Tsinghua University established the School of Artificial Intelligence to interpret the quadruple identity of the 78-year-old first dean Yao Chizhi

Cover News

2024-04-28 11:19Posted on the official account of Sichuan Cover News

Cover News Reporter Lu Dang and Trainee Reporter Dai Yun

On April 27, 2024, Tsinghua University established the School of Artificial Intelligence, and Yao Chi-zhi, a 78-year-old A.M. Turing Award winner and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, became the first dean. The representative of the instructor who attended the inauguration ceremony and spoke was 89-year-old academician Zhang Bo.

It is worth noting that 5 years and 10 months ago, on June 28, 2018, Tsinghua University established the Institute of Artificial Intelligence. At that time, Yao Qizhi was the first director of the academic committee, and Zhang Bo was the dean.

From the Institute of Artificial Intelligence to the School of Artificial Intelligence, what has Yao Qizhi experienced? For the only Chinese winner of the Turing Award so far, what will the School of Artificial Intelligence led by Yao Qizhi focus on?

On April 27, Tsinghua University established the School of Artificial Intelligence. Photo by Li Pai

Identity 1: 78-year-old dean

Room 1-204, FIT Building, Tsinghua University, Haidian District, Beijing, is the address left by Yao Chizhi to students.

Prior to joining the School of Artificial Intelligence at Tsinghua University, he was the Dean of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences. In the eyes of students, he is also the oldest full-time professor at the college. In addition to artificial intelligence, algorithms, cryptography, and quantum computing are all important research directions.

On the occasion of the 113th anniversary, Tsinghua University established the School of Artificial Intelligence, what should it do?

The answer is: focus on the two key directions of "core basic theory and architecture of artificial intelligence" and "artificial intelligence + X", build China's independent "AI top talent and original innovation base" with high positioning and new mechanism, and provide strong support for the realization of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and self-reliance.

Tsinghua University is one of the earliest institutions in mainland China to carry out artificial intelligence teaching and scientific research. For the School of Artificial Intelligence, there is also an important mission - based on the national strategic layout, innovate the talent training model, attract and gather a group of the world's top talents, promote breakthroughs in basic research and key core technologies, create a vertical field cooperation platform, deepen the collaborative innovation of production, education and research, strive to lead the development of Chinese artificial intelligence, and build a world-class artificial intelligence talent highland and innovation highland.

The reporter noted that when the School of Artificial Intelligence was established, the high-end forum on artificial intelligence of Tsinghua University was held at the same time. Multidisciplinary research in the field of artificial intelligence, the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents, and the deep integration of industry, academia, research and application have become topics for in-depth exchanges.

As one of the two key directions of the college, what exactly is "artificial intelligence + X"?

Back in July 2017, the State Council promulgated the "New Generation of Artificial Intelligence Development Plan" proposed to vigorously build artificial intelligence disciplines, improve the discipline layout in the field of artificial intelligence, and establish artificial intelligence colleges in pilot colleges as soon as possible.

Seven months later, in April 2018, the Ministry of Education issued the Action Plan for Artificial Intelligence Innovation in Colleges and Universities, pointing out that AI is triggering scientific breakthroughs that can produce chain reactions, giving birth to a number of disruptive technologies, and leading a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation.

This plan requires to promote the construction of "new engineering", pay attention to the cross-integration of artificial intelligence and professional education in computer, control, mathematics, statistics, physics, biology, psychology, sociology, law and other disciplines, and form a new model of "artificial intelligence + X" compound professional training.

The reporter noted that there is also a "timetable" in the plan - by 2020, the construction of 100 "artificial intelligence + X" compound specialties, the establishment of 50 artificial intelligence colleges, research institutes or interdisciplinary research centers; by 2030, universities should become the core force of the construction of the world's major artificial intelligence innovation centers and the talent highland leading the development of a new generation of artificial intelligence, providing scientific and technological support and talent guarantee for the mainland to rank among the forefront of innovative countries.

On June 28, 2018, two months after the plan was issued, Tsinghua University announced the establishment of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence, with Yao Qizhi as the director of the academic committee.

Tsinghua University said at the time that the Institute of Artificial Intelligence takes the original basic theory of artificial intelligence as the starting point, and strives to produce disruptive innovation achievements in the basic theory and key technologies of artificial intelligence on the basis of exploring the nature of intelligence.

Identity 2: The only Chinese winner of the Turing Award

Yao is the only Chinese-American computer scientist to have won a Turing Award to date.

