A group photo of the College of Artificial Intelligence, XJTU.

The Ministry of Education recently announced the 2022 National Teaching Achievement Awards for Higher Education. Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) received one first-place prize and four second-place prizes in the category of Higher Education (Graduate) Teaching Achievement Awards. The university's total number of awards places it among the top in the nation.

Among the awards given, the project led by Academician Zheng Nanning, titled "A New System for Cultivating High-level AI Talents with Emphasis on Value Shaping, Leading the Frontier, Industry-Education Integration, and Collaborative Teamwork," was honored with a First-place Prize, marking the country's first and only first-place Prize in the field of artificial intelligence.

In 1986, XJTU established the country's first specialized research institute for artificial intelligence – the Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, which is engaged in the teaching, research, and education of master's and doctoral students in the field of artificial intelligence.

In 2000, the university received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China's "Innovative Research Group Science Fund," becoming the nation's first innovative research group in the fields of control science and engineering and artificial intelligence, and it has continued to receive support since then.

In 2021, the university was granted the authority to confer doctoral degrees in the interdisciplinary field of artificial intelligence.

The university has gradually emerged as a stronghold for cultivating high-level artificial intelligence talent, producing nearly 1,000 well-qualified post-graduate students. Research projects led by post-graduate students have achieved multiple breakthroughs in China's artificial intelligence sector, with four major national science and technology awards and four victories in the China Intelligent Vehicle Future Challenge.

In addition, the university has established a group of mentors led by academicians and national-level talent (with national-level talent constituting one-third of the team), and has two national-level platforms: a national key laboratory for human-machine mixed augmented intelligence and a national engineering research center for visual information and applications.

These resources help the university contribute to enhancing the application and innovation capabilities of artificial intelligence technology at major enterprises.