The Institute of Artificial Intelligence of Sun Yat-sen University was inaugurated to establish an AI+ research institution

Recently, Sun Yat-sen University held an artificial intelligence development conference, during which the unveiling ceremony of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute was held and the establishment of 17 research centers was announced. The institute aims to further promote the cross-disciplinary integration of artificial intelligence research across departments and faculties at Sun Yat-sen University, providing strategic support in talent cultivation, institutional mechanisms, and discipline construction.

Party Secretary Zhu Kongjun, President Gao Song, Academician Xu Zongben, Academician Qian Depai, Executive Vice President Yang Qinghua, and Vice President Zheng Yue unveiled the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute.
Academician Qian Depai, the first dean of the School of Computer Science at Sun Yat-sen University, serves as the director of the academic committee of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute.
Chen Hongbo, the executive vice president of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, introduced: “The institute integrates the research forces of relevant schools across the university around the three levels of ‘subject, foundation, and application’ of artificial intelligence, focusing on national strategic needs and the industrial advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It aims to build a large-scale application ecosystem that integrates research, industry, education, and use in areas such as multimodal world models, low-power brain-like chips, unmanned systems, and low-altitude economy.”
It is reported that the 17 research centers under the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute cover the three levels of ‘subject, foundation, and application’, as well as multiple interdisciplinary fields including liberal arts, science, medicine, and engineering. They include high-performance intelligent scientific and engineering computing, the mathematical foundation of artificial intelligence, brain-like perception devices, intelligent software, multi-agent large models and embodied intelligence, swarm intelligence, and medical big data artificial intelligence.
President Gao Song, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that Sun Yat-sen University will continue to strengthen research on basic theories, methods, and tools, concentrate efforts on breaking through key technologies such as high-end chips and basic software, and build an independent and controllable, coordinated artificial intelligence basic software and hardware system. At the same time, it will lead the transformation of the scientific research paradigm with artificial intelligence and empower scientific and technological innovation breakthroughs in various fields.
The conference also released the “Sun Yat-sen University Plan for Promoting the Development of Artificial Intelligence”, covering 15 tasks in three aspects: talent cultivation, scientific innovation, and administrative governance.
Party Secretary Zhu Kongjun of Sun Yat-sen University said that as the leading university in higher education in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Sun Yat-sen University should bravely shoulder the mission of the times, place artificial intelligence in the strategic position of promoting the university’s development from “big” to “strong”, adhere to self-reliance and self-strengthening, strengthen basic research and core technology breakthroughs, highlight application orientation, and serve national strategies.
The Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen University was established in June 2020. By December 2024, the institute will further enrich and expand its research directions and enter substantive operation, with nearly 40,000 square meters of research space and the construction of a number of world-class advanced scientific research experimental platforms.
With the rapid evolution of new-generation artificial intelligence technology, Sun Yat-sen University firmly seizes the historical opportunity and accelerates the development of artificial intelligence on campus. Sun Yat-sen University has formulated and released the “Sun Yat-sen University Plan for Promoting the Development of Artificial Intelligence”, promoting the integration of artificial intelligence into talent cultivation, scientific research, and administrative governance, and accelerating the construction of an integrated high-quality development system of education, science and technology, and talent in the field of artificial intelligence. The “Sun Yat-sen University Plan for Promoting the Development of Artificial Intelligence” covers 15 tasks in three aspects: talent cultivation, scientific innovation, and administrative governance.

Secretary Zhu Kongjun and President Gao Song presented the task books to the representatives of the leading units of the tasks.

Sun Yat-sen University’s Artificial Intelligence Research Institute “Upgraded Again”
At the meeting, the newly established and operational Artificial Intelligence Research Institute was officially inaugurated. Founded in June 2020, the institute focuses on research in swarm intelligence and cross-domain collaborative perception. In November 2024, the institute entered its operational phase, with a layout of artificial intelligence-related colleges in the three campuses of Guangzhou, Zhuhai, and Shenzhen, covering nearly 20 colleges to comprehensively promote the cultivation of artificial intelligence talents, scientific innovation, industrial development, and application empowerment for the university.
Establishment of 17 Research Institutions
To further strengthen and standardize the academic governance and innovation leadership of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, the university established the Academic Committee of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute. Academician Qian Depei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the first dean of the School of Computer Science at Sun Yat-sen University, serves as the chairperson of the Academic Committee of the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute.

President Gao Song presented an appointment letter to Academician Qian Depei, appointing him as the director of the Academic Committee of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

The Institute of Artificial Intelligence, in light of the school’s disciplinary layout characteristics and advantages, has set up 17 research institutions around the areas of overall planning and support, basic research, collaborative innovation, and technology finance, including high-performance intelligent scientific and engineering computing, mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence, intelligent computing chips and systems, brain-like perception devices, intelligent software, multi-agent large models and embodied intelligence, swarm intelligence, and medical big data artificial intelligence.

  Academician Qian Depei presented plaques to each research center.

At the meeting, Academician Xu Zongben gave a report titled “The Limit Theory of Large Models: Interpreting the Emergence of Intelligence and Scale Laws”. The report focused on the issue of intelligence emergence in large models. It provided a mathematical description of large models and their intelligence emergence, presented a criterion for determining intelligence emergence in large models, and conducted experimental verification based on the GPT-2 model. It also characterized the intelligence emergence behavior of linear large models and expounded on multiple issues such as “the limit behavior of the width-depth synergy of large models”.

Academician Xu Zongben delivered a report titled “The Limit Theory of Large Models: Interpreting the Emergence of Intelligence and Scale Laws”.
Chen Hongbo, the executive vice president of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence, He Haitao, the director of the Network and Information Center, Cai Ming, the president of the School of Intelligent Engineering, and Yang Qintai, the vice president of the Third Affiliated Hospital, respectively introduced the related work in promoting the scientific research of artificial intelligence at Sun Yat-sen University through the integration of multiple disciplines, the digital transformation of administrative governance empowered by AI, the construction of a future industrial talent training system in the School of Intelligent Engineering, and the high-quality development of the hospital empowered by the construction of a smart hospital.
Chen Hongbo, He Haitao, Cai Ming, and Yang Qintai gave special reports.
Injecting New Energy into the Development of Artificial Intelligence with “Sun Yat-sen University Wisdom”
President Gao Song summarized the basic situation of the development of artificial intelligence at the university in his speech, introduced the current status, existing problems, and future development thoughts of artificial intelligence at the university.

Principal Takamatsu’s Speech

The scene of the Artificial Intelligence Development Conference of Sun Yat-sen University