Tsinghua University and Bosch announced a five-year research collaboration agreement in the field of artificial intelligence by establishing a Tsinghua-Bosch Joint Research Center for Machine Learning on March 6. The ceremony was held online via video link from Beijing, Shanghai and Renningen in Germany.
The two parties also signed an agreement on the establishment of the Bosch AI Professor Donation to support professors at Tsinghua’s Department of Computer Science and Technology in AI research.
For their work in the joint research center, Tsinghua and Bosch will leverage their advantages and focus on the basic theories and key technologies of machine learning, striving to make breakthroughs in areas such as intelligent manufacturing.
Qiu Yong, President of Tsinghua University, expressed thanks in his speech for the group’s continued support of Tsinghua.
President Qiu said: “I’m delighted to see that today we will sign two important agreements. One on the Joint Research Center for Machine Learning, and the other on the Bosch AI Professor Donation. This is the first online signing ceremony for a collaboration agreement in the history of Tsinghua, which demonstrates that scientific cooperation and exchange, and international collaboration should not be interrupted under any circumstances. We are now in the golden age of artificial intelligence development. AI is triggering scientific and technological breakthroughs, and industrial transformation. AI is influencing the ongoing development of the internet, big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things and many other technologies. A profound impact is also being felt on the global economy and human society. Machine-learning is an important factor to promote the development of AI in many fields, such as image, voice and machine translation. Although great progress has been made in machine-learning in recent years, challenges still lay ahead. These challenges require close cooperation between academia and industry. And our new collaboration aims to achieve innovations in terms of basic theories and key breakthrough technologies in machine learning. I sincerely wish and strongly believe that our close collaboration will lead to outcomes that can shape the future of human kind.”
Prof. Thomas Kropf, the President of Robert Bosch Corporate Research, also gave a speech at the ceremony. In it he said: “The collaboration with Tsinghua University marks another milestone in Bosch’s efforts to support pioneering technologies in the dynamic AI field and accelerate the deployment of AI in real-world industrial applications. Bosch believes AI can only be effectively driven with the involvement of the larger scientific community. Tsinghua University is one of the leading universities in the field of AI worldwide. Similarly, Bosch has firmly established its position as one of the largest industrial contributors to the AI research community with the goal of becoming the leading company in the field of industrial AI. The collaboration between Tsinghua and Bosch will offer great potential for synergies for both partners and will be the foundation for a very fruitful and long-lasting partnership. We are extraordinarily happy to officially sign this research collaboration agreement today and are looking towards a bright future together.”
You Zheng, vice-president of Tsinghua University, and Prof. Dr. Thomas Kropf signed the agreement on establishment of the research center, while Yuan Wei, secretary-general of Tsinghua University Education Foundation, and Chen Yudong, president of Bosch (China) Investment Ltd, signed the donation agreement.
The university’s vice-president Yang Bin presided over the ceremony.
Tsinghua University’s AI research boasts a solid foundation and occupies a leading position both at home and abroad, and has made many achievements in areas such as machine learning, information retrieval and natural language processing. As shown by the official CS Rankings, Tsinghua ranks second in terms of the number of high-level papers published in the field of AI among institutions and universities around the world.
The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. Currently, Bosch operates seven AI centers worldwide in Germany, US, India, Israel and China. To drive progress, Bosch also has built alliances with key players in both industry and academia across the world to address key challenges in AI and machine learning.
Reporter: Li Han
