How should artificial intelligence be learned?

Nanjing University, Jilin University, Tianjin University and many other universities have recently announced the establishment of artificial intelligence colleges, and artificial intelligence is increasingly entering higher education.

In the face of this new profession, how should colleges and universities develop professional construction, how should teachers carry out curriculum teaching, and what preparations should students make?

Within a month, four colleges and universities set up an artificial intelligence college.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has risen rapidly around the world. In 2017, the State Council issued the "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan", with particular emphasis on "building high-end talent team as the top priority of artificial intelligence development" and "improving the discipline layout of artificial intelligence field". "Building an artificial intelligence college in pilot schools as soon as possible." "Wait.

At present, the establishment of artificial intelligence college has become a boom in colleges and universities. In May of this year alone, the inauguration ceremony of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence was held in four universities including Tianjin University, Nankai University, Nanjing University and Jilin University. According to incomplete statistics, there have been artificial intelligence colleges or related majors in universities such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Hunan University of Technology, and Changchun University of Science and Technology.

"Artificial intelligence is a field that is closer to the application level. China has a large amount of data in this area, such as mobile payment, which generates a large number of transactions every minute. Such volume of data will help enterprises and researchers to solve problems. This is China's unique research-driven advantage." Luo Ping, a doctoral supervisor and associate researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

According to the "Artificial Innovation Initiative Action Plan of the College of Higher Education" issued by the Ministry of Education in April this year, by 2030, colleges and universities should become the core strength of building the world's major artificial intelligence innovation center and the talented highland that leads the development of a new generation of artificial intelligence. The forefront of innovative countries provides technology support and talent protection.

Course setting, teaching mode, etc. are still being explored

"The biggest bottleneck in the development of artificial intelligence industry is talent. Now it has entered the era of global competition for artificial intelligence talents. The 'hematopoietic function' of high-level talent training will directly affect the core competitiveness of the artificial intelligence industry and provide the driving force for industrial agglomeration. Zhou Zhihua, dean of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Nanjing University and Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars, said.

According to the "2017 China Artificial Intelligence Industry Special Research Report", with the deepening of the layout of industry giants such as technology and manufacturing, the scale of China's artificial intelligence industry will further expand, and more industrial-grade and consumer-grade application products will appear. In the future, "artificial intelligence +" is expected to become a new format, and talent reserves will become an important factor restricting the development of artificial intelligence in China.

The reporter sorted out and learned that the artificial intelligence colleges opened by various universities have basically covered the training level of undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees, and cultivated artificial intelligence talents through various means.

Attach great importance to theoretical research. "To grasp the initiative of the basic theory, we must not only focus on the application, the core algorithm, the core system, and the core hardware cannot be controlled by people." Luo Ping said that there are no shortcuts to hardware, algorithms, and systems, and the West will not directly share the core advantages to the world. In the current environment, the competition in the field of artificial intelligence is greater than cooperation. Therefore, it is necessary to do a good job in the hardware foundation and do a good job in the foundation of computer science.

Continuous development of the upgrade curriculum system. "Artificial intelligence is an interdisciplinary subject, so the curriculum system must be designed according to the future development trend of science and technology." Zhang Lihua, chairman of Changchun Boli Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. and vice president of Fudan University Intelligent Robotics Institute, told the reporter. At the Institute of Intelligent Robotics at Fudan University, the faculty team, while emphasizing the foundation course, will also set up new courses for senior students and graduate students to engage with more cutting-edge technologies. “Many new technical courses come from the project progress process. New research and development results found in the company."

Li Fanchang, dean of the School of Computer Science and Technology of Suzhou University, introduced that based on the interdisciplinary characteristics of artificial intelligence, in the specific teaching, joint teaching will be carried out according to the needs of different colleges, such as the cooperation of cognitive psychology and education college, artificial intelligence hardware and electronics college. Wait, let the teachers of each college cross-over.

Establish a three-party cooperation mechanism for campus enterprises. The tripartite cooperation mechanism between schools and enterprises helps to break the current disparity between teaching and practice in the existing talent training mode of colleges and universities, realize the deep connection between school study, professional internship and industrial practice, and explore a new model of artificial intelligence professional training. At present, Nanjing University will use Jingdong (Nanjing) Artificial Intelligence Research Institute as a student training base. “Jingdong holds rich and accurate data in the fields of e-commerce, logistics and finance. Cooperation with Nanjing University can promote artificial intelligence technology for various businesses in Jingdong. Providing support, thus achieving a deep integration of production and education.” Zhou Bowen, vice president of the Jingdong Group and head of the AI ??platform and research department. In addition, the Institute of Artificial Intelligence of Jilin University and Baidu, Didi and other companies signed a memorandum of cooperation.

Experts call: calmly look at artificial intelligence "hot"

Artificial intelligence has the characteristics of high integration of technical attributes and social attributes, involving mathematics, biology, computer, brain science, psychology and many other disciplines. Although many artificial intelligence colleges have been established, they are in curriculum setting, teaching planning, At the specific operational level such as teacher preparation, there are still many problems to be solved.

“At present, the number of courses that can be dedicated to artificial intelligence is far from satisfactory, which leads to the degree of artificial intelligence professional courses can only be concentrated to the level of 'higher science.'” Zhou Zhihua said, but the educational goal of the first-class artificial intelligence college should be Cultivate talents with the ability to innovate at the source and solve the key technical problems of the enterprise in this field, instead of just staying in the “science” stage. “So, instead of tinkering with the existing discipline training system, it is better to follow the discipline of artificial intelligence. Construct a new curriculum system with its own characteristics."

For the "artificial intelligence fever" of colleges and universities, many people in the industry have called for all sectors of society to remain calm. Some experts said that artificial intelligence is a hot industry, and many schools have set up corresponding colleges and majors, but they do not necessarily have the strength to do well. If the college itself does not have enough accumulation, how can it cultivate high-end talents of artificial intelligence?

“Teaching is the key.” Yue Long, a professor at Shanghai Normal University, said, “The establishment of an artificial intelligence profession poses new challenges to the knowledge structure of teachers. Therefore, it is very important to set up a dedicated teacher training team.”

"A new discipline or profession should have a complete set of standards to assess whether colleges and universities have sufficient faculty and research and development conditions, and development disciplines should be gradual." Zhang Lihua said, "You can choose a school with relatively good basic conditions to set up a pilot. Promote and explore."