On the morning of October 25th, 2017, the2017 Nature Conference with the topic of "Ferroic Intelligent Materials: Challenges and Opportunities"was opened in Xi'an. Over 200 renowned scholars and researchers from home and abroad gathered to discuss the major frontier issues in the studies of ferroic intelligent materials.

The three-day conference concerned three topics: the frontiers research on ferroic materials, the emergent phases and phase boundaries, and the challenges and opportunities for materials engineering.

Professor Ekhard Salje (academician of the Royal Society), Professor Russel Cowburn (academician of the Royal Society), Professor Nava Setter (academician of Swiss Academy of engineering), Professor Claudia Felser (IEEE fellow ), Professor Nicola Spaldin (AAAS fellow), Professor Long-Qing Chen (professor of Pennsylvania State University in the United States), ProfessorWang Yunzhi ( Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ohio StateUniversity, US., also aspecially-appointed professor of XJTU), and other famous scholars all together gave 23 academic lectures. In the meantime, Centering around the fundamental research and industrial application of ferroic materials, many experts participated in the featured panel discussion for new ideas exchange, including Professor Stuart Parkin (IBM fellow), Professor Ramamoorthy Ramesh (NAE fellow), Professor Antoni Planes (APS fellow), Professor Tom Duerig (Doctor of Confluent Medical Technologies), Professor Li Guorong from the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc.