To strengthen industry-academia collaboration and help undergraduate students, especially freshmen, better understand cutting-edge developments in artificial intelligence (AI), the Department of Intelligent Science and Technology invited Dr. Shijin Wang, Executive Dean of iFlytek Research Institute and Deputy Director of the National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Intelligence, to deliver an academic lecture. The event took place on October 11, 2024, at Room 341, Xin'an Building, Xuancheng Campus of Hefei University of Technology. The session was chaired by Professor Yiming Ouyang, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at Xuancheng Campus. Over 350 undergraduate students and several faculty members attended the lecture to hear Dr. Wang's insightful presentation.

Dr. Wang’s lecture, titled “Advancements and Applications of Artificial General Intelligence,” provided a comprehensive overview of the evolution of AI. His talk covered key areas such as speech recognition, speech synthesis, machine translation, and natural language understanding, offering a detailed explanation of the developmental stages of cognitive intelligence. Additionally, Dr. Wang presented an in-depth analysis of iFlytek's "Spark" large model, highlighting its continuous iterative upgrades and its rapid progress toward reaching international standards. While acknowledging the impressive advancements of cognitive large models, he also candidly addressed the significant challenges they still face.

In the final segment of his talk, Dr. Wang explored the forefront of artificial general intelligence, offering an insightful analysis of future trends and their implications for the students. Following the lecture, Professor Wei Jia, Head of the Department of Intelligent Science and Technology, delivered closing remarks, extending heartfelt gratitude to Dr. Wang for his enlightening presentation.

The lecture provided a valuable learning opportunity for undergraduate students in the Intelligent Science and Technology program at Xuancheng Campus. It deepened their understanding of the technological advancements and typical applications of artificial general intelligence while advancing industry-academia collaboration. Students expressed that they had gained a great deal from the event.

Dr. Shijin Wang has extensive expertise in natural language processing and cognitive large models. He has led multiple national key R&D projects and received numerous prestigious awards, including the First Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award (2023), the First Prize of the Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award, the Wu Wenjun Artificial Intelligence Science and Technology Progress Award, and the Qiushi Outstanding Youth Achievement Transformation Award.