Editor's Note: To echo with the first year of fully implementing the guiding principles set forth by the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Publicity Department of the Party Committee has launched a series of reports entitled "Advance into First-class". Through these special reports, we will show vividly the progress of the university under the guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping's Socialist Thoughts with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era and the in-depth implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important remarks on education, and accelerate the high-quality development of the university. To this end, we hope to further gather the majestic power of the majority party members, comrades, teachers and students to embark on a new journey and create new glories with practical actions and excellent achievements!

Make Our Students More Outstanding

-- A Profile on the 30th Year of Honorary Education of Beijing Institute of Technology and the 10th Anniversary of the Establishment of Xuteli College

"City security at night is so important that safety of millions of people count on it. How can we break through the key core technology and make the project available to the country to guard people's security?" asked by Liang Yingping, a 2018 undergraduate student at Xuteli School, BIT and a 2022 doctoral student at the School of Computer Science. He put down the keyboard and gazed out the window, wondering the question late at night in his dormitory. How can artificial intelligence technology serve national development? The young man has always been working so hard to find the answer to the question.

Liang Yingping discussing project progress with team members

A great cause calls for talents and a great era makes talents. In the new era, it is the important mission and responsibility of universities to cultivate innovative talents and build an independent talent cultivation system, which is the great expectation of the Party and the country. As the first university of science and technology founded by the Communist Party of China, Beijing Institute of Technology has always insisted on the trinity of education, science and technology and talents to promote the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents and put it into practice. In 1994, BIT launched honors education. In 2013, BIT established a special zone for talent cultivation - Xuteli School and established the School of Future Technology in 2021.

"The university has planted fertile ground for the growth of top-notch talents, in accordance with the cultivation goal of leading talents who are responsible for national rejuvenation, have a solid foundation in mathematics, physics and chemistry, excellent humanistic quality, broad international vision, keen academic frontier awareness, and excellent research capabilities. Facing the frontier cross-cutting direction, we make every effort to cultivate high-level talents in basic disciplines and key fields, and have written a special answer sheet for the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents." Academician Zhang Jun, Secretary of the Party Committee of the university and President of Xuteli School/ School of Future Technology said.

Translating the blueprint into reality

"To serve the country with science is to devote yourself where the motherland needs it most." As the first student of the BIT’s honors education, Liu Hui is a mechanics major of professional experimental class of 1994 class. After graduating with his PhD, he worked in BIT and dive himself into special vehicle research and became the backbone of the team scientific research. He was selected for the national talent program and has made important contributions for the leapfrog development of China's special vehicle research.

How to make the outstanding talents more outstanding?

In 1994, Wang Yue, then president of BIT and an academician of both academies, foresaw that the country's demand for high-end strategic talents would become more urgent in the new century, and proposed to implement talent training reform and set up experimental classes in advantageous majors such as machinery and information. Wang Yue believed that in order to cultivate leading talents, students should learn the most cutting-edge knowledge, and they must be taught according to their abilities and strengths, and a personalized education model must be designed for them. It was this farsighted and innovative initiative that kicked off the next 30 years of honors education at BIT.

In 2009, Academician Hu Haiyan, then president of the University, put forward the concept of joint undergraduate and graduate programs. In 2013, the "Mingjing Program" was vigorously implemented, and the Xuteli School was established to form a special zone for cultivating top-notch talents. It was named after Xu Teli, the old dean of BIT during the Yan'an period. He was an outstanding revolutionary and educator. Since then, a series of innovative measures have deepened the reform of innovative talent training in Beijing Institute of Technology.

In 2018, academician Zhang Jun, the then president and current party secretary, promoted the implementation of the reform of large class enrollment, large class training and college education model, and put forward the concept of "Huanyu+" education. In 2021, the university targeted the field of "intelligent unmanned+" and established the School of Future Technology, which focuses on cultivating top innovative talents with critical, disruptive and innovative thinking, which is co-located with Xu Teli School. Academician Zhang Jun serves as the Dean of both Xu Teli School and the School of Future Technology.

In 2022, as the chief scientist of the School of Future Technology, Long Teng, an academician and president of BIT led the launch of the key project of reform and innovation of undergraduate teaching in Beijing higher education -Research and Practice of Future Innovative Science and Technology Leading Talents Training System for 'Intelligent Unmanned+' Fieldto promote efficient synergy between talent training and scientific research in the university and create an interdisciplinary top innovative talents training system.

To translating the blueprint into reality, BITers has consistently promoted the cultivation of top-notch innovative talents with long-lasting efforts.

