UESTC & Huawei: A 3-in-1 Approach to AI Talent Cultivation

ICT is reshaping the world in a myriad of new ways. Industry-education collaboration is essential for cultivating the talent, especially the AI talent, needed to keep up with these major transformations. The School of Automation Engineering of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) has joined forces with Huawei to blaze a trail for AI talent cultivation.

UESTC and Huawei have adopted a 3-in-1 approach that integrates curriculum development, course collaboration, and competition engagement. This comprehensive approach covers all manner of educational resources, from entry-level experiments to competition, and from theoretical courses to open-source teaching materials. UESTC and Huawei's collaboration model ensures practicality by aligning educational resources with industry needs. The model's unique advantages in AI talent cultivation enable both innovative thinking and acquisition of practical skills. UESTC and Huawei's partnership will help stimulate industry growth and lay the groundwork for continued breakthroughs in AI technologies.

In-depth course collaboration: Igniting student enthusiasm for learning

The UESTC–Huawei collaboration is under the purview of the University-Industry Collaborative Education Program of China's Ministry of Education (MOE). UESTC's School of Automation Engineering and Huawei have worked closely to develop the Machine Learning premier course, which organically weaves highly sophisticated and abstract theoretical AI knowledge into the course.

In consideration of the diversity among students in terms of mastery and understanding of the subject matter, the school has used Huawei's developer kit to develop an Ascend AI remote inference cluster and a beginner-friendly AI experiment system (see Figure 1). This approach addresses challenges the school has previously encountered, such as a lack of original system devices, complexity of technologies, and high entry barriers of disciplines.

Figure 1: Students using the AI experiment system to explore AI applications

UESTC's lab environments provide paths to connect students, even those with no knowledge of AI subjects, with the world of AI. Students are given the opportunity to tangibly experience AI and develop a deeper understanding of AI applications such as image style conversion, target detection, and target recognition. The experiment system enables students to consolidate their theoretical knowledge while piquing their interest for further exploration and learning.

This holistic platform built on Ascend AI enables a teaching model that covers the full pipeline of AI development and diverse aspects of AI fundamentals. The platform was showcased at the 10th Best Case Exhibition of the MOE's University-Industry Collaborative Education Program. It won acclaim as one of the Best Cases Celebrating the 10th Year of the University-Industry Collaborative Education Program and won the Huawei Excellent Achievement Award.

With the aim of stimulating interest in AI, the school used the Intelligent Base jointly built by the MOE and Huawei to integrate Huawei's full-stack, all-scenario AI solution into its courses such as A Walk Through Artificial Intelligence and Embedded System Design. Students conducted extensive research and experimentation for their final assignments and gained a lot of practical expertise. On 16 separate occasions, teachers from the school have been invited to share their experience in industry-education collaboration at conferences such as the meeting of the University-Industry Collaborative Education Program. These presentations have been highly acclaimed. It is particularly worth mentioning Mr. Hao Jiasheng, who won the awards of Huawei Ascend Expert, Outstanding Campus Ambassador (Best Advocate), and Excellent Huawei Developer Advocate by Contribution, among other honors. He was also named an Excellent Teacher of the MOE–Huawei Intelligent Base Program in 2022.

Curricular innovation: Infusing the power of independent open source

In addition to innovation in practical courses, the university worked with Huawei to develop the textbook Operating System Basics and Practices Based on the openEuler Platform (as shown in Figure 2). This textbook is based on the top-class course synopsis outlined in the UESTC–Huawei Intelligent Base program. It breaks new ground by incorporating openEuler into teaching resources. openEuler is the operating system (OS) underpinning the next generation of open-source, home-grown digital infrastructure.

Figure 2: Operating System Basics and Practices Based on
the openEuler Platform jointly developed by UESTC's School
of Automation Engineering and Huawei

The easy-to-understand book adapts OS theories to the openEuler context, and is designed to enable mastery of cutting-edge technologies and stimulate innovative thinking. The book was officially published in October 2024, and is included in the Excellent Training Material Incentive Program of the MOE–Huawei Intelligent Base for 2024.

The book aims to integrate the elegant design concepts of UNIX with the practices of Linux. This philosophy underpins many of the book's chapters, which closely combine operating system fundamentals and design concepts with practical applications. They also distill theoretical knowledge into easily accessible insights for learners. Carefully selected practical examples are used to enhance student understanding.

The textbook offers a wealth of practical examples based on the openEuler system to progressively guide learners through the contemporary Linux OS, from introduction to mastery. It also explores in detail the commonly used tools, internal mechanisms, and exceptional design ideas of the Linux OS. This courseware is useful for not only undergraduate and postgraduate students in computing specializations, such as automation, communication engineering, and electronic engineering, but also for engineers working in embedded Linux development and server system management and maintenance, as well as Linux OS enthusiasts. This prepares all manner of learners for future challenges in technological development.

Competition engagement: Creating a full circle in talent pipeline

Entrepreneurship competitions and technological innovation projects are excellent opportunities for students to improve their practical abilities. These activities allow students to put their skills to the test and strive for higher goals by solving real-world challenges.

UESTC encourages students to apply what they have learned in classrooms to real projects, transitioning from the lab to the competition arena to combine theory with practice. Many UESTC students participate in high-level competitions such as the Huawei ICT Competition and China International College Students' Innovation Competition.

Instructors at UESTC guide students through practical projects such as Ascend OpenMind Project's AlphaPose sub-project for estimating key points on the human body and style conversion sub-project, as well as the university's undergraduate final-year projects. These projects help students acquire a deeper understanding of Huawei's full-stack, all-scenario AI solutions and learn how to apply them. In this way, students can use Huawei technologies to explore applications of deep learning.

Throughout these competitions, students have made remarkable achievements. One such example is the Towards the Future – An Autonomous Driving Algorithm Verification Platform Based on Ascend Software project. Through this project, student competitors built an autonomous driving test platform, which won praise from industry experts for its exceptional cost effectiveness, availability, and reliability.

At the Huawei ICT Competition, UESTC students demonstrated their practical abilities while deepening their understanding of Huawei's AI technologies. Their innovative efforts won them the Grand Prize for the Computing Track and Second Prize for the Ascend AI Track in the Practice Competition at the Huawei ICT Competition 2023–2024 Global Final (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Teams of UESTC won the Grand Prize for the Computing Track (left) and Second Prize for the Ascend AI Track (right) in the Practice Competition at the Huawei ICT Competition 2023–2024 Global Final

The tireless pursuit of innovation in teaching creates a complete talent pipeline that benefits institutions and students alike in more ways than one. Many UESTC students have earned honors through this process and made veritable achievements in academia and beyond. Many graduate and undergraduate students were recommended with entry-test exemption for postgraduate and doctoral programs at top Chinese universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Additionally, a number of students went on to pursue further studies at internationally renowned universities including Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Lund University in Sweden, and Texas A&M University. Some students received offers from major companies such as DJI and Li Auto before finishing their postgraduate studies, and two postgraduate students who participated in the Huawei Ascend AI Competition and Huawei ICT Competition were hired by Huawei.

The cultivation of AI talent requires the joint efforts of universities, enterprises, and society. The collaboration between UESTC and Huawei is a benchmark for AI talent cultivation in universities and has injected vitality into the broader academic ecosystem. UESTC will continue to work closely with Huawei to explore new paths for industry-education collaboration. We will pivot our efforts on innovation and practical application to help students become innovators and creators. This will turn them into a dynamic force of progress in science and technology. We are unremitting in our efforts in industry-education collaboration, and we are committed to the cultivation of a vibrant pipeline of outstanding talent for the AI era.