German professor Tang Weisi: I enjoy studying artificial intelligence in China

Currently, there is a craze for artificial intelligence all over the world. The European Parliament recently passed the draft Artificial Intelligence Bill, and countries such as France and Germany have also formulated their own national artificial intelligence development strategies in an attempt to take a dominant position in the regulation and rule-making in the field of artificial intelligence. In the face of this technological field with huge development potential and full of controversy, can China and Europe establish a cooperative relationship? Thomas Weise, a German professor and director of the Institute of Applied Optimization of the School of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data of Hefei University, said in a recent interview with France's "European Times" that as scientific research has become globalized, it is very important to strengthen international exchanges and cooperation

“I have always found China very interesting”

In 2009, Tang Weisi, who received a doctorate in computer science from Germany, began to think about his future and life plans. He was obsessed with scientific research and liked challenges, and he set his sights on China.

"Choose to do scientific research abroad not only because I want to continue to improve my academic abilities, but more importantly, I want to become a mature person and gain new experiences and perspectives beyond personal experience." Tang Weisi said, " In this regard, China is an ideal choice. I have always found China very interesting, and the different cultural and historical backgrounds have shaped the very different lifestyles of China and Germany. In addition, I also found my favorite scientific research team in Hefei."

After successfully applying for a postdoctoral spot in the team of Professor Yao Xin who was teaching at the University of Science and Technology of China at the time, Tang Weisi officially started his academic journey in a foreign country. At the beginning of arriving in Hefei, Tang Weisi felt somewhat uneasy. But after only six months, Tang Weisi was sure that he wanted to stay in Hefei and even spend the rest of his life here, even though Anhui Province is not well known in Germany.

Tang Weisi said that he has worked in China for more than ten years and he must say that he likes it very much. He believes that there are some differences in the education systems and scientific research environments between China and Germany, but both countries are committed to creating a fair scientific research environment and achieving more outstanding scientific research results

China’s excellent universities and outstanding scholars left a deep impression on Tang Weisi. He believes that Chinese researchers and scientists are very hard-working. They do not pursue a leisurely and comfortable life, but invest a lot of time every day to promote research in an orderly manner. They care deeply about students, monitor their progress and give them good advice. All of this takes time and effort, and Tong Weisi respects this work ethic very much. He believes that if you want to engage in scientific research, China may be the most exciting place in the world

German professor Tang Weisi. (Photo provided by interviewee)

13 years in Hefei, witnessing the development and improvement of this city

Tang Weisi’s research direction is meta-heuristic optimization algorithms. He joined Hefei University at the end of 2016 and serves as the director of the Institute of Application Optimization of the School of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data. While training students, he also established a research team dedicated to computer intelligence algorithms, application optimization and other related research work

Tang Weisi believes that metaheuristic optimization algorithms are an art of finding good solutions to difficult problems and a fascinating research topic. Tang Weisi said: "My team and I personally have made a lot of different contributions and achieved many scientific research results, involving logistics tasks, algorithm benchmark testing, algorithm synthesis of distributed computing systems, etc."

The city of Hefei is a place where industry and research are deeply integrated, providing good development opportunities for his scientific research dream

"Hefei is actually the most innovative and dynamic city I know. I really like Hefei." Tang Weisi said with emotion. "I have worked in the field of metaheuristic optimization algorithms for 18 years, 13 of which were spent in Hefei. During these 13 years, I witnessed the city develop and improve at an alarming rate."

In Tang Weisi's view, Hefei is one of China's three major scientific research center cities, with leading artificial intelligence and high-tech enterprises, as well as outstanding university clusters. It is an important source of technological innovation and a gathering place for emerging industries

In addition, the local government has strong policy support for Hefei in terms of internationalization, talent recruitment and scientific research, such as the "HKUST Silicon Valley" global innovation center being built.

"This unique combination of innovative companies, excellent universities and rapid economic growth is extremely attractive to high-level talents and companies, and also provides a very good platform for scientific research." Tang Weisi said. "In this fertile soil, we can deeply integrate scientific research innovation results and industrial development needs. Our team has conducted multiple applied research projects with different partners."

The person responsible for promoting scientific and technological exchanges between China and the West plays an important role

As a German scientist, will Tang Weisi’s team have more interactions with scientific researchers in Germany and other countries? Will they also play the role of "bridge builders" in scientific and technological exchanges between China and Western countries?

In Tang Weisi's view, today when scientific research has become globalized, any research in each country is based on the research results of different countries and different scholars. Scientific research belongs to all mankind. The most important purpose of scientific research is to promote the progress of all mankind. Therefore, strengthening international exchanges and cooperation is of great significance.

In practice, Tang Weisi’s team is also making efforts in this regard. "Currently, we are promoting Sino-German educational cooperation in the field of smart technology. We hope to develop a new joint undergraduate course with German partner universities so that our students can learn from Chinese and German professors."

In addition, Tang Weisi’s scientific research team is an international team. The team includes many researchers with doctorates from different countries, as well as a wide range of international partners. "We have exchanged discussions with researchers in France, Germany, Iran, Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, completed joint research work with some of these partners, and published research results in excellent international journals." In 2020, Tang Weisi also won the Received the third “Hefei Friendship Award” for foreign experts in Hefei City. (Wen Geng)

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