The 21st Networks Science and Engineering Forum was held in Wuhan from April 18th to 20th. Guanrong Chen, Professor at City University of Hong Kong, and Honorary Chairman of the forum; Xiang Li, Professor at Fudan University and Chairman of the forum; Wei Lu, Vice President of Wuhan University, attended the meeting. The forum attracted more than 560 on-site participants from 154 universities, scientific research institutes, and enterprises across the country, with 300,000 people watching the live picture broadcast.

Guanrong Chen expressed his joy at returning to Wuhan for the forum, affirmed the 20-year inheritance spirit of the event, praised the growth of young scholars and their role in academic succession, wished the forum a complete success, and looked forward to participants gaining fruitful achievements.

Xiang Li thanked Wuhan University for its support. Facing the AI era, he encouraged young scholars to engage in academic exchanges, calling on all attendees to embrace AI technology, leverage the systematic perspective of networks science, and pioneer new frontiers.

Wei Lu expressed gratitude to the Special Committee on Complex Networks and Complex Systems of the Chinese Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (CSIAM) and all supporters. He introduced Wuhan University’s effectiveness in cultivating interdisciplinary talents through platforms like the Complex Network Research Center, hoping the forum would inspire academic innovation and broaden professional horizons.

Authoritative experts in complex networks delivered speeches, including:

Jinhu Lyu, Professor at Beihang University,

Xin Lyu, Professor at the National University of Defense Technology,

Qi Liu, Professor at Tongji University,

Wenlian Lu, Professor at Fudan University,

Jiang Wu, Professor at Wuhan University,

Lin Wang, Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University,

Yang Liu, Professor at Zhejiang Normal University,

Yanqing Hu, Researcher at Southern University of Science and Technology,

Gaogao Dong, Professor at Jiangsu University.

They discussed frontier topics like complex system cooperative control and social-technical network computing, sharing nine key scientific issues and application cases.

A total of 14 sub-forums and round-table discussions were held. The Associated Information Intelligence sub-forum hosted by our School. The list of scholars who shared their cutting-edge thoughts and research achievements on the forums and round-table discussions were as the followings:

Qinghua Zhu, Professor at Nanjing University,

Shujin Cao, Professor at Shandong University of Technology,

Yang Zhang, Professor at Sun Yat-sen University,

Ke Dong, Tenured Associate Professor at Nanjing University,

Chengzhi Zhang, Professor at Nanjing University of Science and Technology,

Ye Sun, Associate Researcher at Southeast University,

Deyun Yin, Associate Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen),

Chaocheng He, Associate Professor at Wuhan University,

Xiao Huang, Lecturer at Central China Normal University.