In recent years, with the rapid development of AI and big data technologies, countries all over the world have attached great importance to the training of AI talents, and high-level and high-standard international competition has become a stage for them to showcase their skills. On June 10, 2021, the 3^rd IKCEST “Belt and Road” International Big Data Competition and the 7^th Baidu & Xi’an Jiaotong University Big Data Competition (hereinafter referred to as International Big Data Competition) was officially launched at Xi’an Jiaotong University. Professionals from relevant industries, universities and research institutes were brought together to witness the new round of fierce competition of international AI and big data talents.

Under the guidance of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the international big data competition is jointly held by the International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (IKCEST) under the auspices of UNESCO, China Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (CKCEST), Baidu and Xi’an Jiaotong University. After years of accumulation, it has developed into a large-scale, high-standard, highly authoritative international competition. It focuses on the countries along the “Belt and Road”, hoping to find global big data and AI talents through the competition, and help governments, industries and universities achieve the goal of jointly promoting the research, application and development of the big data industry.

At the launching ceremony, Professor Xi Guang, Vice President of Xi’an Jiaotong University, said in a speech that big data and AI are important forces to promote the process of the fourth industrial revolution and top-notch talents in the fields are badly needed. With the support of all sides, it’s believed the competition will provide an excellent opportunity for students majoring in big data and AI to showcase and temper their skills.

Tian Qi, Deputy Director of the Department of the International Cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Executive Deputy Director of IKCEST, pointed out that innovation is the soul of national progress, and young talents can provide new impetus for scientific and technological development. Training top-notch talents in the field of big data and AI, and realizing the goal of promoting research, application and development of the big data industry through joint efforts of the industry, universities and research institutes are significant to promoting the development of countries along the “Belt and Road”.

Keep up with popular industrial applications and focus on intelligent driving

Reviewing the previous sessions, we find that the questions of international big data competition were closely related to social hot spots and industrial applications. Taking 2020 as an example, the competition focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, broke the “wall” between AI and medicine, and set up the task of “forecasting the future incidence of highly pathogenic contagious diseases”. It attracted more than 3,000 teams from 580 universities in 22 countries and produced many solutions with strong technical capabilities and high application value.

This year, intelligent driving has become popular. Various enterprises have been involved in the field and committed to making breakthroughs in the combination of innovative technologies and automobiles. The international big data competition this year focused on intelligent driving, and chose the theme of “Real-time Environment Perception Based on On-board Image”, hoping to promote the development of intelligent driving technology through the competition.

In recent years, Baidu has been increasing investment in emerging businesses such as autonomous driving, big data and AI. Currently, it boasts industry-leading solutions in the three major areas of autonomous driving, intelligent vehicles and intelligent transportation. In the field of autonomous driving, Apollo has already delivered a good performance. As a leader in the field of autonomous driving in China and even in the world, Apollo has 2,900 patents. Besides, it obtains autonomous vehicle testing permits in Beijing, Changsha, Cangzhou and California, and 244 autonomous driving testing license plates in China, including 179 ones for manned driving testing. With a total testing mileage of more than 10 million kilometers, it has become the only Chinese enterprise worldwide that has achieved tens of millions of road testing mileage.

At the launching ceremony, Li Zhenyu, Senior Vice President of Baidu Group and General Manager of the Intelligent Driving Business Group, said that as one of the organizers of the international big data competition, Baidu will provide complete sample data from real traffic scenes for the questions, including various types of vehicles, signal lights, lane lines, pedestrians, etc. to effectively help contestants improve the accuracy of training models and lay a solid foundation for the practical application of technological solutions. Meanwhile, he encouraged more students with interests to actively participate in the competition and contribute to China’s intelligent driving industry.

At the event site, professors from the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at Xi’an Jiaotong University and senior engineers from Baidu interpreted the computing architecture, competition questions and competition platform for students. The representative of the team from Xi’an Jiaotong University that participated in the 2020 International Big Data also shared their experience and thoughts. This year’s competition includes preliminary, semi-final and final contests, and the winning team will be selected after the three rounds. In addition to the RMB200,000 prize, the competition grants awards to outstanding instructors, and offers a green channel of Baidu’s on-campus recruitment for contestants entering the semi-finals and finals.