China’s Tsinghua University has set up a new cross-disciplinary institute to undertake robotics research, the latest sign of increased academic support from its top universities as the country doubles down on the embodied intelligence competition with the US.
The Institute for Embodied Intelligence and Robotics will integrate resources from Tsinghua’s different schools, including automation, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering and computer science. Embodied intelligence is a field of artificial intelligence that works on a physical body and learns from its interaction with the real world.
The initiative was aimed at research into both first-in-class innovation and full-stack technology in the robotics sector, according to a report by state-owned Beijing Daily on Tuesday.
The institute was in line with Tsinghua’s approach to “proactively serve national strategic needs” and act as an important base for producing top-notch talent, Li Luming, Tsinghua’s president, said at a launch event on Sunday.
The institute will be headed by Zhang Tao, the current director of Tsinghua’s Department of Automation, a specialist in robotics and aircraft control technologies.
The move comes as China mobilises academic and industry efforts to develop the robotics sector in a bid to dominate the next generation of smart manufacturing and humanoid technology.
Tsinghua joins a number of mainland universities that are supporting the efforts to generate the much-needed specialised talent for the industry, enlisting tech giants and humanoid robot start-ups like Xiaomi and Unitree Robotics as prospective employers.
Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Zhejiang University were among a batch of seven universities that had applied to add embodied intelligence as a new undergraduate course, China’s education ministry said in November.
In January, Shanghai-based Fudan University announced that it had set up the Institute of Trustworthy Embodied AI, bringing together experts from areas like computer vision, natural language processing and integrated circuits to foster cutting-edge research in robotics. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
