From July 7th to July 10th, the Future Of Digital Education & Industry Partnership International Symposium was successfully held in Beijing University of Chemical Technology. The symposium was co-hosted by our university and Technological University Dublin, with contributions from Northumbria University Newcastle, Kyungpook University, University of Pécs, Rowan University, PrepayPower Ireland and Adult Education Centre UPI Žalec. The conference was hosted by the College of Information Science and Technology of Beijing University of Chemical Technology. Prof. Youqing Wang, Dean of the College of Information Science and Technology at Beijing University of Chemical Technology and recipient of the National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation award, and Prof. Paul Doyle, Head of the School of Computer Science at Technological University Dublin, Ireland and recipient of the "2020 Outstanding Overseas Scholar of Hunan Province" award, co-chaired the conference. Several scholars in the field of digital education were invited to share their views on the topics of digital education, artificial intelligence and teaching innovations.
Su Haijia, Vice President at Beijing University of Chemical Technology, mentioned in her speech the "Global Development Initiative" and the "Global Digital Development Path", put forward respectively by the General Assembly of the United Nations and the World Internet Conference. Su Haijia also highlighted how the report of the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China on "Promoting the Digitalisation of Education" has been a crucial deployment.
Su Haijia stressed that the application of digital technology in the field of education needs to be integrated as systematic thinking in order to create a first-class nurturing ecology and an internationalised education cultivation system. This entails promoting global cooperation, building intelligent education, cultivating talents across different dimensions, empowering knowledge upgrading and promoting innovation with special regards to talent cultivation by improving the level of governance. Su Haijia also said that Beijing University of Chemical Technology will, as always, foster the strengthening of exchanges and cooperation with educators from all countries, promote the application of Artificial Intelligence and other Information Technology in educational and teaching practice, explore new education and teaching methods in the are of Digital Education, and strive to improve the quality of talent training. On behalf of the University, Su Haijia finally extended a warm welcome to all the guests and wished the conference a great success.
The meeting brought together participants from China, Ireland, the UK, South Korea, the United States of America, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, and 10 other countries. 17 international experts and scholars gave presentations on various topics including the current hot trend of "ChatGPT" and other rapid developments of Artificial Intelligence technology that are having a transformational impact on traditional education, how can industry and academia collaborate within Engineering educational curricula, and more related challenges and opportunities in the area of Digital Transformation (this was the main topic of the General Assembly keynote presentation and the 3 virtual presentation).
Among them, Prof. Paul Doyle, Head of school of Computer Science, presented on "The Future of AI and Digital Education". Prof. Paul Doyle said that educators, no matter what country they come from, face many issues and challenges in providing quality education to their students. With the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence, it is only natural that educators use digital technology for education. Prof. Paul Doyle used the hot topic of the moment, ChatGPT, to demonstrate the changes brought about by AI and the resulting consequences of AI on the way educators teach and assess. In addition, Prof. Alison Pearce, Head of the Subiect Group "Entrepreneurship & Innovation" at Northumbria University Newcastel, gave a presentation on "Developing Entrepreneurial Talent through Pedagogical Innovations: Insight from 3 International Case studies". In her report, Prof. Alison Pearce said that in the digital era has revealed many limitations of the traditional education and teaching methods. By showing us three cases of new teaching methods that have been practically applied in recent years, and their positive effects on students, Prof. Alison Pearce emphasized that changes in teaching methods are very important and necessary.
In this conference, the participating experts and scholars also carried out in-depth discussions and research on "promoting the digital transformation of education and the development of intelligent education", and the participants unanimously agreed that "combining the fast-developing artificial intelligence technology and carrying out the digital transformation of higher education is a strategic choice to cope with the changes of the times and the changes of the society, and it is a common goal universally pursued by all countries". It is a common goal universally pursued by all countries. Through this conference, all the participants reached a cooperation intention of jointly conducting research on "digital education" and establishing long-term "industry partnership".
With the theme of "Digital Education and Industry Partnership", this conference is a research event on digital education, talent cultivation, international cooperation and industry partnership, providing a platform for experts and scholars from all walks of life to exchange and cooperate, guiding education practitioners to cross the academic boundaries, improving teaching practices, and promoting the generation and development of new ideas, methods and perspectives in education and teaching. The conference aims to explore in depth the latest developments and trends in these fields and to provide a platform for experts and scholars from all walks of life to exchange and cooperate. Participants jointly explored how to promote the sharing of educational resources and cross-border educational cooperation through innovative applications of digital education in order to cultivate globally competitive talents. Industry partnership is also one of the key topics of the conference, discussed how to strengthen cooperation and mutual benefits among industries to promote the sustainable development of digital education and talent cultivation. In addition, the conference explored how to strengthen international cooperation and exchanges, promote knowledge sharing and technology transfer, and promote the globalization of education.