Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

The core of artificial intelligence is the talent problem, which is already a common consensus. What are the corresponding solutions? I believe most people's first reaction is to integrate production and education.

But there is no consensus on how the benefits from industry can be channelled to the more dynamic and creative scene of the campus. Huawei's "Bright Star Plan," which supports developers, has recently given its own campus solution.

On March 24, Huawei officially launched the "Yaoxing·Campus Developer Program." As an important part of the program, the DigiX Geek Campus Competition held by Jiangsu Province Artificial Intelligence Society in conjunction with Huawei Terminal Cloud Service was officially launched at Nanjing University.

It is understood that this competition will seamlessly connect the intelligent ecology of Huawei terminal cloud with the innovation ability of students from three dimensions: application, hardware and algorithm. Accompanied by it, there are a series of support resources such as Huawei campus Qianfan lecture series.

The lineup for the launch ceremony is also very luxurious. Feng Shaodong, Vice Chairman of Jiangsu Province Science and Technology Association, Zhou Zhihua, President of Jiangsu Province Artificial Intelligence Society and Dean of School of Artificial Intelligence of Nanjing University, Zhang Ping 'an, President of Huawei Consumer Business Cloud Service, and relevant leaders and experts of Jiangsu Province Artificial Intelligence Society and Huawei attended the meeting, which shows the expectation of academic and industrial circles for the combination of factories and schools.

(Zhou Zhihua, President of Artificial Intelligence Society of Jiangsu Province and Dean of School of Artificial Intelligence of Nanjing University)

Why is it that a college-level competition can pry so many big players in the industry at one time? I'm afraid it starts with the embarrassing environment for campus developers.

As a "race for position" related to the country's technical strength, it would be best if talent training started from the campus stage.

At innovation frontiers like Stanford, the college works closely with industry, allowing students to engage with industry while remaining open to exploration. However, such a highly linked talent training model is still a minority after all.

In many tech startup programs, campus developers are often in a near-aphasia.

Google's TensorFlow-based AI crash course, for example, is aimed at developers paying to run their own programs on Google's cloud computing service. Baidu "prairie fire plan" a series of benefits, is mainly open to small and medium-sized enterprises and senior developers. Microsoft AI Lab's support plan also requires developers to master certain basic data operation, management and development capabilities in order to quickly get started.

AI innovation at the forefront of technology, for campus developers, is just like the "Sky City" that teenagers yearn for in "Alita," within reach, but separated by a distant "natural moat."

And the emergence of the "Bright Star·Campus Developer Program" may be the light that campus people looking at lighthouses in the dark desire.

We might as well try to answer this key question with the help of the first Chinese university developer training program: what steps do technology companies need to accurately connect with campus talents?

Yaoxing Campus Developer Program: A "Ticket" to Sky City

Goethe once described the youth in this way-to the sky he pursued the most beautiful stars, to the earth he yearned for all his desires.

In the AI world, campus developers can also be understood this way: on the spiritual level, they represent the most vigorous and unrestricted innovation force; on the real level, they are eager for resources from fields such as knowledge and business.

In Huawei's "Yaoxing·Campus Developer Program," DigiX Geek Campus Competition helped campus AI power complete an ideal and realistic connection through two major competitions.

The algorithm elite contest aims to activate the scientific research power of the top experts on campus, push the machine algorithm to sink into specific scenes, and use artificial intelligence to solve real problems.

Another artificial intelligence campus innovation competition focuses on software applications and hardware, encouraging students to innovate and create in combination with the real needs of individual consumers.

In addition to providing funds, computing power and development platform for the competition, Huawei's "Yaoxing Campus Developer Program" is special in that it plans to transfer the practical experience and professional technology of the industrial world to the campus through training, campus travel, AI interns, campus ambassadors and other activities to create a fertile ground for innovation that can freely release inspiration and brain holes.

Young AI developers will serve as a bridge between university research topics and practical problems in industry, solving the problem of disconnection between industry and academia.

For example, a product such as "intelligent meeting record" is itself a topic with strong engineering but weak academic nature. University scientific research institutions generally do not touch it, and software companies may also be limited by market competition and will not use their brains to develop it. However, in Huawei DigiX Geek Competition in 2018, developers solved AI technical problems with the help of technicians by using HiAI capability. Huawei remote real machine test was used for rapid debugging in the test link, and an "intelligent meeting record" application was developed in only half a month.

It is not difficult to imagine that, with the support of the campus version of "Bright Star Plan," this competition will also fully activate the innovation passion of campus geeks all over China (and even the world), open the door to explore AI application scenarios, and emerge vigorous and continuous innovation vitality.

From that moment on, looking up at AI"Sky City" teenagers, in addition to the ideals and courage held in their hearts, finally got a real "ticket" in their hands.

Ivory Tower to Sky City: The True Distance between Campus AI and Industry

As the first campus developer program, a series of supportive actions of "Yao Xing" also allow us to glimpse the potential difficulties of dialogue between campus AI forces and industry.

First of all, campus AI developers are obviously different from the commercial developers that technology companies have focused on supporting in the past.

The biggest difference lies in the understanding and recognition of innovation by campus developers.

Ideas in academic systems tend not to be limited to a specific business need, but tend to focus on cutting-edge scientific achievements, encourage interdisciplinary, full-scene collaboration and innovation, and sometimes involve many areas not covered in real business, such as using AI to solve agricultural inefficiency.

Under the limitation of their own business scope, many technology companies are often unable to meet the breadth and depth of campus innovation due to the inclusiveness, resource reserve and technical strength of their developer ecology.