How to make the construction of special zone for talent cultivation more distinctive?

"Under the training mode of joint undergraduate and graduate programs, students can study graduate level courses and participate in research projects earlier, which makes me clearer about my forward goal earlier and more focused on refining my studies." Zhang Huiwen, a 2016 undergraduate student at Xuteli School and a 2020 doctoral student at the School of Information and Electronics, said. Since 2013, Xuteli School has piloted the reform of joint undergraduate and graduate programs in BIT and a flexible training mechanism of the tutorial system, to provide students with individualized and precise training.

"3+1+X" training mode of joint undergraduate and graduate programs allow students to complete the undergraduate course, carry out comprehensive research and scientific research practice in the first three years; and to complete part of the postgraduate theory courses, determination of master's and doctoral thesis research direction and topic in the fourth year, which is a transition stage, so as to lay a solid foundation for the subsequent efficient and high-quality postgraduate research practice. This training model not only creates a coherent curriculum for joint undergraduate and graduate programs and helps students to build a more complete knowledge system, but also provides a strong guarantee for students to conduct research rapidly at the frontier of science and technology.

In addition, Xuteli School has built a mentorship system led by academicians, and formed a team of academic mentors consisting of 15 academicians and more than 550 national talents and teaching masters to make sure one student will be in good hands of one supervisor. As soon as students enter the university, they can understand the connotation of the discipline, find the research direction, and establish their professional aspirations through activities such as the "Introduction to the Major" series of courses, the "Month of Experiencing the Discipline and Major", and the "Sail of Knowledge" series of lectures; in the second year, Xuteli School will organize a "mutual selection" of academic supervisors to strengthen the cultivation of scientific research and innovation ability according to students' interests and potentials; in the third and fourth years, relying on national research platforms, major national research projects and high-level research teams, Xuteli School implements "flexible" education under the guidance of tutors. Combined with academic research special projects, project-based course practice and science and technology innovation competitions, Xuteli School aims to broaden students' academic horizons and improve their interdisciplinary research ability, so as to build a solid foundation for undergraduate and doctoral training.

Activities of Month of Experiencing the Discipline and Major of Xuteli School

"The tutorial system allowed me to get in touch with the most cutting-edge scientific progress earlier and better. Under the guidance and guidance of my supervisor Professor Xia Yuanqing, I developed a strong interest in the research of control theory." As one of the first students of Xuteli School and a doctoral student of the School of Automation in 2017, Zhang Qirui has published more than ten papers in top academic journals. Only one year after graduation, he has become an associate professor of China University of Mining and Technology. "For different students, we should teach them according to their aptitude and give them patient guidance and care and support according to their characteristics." Said by Professor Xia Yuanqing, academic tutor of Xuteli School and dean of the School of Automation.

With 30 years of honor education and 10 years of special zone construction, Xuteli School/ School of Future Technology is making great strides on the road of training top-notch innovative talents. At present, the school has set up of experimental class of Future Technology, Talent Class of Xuteli School, class of strengthening basic academic disciplines, Talent class with characteristics, top-notch planning class and international organization and global governance class, covering 27 competitive majors and directions of the university. A number of top-notch innovative talents with high academic level, strong innovation ability and profound patriotism set sail from the Xuteli School.

Creating a future-oriented "hardcore" courses

"In the future, with the development and progress of the artificial intelligence industry, drones will enter thousands of homes through the AI brain." Hu Haiyan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of the School of Astronautics, said about the future development of intelligent unmanned technology for the 2022 undergraduates of Xuteli School in the class Introduction to Technology -- Engineering Science toward Artificial Intelligence. "To fly in the blue sky, and into the universe has been my dream since childhood. After listening to Academician Hu's talk about the future of aerospace science, I am more determined to become an 'astronaut' and make my own contribution to the development of China's aerospace industry." Ma Tianyi, a student from the 2021 class of future technology in Xuteli School, shared about his thoughts about the class.

Academician Hu Haiyan lecturing courses to students of Xuteli School

Inspire "future masters" with masters, and cultivate "future first-class" with first-class education. Since 2021, Xuteli School has been offering theIntroduction to Future Technologyseries of courses for the class of future technology every year. The courses are taught by academicians of the two academies, bringing students the top international cutting-edge cross-disciplinary knowledge and injecting them with the spirit of Yan'an, the spirit of manned space, the spirit of two bombs and one star. Starting university life with first-class teaching resources and "hardcore" courses, the "future masters" have established the sentiment of serving the country with science and technology and the ideal of strengthening the country with science and technology under the guidance of the masters.