As the highest award in the field of computer science, the Turing Award was founded by the American Computer Society (ACM) in 1966, named after Turing, the founder of computer concepts, and selects one to three winners every year, which is on a par with the Nobel Prizes in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics.

According to public information, Yao Qizhi won the Turing Award in 2000 for his "contribution fields/reasons for awarding" as follows: computational theory, including pseudorandom number generation, cryptography and communication complexity.

Yao Qizhi's undergraduate teaching data map. Image source: Tsinghua University website

In a more popular interpretation in the academic community, Yao Chi-zhi, who is known as "one of the founders of the foundation of modern cryptography in the world", won the Turing Award for his many "fundamental and significant" contributions to computational theory.

In fact, as early as 1993, he was the first to propose the complexity of quantum communication and basically completed the theoretical foundation of quantum computers. In 1995, he proposed the distributed quantum computing model, which became the basis for the security of distributed quantum algorithms and quantum communication protocols......

Yao Qizhi was born in Shanghai in 1946, and his ancestral home is Xiaochang, Hubei. In 1967, he received a bachelor's degree in physics from National Taiwan University. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University in 1972 and his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois three years later.

From 1975 to 1986, he was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley. From 1986 to June 2004, he spent 18 years teaching at Princeton University. During this time, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

In a list of universities ranked by the number of Turing Award winners (as of April 2021), Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley, and Princeton University, where Yao has taught, took the top four. The fifth place on this list is Harvard University, where Yao Qizhi studied for his first doctorate.

In 2004, at the age of 58, Yao was elected as a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It was also the year that he resigned from his tenured faculty position at Princeton University to join Tsinghua University. "Exploring the cultivation of international computer science leaders in China" has become his mission.

He once said in an interview, "No matter where people are, no matter what time they are, they will never forget that we are sons and daughters of China." The significance of cultivating talents in China and making some cutting-edge scientific and technological breakthroughs in China is completely different. ”

Identity 3: Founder of "Yao Class" and "Zhi Class".

After returning to China, Yao Qizhi embarked on a teaching path that many people did not expect—starting with the training of undergraduates.

In 2005, he founded Tsinghua University's Computer Science Experimental Program, with the goal of cultivating students to become innovative academic talents with the same or even higher competitiveness than undergraduates from the world's top universities. Because this class is led by him and is responsible for teaching, it is also known as the "Yao class".

Wu Chenye, a student of Yao and a former assistant professor at Tsinghua University's Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Studies, recalls that Mr. Yao personally attended classes and prepared for classes to help students keep abreast of the latest technological trends.

"The course must be challenging" is Yao Chizhi's insistence on the "Yao class". He believes that this is the only way for students to discover their true interests and strengths. In order to broaden students' horizons, he also often creates research and international exchange opportunities for students.

In addition to the "Yao Class", Yao Chizhi also founded the Tsinghua Academy Artificial Intelligence Class and served as the chief professor. This is the "Zhi Class" with the same name as "Yao Ban". The "Smart Class" began to recruit undergraduates in the fall of 2019, and the selection plan for that year showed that only 25 students were enrolled.

Yao also founded the Center for Theoretical Computer Science, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, and the Center for Quantum Information. Among them, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences is the first teaching and research unit dedicated to interdisciplinary information science research in mainland China.

Status 4: Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who renounces foreign nationality

In February 2017, Yao gave up his foreign nationality and changed from a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, he said: "I resigned from my teaching position at Princeton in the United States in 2004, returned to my motherland, and devoted myself to the epoch-making feat of building China into a scientific and technological power at Tsinghua University. Over the years, it has been the most rewarding work of my life to nurture our young talents and promote high-end scientific research. I feel very happy and proud to be 100% Chinese!"

Yao Chi-zhi. Image source: Tsinghua University website

On January 7, 2020, the publication signing ceremony of the textbook "Artificial Intelligence (High School Edition)" led by Yao Chizhi was held at Tsinghua University. Also present at the ceremony was another Turing Award winner, John Hopcroft.

Talking about the original intention of this textbook, Yao Qizhi said that artificial intelligence has become one of the most important emerging sciences in this century, and will have an incomparably far-reaching impact on various disciplines. How to make middle school students accept the correct concept of artificial intelligence in the stage of scientific enlightenment is a problem that China and the world are exploring. "We have a responsibility to address this together. ”

For Tsinghua students, he has such a message - Tsinghua University wants to cultivate students, not only to achieve personal career goals, but more importantly, to have a positive impact on the whole world and China's construction and development.

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