Linked by the World Bank, the delegation from Makerere University in Uganda visited the College of Computer Science and Technology on June 6th. The meeting was chaired by Xue Fei Deputy Director of the Office of International Relations in Zhejiang University. Associate Professor Zhao Zhou, Associate Professor Wu Sai, and Dr. Chen Jianhai from the College of Computer Science and Technology provided in-depth introductions to their research progress in artificial intelligence, big data and supercomputing.
To begin with, Prof. Wu Sai introduced the development and challenges of current big data platforms. He compared the features and disadvantages of the data systems used by Google, Apple and Amazon, which led to Zhejiang University’s research progress in parallel database, cloud database and Map Reduce technology. Among them, Prof. Wu Sai focused on the innovative features of Oscar and Epic, two databases developed by the Zhejiang University team.
Prof. Zhao Zhou discussed the development and major research findings of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence in Zhejiang University. He first introduced the China Academic Digital Associative Library (CADAL) project led by the Artificial Intelligence Institute, which contributed to the digitization, knowledge extraction, and structuring of Chinese books. Prof. Zhao Zhou then presented another cutting-edge technology developed by the Institute called cross-media intelligence. This technology can realize bidirectional transformation of pictures and texts, which provides powerful technical support for image generation in the future.
Dr. Chen Jianhai’s report focused on the achievements of the College of Computer Science and Technology in supercomputing and blockchain. He introduced the outstanding accomplishments of his teams in the ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge over the years, as well as the performance and key hardware parameters of the supercomputing clusters developed during the Challenge. He suggested that actively encouraging students to develop supercomputing applications out of personal interest is very important for cultivating students' skills in supercomputing. In the area of blockchain, Dr. Chen Jianhai demonstrated its core technology framework, and introduced the application of blockchain developed by ZJU, Incaslab for personalized education, intellectual property protection and asset settlement.
The delegates from Uganda’s Makerere University exchanged their thoughts on technical and hardware issues they are facing in artificial intelligence and big data research. Regarding future cooperation, Dr. Michael Lubwama from Makerere University said that he is very interested in the application of blockchain technology developed by Dr. Chen Jianhai’s team for personalized education. He hopes that further cooperation will be possible in the future. Mr. Brian Mujuni from the College of Health Sciences at Makerere University also expressed his willingness to further cooperate with ZJU professors in using big data technology to monitor human behavior and predict disease outbreaks. Mr Xue Fei stated that under the guidance of China’s “One Belt One Road” policy, Zhejiang University encourages the two universities to actively cooperate in student training and academic research.
Uganda is one of the African members states in China's One Belt One Road Initiative. Makerere University is the largest university in Uganda. It was founded in 1922 and located in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. In 2016, Times Higher Education ranked it as one of the best four universities in Africa. The school has 36,000 undergraduates, 4,000 graduate students and 1,500 main teachers. Makerere University is the alma mater of many African leaders, including President Milton Obote of Uganda, President Julius Nyerere and Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, and President Joseph Kabila of Congo.
