Award. It is understood that a total of 68 projects have been submitted, and the level is extremely high. In the end, in addition to the CyberDog "Iron Egg" bionic robot that won the highest award, the mobile phone "Immortal Second Charge" team and the liquid camera team won the second prize, 8 teams won the third prize, and 9 teams won the excellence award.
Lei Jun said that the award selection is full of talents and surprises, especially the "Iron Egg" team brought triple surprises. First of all, the Iron Egg project brings together the technologies of Xiaomi's multiple R&D teams, and these technologies have been applied in core products. It is understood that the Xiaomi Mi 12's well-received new computational photography technology "All Things Tracking" function comes from the "master tracking technology" of the iron egg.
Secondly, the Iron Egg project represents the pioneering spirit of Xiaomi engineers, and a small team has made achievements far beyond people's imagination. Bionic robots are a multidisciplinary cross-integration field with great challenges. After 10 months, Xiaomi's robot team completed the pre-research and batch delivery of the first generation of bionic quadruped robot technology, and boldly innovated in technologies such as joint motors, motion control, and intelligent interaction, reducing the price of quadruped bionic robots to less than 10,000 for the first time and achieving mass production, which is very remarkable.
Most importantly, there are two fresh master's graduates recruited by the school in 2020 on the Iron Egg team. The two young engineers joined Xiaomi for only a year and won Xiaomi's highest technical award, which was the first time in Xiaomi. Lei Jun praised: "heroes out of youth", and strongly recommended that all departments of Xiaomi boldly use young outstanding talents.
Increase R&D investment in 500 billion yuan in 22 years, and recruit 5,000 engineers in 22 years
According to reports, by the end of 2021, Xiaomi has established a technology map involving 12 major fields and 98 subdivisions, covering smartphones, smart cars, robots, software and algorithms, e-commerce, intelligent manufacturing, finance and other technologies developed and applied by Xiaomi. This is inseparable from Xiaomi's insistence on "technology establishment" for many years and continuous increase in research and development investment.
Not long ago, at the Xiaomi Mi 12 press conference, Lei Jun announced that he would invest more than 100 billion yuan in research and development in the next 5 years. At the million dollar award ceremony, Lei Jun once again reiterated that he would unswervingly continue to increase investment in research and development. In the past two years, Xiaomi has not only increased its investment in research and development, but also actively promoted the "Equity Incentive Plan for Young Engineers" to provide the best remuneration for outstanding engineers.
The original intention of the establishment of the Xiaomi Million Dollar Award is to encourage innovation, encourage technical talents, and establish a young, high-end and large-scale talent echelon. As of now, Xiaomi already has 16,000 engineers, and 5,000 engineers will be recruited in 2021 alone. Lei Jun revealed that in 2022, Xiaomi will continue to recruit 5,000 outstanding young engineers. Xiaomi is currently in a critical period after its establishment, not only shouting out the goal of winning the world's first mobile phone sales in three years, but also officially benchmarking Apple in product experience. With the AIoT ecosystem in full swing and the smart car business poised to take off, xiaomi engineers await a future full of challenges and opportunities.
Upstream journalist Gu Li intern Li Zhijiao