Another difference is in engineering capability. Specific to the process of creative realization, AI development is not only a theoretical exploration, but also puts forward higher requirements for developers 'engineering details and deployment capabilities. If the developer's own experience is insufficient, coupled with the lack of basic conditions, it is likely to flow into theory, making it difficult for ideas to be systematically and intuitively verified, resulting in a situation of "creativity is difficult to land."

In addition, campus AI power has natural shortcomings in data, computing power and other resources. The premise of AI development is to collect and process data at various ports to ensure the effectiveness of training results. However, the current situation is that big data resources are basically in the hands of Internet technology giants and shared with academic circles through desensitization, which is destined to be a slow and difficult running-in process.

On the whole, in order to build campus developers into AI talents needed by the times, we need to pay attention to the cultivation of three abilities: one is the ability from creative inspiration to system construction, the other is the ability from design to product, and the third is the ability to combine society, engineering, science and technology and business in an all-round way.

Obviously, current college education alone cannot be delivered, and business developer empowerment programs are just a drop in the bucket. Perhaps we must recognize the reality that

Only when top technology companies are willing to become a non-utilitarian educator can they gather the strength of all walks of life, so that campus talents can have the opportunity to learn, collide and take risks in the actual process, so as to truly create value with AI.

The Wall Chipper of the Times: Why does "Yao Xing" become the innovation beacon of campus AI?

With the "Yaoxing Campus Developer Plan" as the "slice," we can observe what changes Huawei has brought when promoting AI basic education and building campus innovation ecology:

1. Unlimited innovation exploration.

Commercialization of results is often a shackle tied to campus developers by industry, and many thresholds are artificially set for this purpose in order to attract mature developers with more commercial potential.

Google's AI Impact Challenge, for example, aims to turn the best ideas into apps;Netflix's AI competition is also very clear, soliciting computer algorithms for movie recommendation systems.

However, in the "Yaoxing Campus Developer Program," unrestricted innovation encouragement has become the vane of Huawei campus AI ecology. Huawei's campus developer incubation model is not defined by fixed game results and commercial value, nor is it aimed at competing for developers.

On the contrary, it is first rooted in the basic spirit of systematically cultivating artificial intelligence talents, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration and multi-resource mobilization. This kind of contribution and open initial intention, on the contrary, makes it easier for Huawei to understand and reach campus innovators.

2. Full empowerment of infrastructure.

For a wide range of campus developers, it is still very difficult to cut into AI technologies such as deep learning and machine vision at this stage. Technical thresholds, computing costs, scenario limitations, etc., all restrict developers 'imagination to some extent.

In response, Huawei has adopted a multi-angle, all-ecological enabling model to support campus developers and help them through the initial and most difficult wait-and-see phase.

Huawei's cloud computing resources and development board HiKey will provide limited free applications to campus developers, and Huawei's "core-end-cloud" capability will also be open to student groups through various APIs and SDKs of the Developer Alliance.

The full-scene intelligent IoT system composed of Huawei hardware terminals has become an excellent creative source and testing ground for campus innovation, which is enough to accommodate the landing and verification of rich AI functions.

Through integration with actual business, campus innovation can continuously create real value in timely feedback and iteration.

3. Help from engineering talent.

It's not new for companies to provide assistance to developers or even partner with universities to conduct AI research projects or laboratories. But if the goal is to get more college talent interested in AI, then more "gardeners" are needed for guidance and help.

For example, the "Yaoxing·Campus Developer Program" gives more consideration to students 'needs for "leaders," providing not only hardware resources and online training, but also organizing global technical experts at the forefront of engineering to enter colleges and universities, and launching on-site training camps. In the DigiX Geek Campus Competition, scientists and judges from Huawei also provide guidance and communication.

Tech experts from around the world escort campus geeks, bringing AI power in ivory towers and labs closer to social engineering than ever before, perhaps more than competition and funding alone.

The above three characteristics can be said to be Huawei's three exclusive weapons connecting universities and industries.

Behind the focus on innovation is a deep understanding of the plight of campus developers, and it is precisely because of this that we can prescribe the right medicine and break the barrier of AI development from 0 to 1.

The wings of the students are about to set off the waves of the times. Behind them, there is the lighthouse of the "Yaoxing Campus Developer Program."

AI Dream Chaser: Create a Dream of Campus Ecology

Whether it is the support concept of not caring about short-term gains and losses, the dedication spirit of fully opening up platform resources, or the overall sinking of Huawei's own technical talents, we will fully build an innovation environment of combination of production and learning and win-win between factories and schools. The premise is to create a new world where talents can gallop freely:

First of all, the development threshold is constantly sinking, so that more vital innovations can untie the shackles of technology, so that amateurs and cross-professional students can soar freely in the development ecology.

On the other hand, unshackle the ceiling of imagination and encourage campus developers to go out of the wall and seek inspiration and creativity in the vast application scene.

In addition, technology enterprises also need to build themselves into a multi-dimensional innovation complex, from providing a single technical tool to an ecological portal for cultivating high-end talents.

From many angles,"Yaoxing·Campus Developer Program" is not only a campus AI development platform, but a training ground for Chinese young people looking up at AI stars to meet the future. Huawei is leading this group of future "berserkers," attacking the galaxy and dreams deep in the universe in the frenzy of the times.

Accompanied by the light of a star, the possibility of co-prosperity of production and learning is shining on this idyllic land full of youth and hope in China's colleges and universities as never before.

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