"We upgrade and optimize the college's talent training program according to the latest trends in education and teaching reform almost every year, with the 'college system, tutorial system, credit system and personalized, international, elite education' as the core concept of talent cultivation, and continue to create a first-class curriculum system that matches the first-class student pool." Zhao Hao, vice dean of teaching of Xuteli School, said.

As a pioneer in the reform of cultivating top talents, Xuteli School has designed its curriculum based on the tutor system, credit system and school system, and created personalized, small-class and internationalized courses for joint undergraduate and graduate programs, to meet the needs and high-quality demands of students' comprehensive development. Relying on the national first-class curriculum cluster, the university has built a special curriculum system consisting of four categories of courses: basic courses in mathematics, science and chemistry, disciplinary backbone courses, disciplinary cross-curricular courses and high-end cross-curricular courses, and invited famous scholars in relevant fields at home and abroad and famous teachers from inside and outside the university to give lectures.

The fifth Academic Forum of Xuteli School/ School of Future Technology

"To cultivate top innovative talents, we must first strengthen students' foundation in mathematics and science, and at the same time cultivate students' broad academic vision, give them a 'forest' for independent exploration and cultivate their academic interests. In this way, they can make breakthroughs in basic research in the future." Feng Huihua said, Executive Vice President of the Xuteli School/ School of Future Technology.

"Everybody, these are some different sine wave signals, I now superimpose them, and look, the pulse signal appears! This is the Fourier series......," Professor Tao Ran of the School of Information and Electronics said in the classroom ofSignal Processing and Technologywith great enthusiasm. too Thanks to many formulas, electronic information courses are abstract and difficult to understand, and have always had the "reputation" of being "roadblocks" among students. However, since Professor Tao Ran started the course in 2013, students are getting better and better at the course." If you compare scientific research to a big tree, the foundation of mathematics and science is the root; we should use various methods to bring students to understand the actual connotation and meaning behind the formulas, only then the 'roots' can be rooted deep, and the 'tree' can grow mush. " Tao Ran said.

From the introductory courses of frontier disciplines led by academicians to the disciplinary cross-curricular courses that emphasize fundamentals, practical abilities, broad application and promote students’ development, Xuteli School has given full play to the role of demonstration and leadership in talent training while building a high-quality curriculum system, contributing to the optimization and upgrading of the university’s curriculum system.

Seminar on English for Academic Purposes course offered by the Xuteli School

The English for Academic Purposes series courses offered by Xuteli School convert science and technology reports, interviews, lectures and other articles with characteristics of science and engineering into textbooks, emphasizing the common academic thinking and expression methods of students of different majors, so that students can be exposed to the academic discourse system at the beginning of admission. This teaching method has created a national pioneer in undergraduate English for academic purposes. In 2016,English for Academic Purposeswas promoted throughout the university. In 2018, it was awarded the first prize of Beijing Education and Teaching Achievements, and was awarded the "National first-class Undergraduate Course" in 2020.

In addition, the course Thermodynamics of Power Machinery, which integrates the knowledge of thermodynamics and dynamics, enables students to quickly grasp the concept, theoretical system, structural design and analysis methods of advanced power systems of internal combustion engines, and was awarded the third Dewan "Research-oriented Excellent Course" in 2018; the course Signal Processing Theory and Technology was awarded the first batch of national first-class undergraduate courses in 2020, and the course textbook was selected as the "14th Five-Year Plan" textbook of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2021 and the "National Curriculum Civic Government Model Case" of Xinhua Civic Government in 2022.... Xuteli School/ School of Future Technology is not only the "pioneer" of talent training reform, but also the "testing ground" of national first-class curriculum...In the fertile soil for nurturing young talents, high-quality courses has been emerging, which provides the impetus for the construction of the first-class talent cultivation system of the university.

The "engine" that ignite the growth of innovative talents

"Outside the venue, drones can recognize the information of participating vehicles and guide the diversion of vehicles; driverless cars can deliver the materials needed for the venue, and land robots will patrol outside the venue and help fight fires..." In the course Typical Unmanned Systems Engineering Practice, the "BIT Future Security Association Team", composed of students from experimental class of Future Technology of 2021, demonstrated the "simulation of major conference field order maintenance and emergency handling based on unmanned systems" by video, showing the future development direction of automated security system. In order to cultivate students' innovative and practical ability, Xuteli School has made great efforts in curriculum construction, innovation platform, practice and other aspects.

