On the afternoon of March 20, the signing ceremony for the cooperation on talentcultivation between HUST and Baidu and the inauguration of the Baidu PaddlePaddle Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Center were held in the Qiming Lecture Hall. At the event, the nation’s first “PaddlePaddle Class”("FeiJiang Class") officially commenced. Vice President Xu Xiaodong, Baidu Group Vice President and Deputy Director of the National Engineering Laboratory of Deep Learning Technology and Application Wu Tian attended the meeting and delivered speeches. The event was chaired by Associate Dean oftheUndergraduateSchool,KeChangjian.
Xu Xiaodong emphasized that the collaboration between HUST and Baidu represents a significant measure of complementary strengths and mutual development. HUST will take this partnership as an opportunity to engage in in-depth cooperation with Baidu in a wide range of areas, working together for mutual benefit. Under the guidance of Baidu's “PaddlePaddle,” both parties aim to fully advance talent cultivation, industry-education integration, and innovation transformation, thereby riding the wave of the digital era and writing a new chapter in university-enterprise collaboration.
Wu Tian remarked that the development of artificial intelligence technologies and industries depends on the cultivation of innovative talents. Baidu will continue to enhance its investment in the education of talents for large-scale AI models, adhering to the principles of openness, sharing, collaboration, and innovation. Leveraging the resource advantages of top universities and leading enterprises, the partnership will explore the limitless potential of large-scale AI models and education. She expressed anticipation for fruitful outcomes from the cooperation with HUST, contributing jointly to the prosperity and development of China’s AI endeavors.
At the ceremony, Wang Shixian, Party Secretary of the School, and Zhou Qi, Deputy General Manager of Baidu AI Technology Ecosystem, signed an agreement to jointly establish the Baidu PaddlePaddle Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Center. Vice Dean Shen Gang and Qian Fang, the Head of Baidu PaddlePaddle Education Ecosystem Operations, unveiled the center.
During the inauguration of the PaddlePaddle Class, Xu Xiaodong and Wu Tian presented certificates of appointment to the industrial and academic mentors of the class. Student representative Huang Yi, a sophomore, delivered a speech. Following this, the first lecture of the PaddlePaddle Class was conducted. Baidu's Distinguished Architect Hu Xiaoguang and Baidu's Director of Visual Technology Ding Errui delivered technical reports titled “Innovation in AI Technology and Scientific Computing Exploration” and “Wenxin·CV Large Model VIMER Closed Loop: Perspectives of Semi-Supervised and Multimodal Approaches,” respectively. Additionally, a demonstration of Baidu's Apollo autonomous driving car was held.
Prior to the event, Xu Xiaodong and Wu Tian held a meeting to explore the creation of general education courses on artificial intelligence and large-scale models for undergraduates across all majors at HUST, based on platforms like Wenxin Yiyan. They discussed the integration potential of AI-powered teaching and general education in the intelligent era.
The HUST-Baidu PaddlePaddle Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Center will leverage the PaddlePaddle deep learning platform and Wenxin large model. Combining HUST’s disciplinary advantages and research teams in AI with industry needs and teaching scenarios, the center will carry out advanced education and research to cultivate innovative talents in large-model applications and development. Furthermore, it will align with the Baidu PaddlePaddle (Wuhan) AI Industry Empowerment Center, enabling students to apply large-model AI in enterprise-level production scenarios, enhance development capabilities, and promote intelligent industrial upgrading.
The PaddlePaddle Class, jointly launched by Baidu PaddlePaddle and the School of Software Engineering at HUST, is the first of its kind in China. The inaugural class consists of 20 students from the second and third years of the School of Software Engineering. The program adopts a dual-mentor system, with academic mentors selected from the faculty of the School of Software Engineering and industrial mentors appointed from Baidu’s outstanding engineers. The curriculum is co-developed and delivered by Baidu and the School of Software Engineering, with Baidu providing premium AI teaching resources, platforms, datasets, competition training, guidance, and computational power. Students of the PaddlePaddle Class will receive comprehensive support from Baidu in competitions, research exchanges, internships, and graduation projects.
