On the morning of September 2, ahead of the 42^nd Teachers’ Day, CUEB held the launch ceremony for the InnoFusion Smart Valley (hereafter the Smart Valley) and the Interdisciplinary Digital Intelligence Experimental Platform. Li Yi, Deputy Secretary of the Education Committee of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Director of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission, attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. Liu Ying, Party Secretary of the Party Committee of CUEB, presided over the ceremony. Wu Weixing, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and President of CUEB, also attended it.

Li Yi extended warm congratulations on the unveiling of the Smart Valley. He remarked that artificial intelligence is profoundly reshaping the global innovation landscape. For institutions of higher education, it represents not only an upgrade of research tools, but also a fundamental transformation of the search paradigm. The Smart Valley is a vivid practice to proactively recognize, adapt to and drive changes, and deepen the reform of its research organization model. By building eight specialized laboratories, coordinating university-wide computing resources, sharing data and breaking down disciplinary barriers, CUEB is making proactive explorations and delivering a robust response to the new research paradigm. Li Yi emphasized that the development of new liberal arts is not a simple superposition of liberal arts and technology, but a reshaping of mindsets and reconstruction of capabilities. The construction of research platforms should focus on genuine interdisciplinary, address real-world problems and produce scientific conclusions. It should target the practical scenarios of high-quality development in the capital, and “write research papers on the land of Beijing”.

Li Yi put forward three earnest expectations for the development of CUEB. First, to excel at integration: advance interdisciplinary collaboration from “physical aggregation” to “chemical reaction”, and build the platform into an incubator for cross-disciplinary collaborative innovation. Second, to excel at service: align closely with the construction of Beijing’s “Four Centers” functions. We need to produce landmark achievements in fields such as data elements, fintech and urban governance, providing stronger intellectual support for the decision-making of the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government. Third, to excel at talent cultivation: deepen the reform of the talent training model by leveraging the new platform, nurture high-quality financial talents with digital intelligence literacy, innovative thinking and a strong sense of national responsibility, and provide solid talent support for the high-quality development of the capital. The Beijing Municipal Education Commission will continue to support CUEB’s reform and development. He expected that CUEB will boldly pilot reforms ahead of the curve, contributing a “CUEB solution” for finance and economics universities in Beijing and across the country.

On behalf of CUEB Party Committee and all faculty, staff and students, Liu Ying expressed gratitude to the Education Working Committee, the Education Commission and all leaders for the long-term care and support. She noted that as a high-level research university in Beijing, CUEB is facing transformation challenges brought by technological advances. The university must proactively embrace emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and deepen institutional and operational reform and innovation. The concentrated efforts to build the Smart Valley mark an active exploration by CUEB to adapt to the requirements of disciplinary development, talent training and research innovation transformation in the era of the intelligent economy. Looking ahead to the 15^th Five-Year period, CUEB will continue to strengthen and optimize its four major disciplinary clusters: economics, management, science and interdisciplinary studies, and literature and law. It will focus on future industries including the intelligent economy, foster new disciplinary growth points, and make greater contributions to serving major national strategies and the development of the capital in the new era.

At the ceremony, teacher and student representatives from the four disciplinary clusters jointly launched the Smart Valley. Li Yi and Wu Weixing unveiled the inauguration commemorative plaques.

Vice president Yin Zhichao introduced the construction progress of the Smart Valley. Zhou Zhenkun, associate professor at the School of Artificial Intelligence, delivered a speech as a representative of young faculty members.

After the ceremony, all attendees toured the facilities of the Smart Valley.

University leaders, deans of all colleges, discipline leaders, research team representatives, heads of administrative and teaching support units, and student representatives attended the inauguration ceremony.