The 3rd IKCEST Belt and Road International Big Data Competition and the 7th Baidu & Xi'an Jiaotong University Big Data Competition were launched in Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) on June 10.

Professionals from relevant industries, academia and research circles gathered together to witness a new round of fierce competition for talents in international AI and big data.

Tian Qi, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE)’s bureau of international cooperation, XJTU Vice President Xi Guang, Li Zhenyu, senior vice president of Baidu and general manager of the intelligent driving business group, and Liu Chang, head of CAE’s bureau of the international cooperation general office, participated in the event. Responsible teachers from relevant units of the university attended the activity.

Vice President Xi said that big data and artificial intelligence are important forces driving the process of the fourth industrial revolution so that the demand for top-notch talents is even more urgent.

With the support of all parties, he believed that the competition would be an excellent opportunity for students majoring in big data and artificial intelligence to show themselves and polish their skills.

Tian pointed out that innovation is the soul of national progress, and that young talents are the new force in technological development. The competition in science and technology from all over the world is ultimately led by talents.

“Cultivating and training cutting-edge talents in the field of big data and artificial intelligence through competitions, and realizing the goal of promoting the research, application, and development of the big data industry through synergy is of great significance for the promotion of the development of countries and regions along the Belt and Road,” said Tian.

Li Zhenyu said that Baidu will provide all sample data derived from real traffic scenes for the competition, covering various types of vehicles, traffic lights, lane markers and pedestrians, effectively helping contestants to improve the accuracy of training models and lay a solid foundation for the practical application of technical solutions.

At the event, Professor Ren Pengju of the College of Artificial Intelligence, XJTU and senior engineers from Baidu shared their thoughts on computing architecture, competition questions and interpretation of the competition platform with the students.

Jiang Yu, on behalf of the students of the School of Electrical Engineering of XJTU who participated in the competition last year, described his experience to the contestants.

This year’s competition pioneered the use of real-time environment perception of in-vehicle imaging. The technology can be applied to AR navigation, ADAS assisted driving and other fields.

Based on road images, real-time road change points are found and combined with terminal rendering guidance and voice prompts, it will significantly improve the safety and experience of driving navigation.

The competition has been held six times. Since 2019, it has joined hands with the International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) under the auspices of UNESCO, seeking promotion to the international stage.

There are more than 2,000 participating teams each year. In 2020, more than 3,000 teams from more than 580 universities in 22 countries around the world signed up for the competition. The event covered 42 “double first-class” (“world-class university” and “world-class discipline”) universities in 34 provincial administrative regions in China, and also attracted students from the top ten universities in the world.

The competition this year is open to the whole world. After the three stages of competition in the preliminary round, the semi-finals and the finals, the winning team will be announced.