Students of Future Technology presenting the UAV autonomous cruise practice project in the course Typical Unmanned Systems Engineering Practice

Based on the "3+1+X" dynamic learning system, the Xuteli School takes practice education as the orientation and steps training as the path to build a practical curriculum system. In order to stimulate and cultivate students' interest, the school sets cognitive practice courses for first-year students, such as typical unmanned system engineering practice and intelligent electromechanical system application engineering practice, etc., to learn the most advanced technologies in autonomous driving and other fields. To meet the needs of sophomore students to consolidate their major foundation, Xuteli School has set up advanced practical courses such as fundamentals of autonomous mobile robots and special scientific research courses, which are taught by Professor Fumiya from Cambridge University, etc., which not only imparts knowledge but also expands students' international perspective. Since junior year, Xuteli School set up a special project for the comprehensive design of "Yanhe No.1" heterogeneous intelligent unmanned mobile platform. Students began to contact the comprehensive design of complex intelligent unmanned system and completed their graduation project. During the postgraduate period, combined with the title of my graduate thesis, students focus on the basic theory, cutting-edge technology and integrated application of "intelligent unmanned +" technology field to carry out high-level scientific research.

"Xuteli School has always been supportive for us to participate in mass entrepreneurship and innovation competitions. They offer us professional instructors, technical support and experimental sites to provide a good guarantee for our scientific and technological innovation." Said Xin Zhanhua, a 2018 undergraduate of Xuteli School and the gold medal winner of the Internet + National Finals in 2021.

Relying on the state-level scientific research platform and teaching center, the school has built a platform for students' practice and innovation, focusing on strengthening the construction of the training base for top-notch innovative talents, regularly organizing academic and innovative practice activities such as "academic forum" and "innovation project incubation", and implementing the Hui Xian incentive and funding program. These efforts has helped guide and motivate students to carry out academic research, participate in high-level scientific innovation competitions, and publish academic papers. In the past three years, the number of students participating in the national science and technology competition has reached 414. In 2022 alone, 134 students won the national competition awards, among which 12 won the first prize, 170 won the provincial and ministerial level competition awards, and 13 top conference papers and SCI papers as the first author was published.

"At first, I wanted to study biometrics, which is making personalized memes based on people's faces, which might get me into some Internet conglomerate in the future. But my teacher, Professor Fu Ying, told me that I should do systematic research if I were interested in research and systematic research should be aimed at the major needs of China. Graduate students should graduate with important results that they have made by themselves." With many years of research achievements, the team of Liang Yingping won the gold medal in the "Challenge Cup" Entrepreneurship Plan Competition for Chinese College Students just concluded.

Xuteli School students meeting with professors for research directions

"We aim to improve the students' ability to innovate and create in the service of the major strategic needs of the country and to cultivate feelings of serving the country. In recent years, Xuteli School has integrated ideological and political education into the innovation and creation, social practice, constantly strengthen the students' confidence and determination to participate in science and technology to serve the country and build a strong country." Zhang Ji, Party Secretary of Xuteli School/ School of Future Technology, said.

"During my four years in college, I experienced three great events, among which serving as a volunteer for the Beijing Winter Olympics will be the most memorable experience in my life." Wang Tianyi, a 2018 student at Xuteli School, participated in the event broadcast as a volunteer for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Students of Xuteli School in Beijing Winter Olympics

In the training of top-notch innovative talents, Xuteli School always puts moral education first, leading young students to practice the mission of youth in major national activities and achieve the best results in the track of youth. During the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, 127 students participated as volunteers, and nearly half of them were Party members. Among them, 101 were employed as service personnel for the Olympic event media broadcasting project, accounting for 48.3% of the total number of students participating in the project, accounting for 1/6 of the total number of college students volunteering for the project. Among the 14 volunteer temporary Party and League branches set up in the school, 40 of the 73 students are from Xuteli School.

Thirty years of striving to implement honor education has brought the talent Special zone on a new journey. The practice of training top-notch innovative talents in Beijing Institute of Technology and the construction and development of Xuteli School/ School of Future Technology have written the vivid practice of cultivating top-notch innovative talents in the trinity of education, science and technology and talents.

"Today, the need for higher education, scientific knowledge and outstanding talents for the development of the cause of the Party and the country is more urgent than ever before. First-class universities shoulder more important and arduous historical missions than ever before. On the road of educating people for the Party and the country, Beijing Institute of Technology will always pursue excellence and strive to be the first." said Academician Long Teng, President of Beijing Institute of Technology.