The 90th IKCEST Training Programme for Silk Road Engineering Science and Technology Development was held from April 12th to 25th, 2021. It was co-hosted by the International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) under the Auspices of UNESCO, and Xi’an Jiaotong University, and was organized by the IKCEST Silk Road Training Base. 256 trainees from 39 belt-road countries such as Bangladesh, Nigeria, Tanzania, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Yemen, Cambodia participated in this training programme. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this training programme is held online.

    Themed on Machine Learning from Scratch, the following lectures are included: Ordinary Linear Regression, Linear Regression Extensions, Discriminative Classification, Generative Classification, Decision Trees, Tree Ensemble Methods, Neural Networks and etc.

    The training offers one-stop services such as platform registration, course selection, online learning, questionnaire survey, online examination and certificate download. A combined approach of video-on-demand (shortened as VOD) study and online discussion were employed in the online training. The trainees were given the opportunity to make their own learning plan and arrange their learning process accordingly all by themselves.

    Up till recently, 89 sessions of IKCEST Training Programmes for Silk Road Engineering Science and Technology Development have been held by Silk Road Training Base, training more than 10,000 foreign students and staff from export-oriented Chinese companies from over 100 countries. This training programme plays an important role in cultivating talents and promoting the Belt and Road Initiative. In the Meanwhile, it also made important contributions to the promotion of cultural, scientific, technological and educational exchanges as well as the economic and social development of European, Asian and African Belt-road countries and regions.

     The International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) is a category II centre under the auspices of UNESCO and was established in June 2014 in Beijing. Chinese Academy of Engineering is responsible for the operation and management of the IKCEST. IKCEST aims to provide knowledge-based services at a global scale in the form of consultancies, scientific research and education for policy-makers and engineering science and technology professionals in the world, with particular reference to the developing countries. In February 2017, based in Xi’an Jiaotong University, IKCEST Silk Road Training Base was established, aiming to train more engineering science and technology talents, and enhance the capacity building in developing countries.