To keep abreast with the advances of information technology and explore solutions for intelligent education, the Party branch of the Center for Excellent Teaching and Learning (CETL), PKU organized a Special Party Day on March 14, 2019, sending a delegation to the headquarters of Baidu Inc. for an exchange and sharing session with the Party Committee of the company. All members of the CETL (21 in total including incumbent Party members and staff members) attended the activity.

Guided by the headquarters principal at Baidu Building, the CETL delegation visited the company’s cultural wall, listened to introductions of Baidu’s history of development, and was presented the company’s latest AI technology. During the process, the delegation also experienced the driverless car developed by Baidu and many other changes brought by AI technology to people’s daily lives.

Later, the two sides held a symposium. At the beginning, Zhao Cheng, Party Secretary, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Baidu Inc., delivered a welcome speech to the CETL delegation. Then, Yu Fei, Director of the Party Committee Office of Baidu Inc. introduced their work related to the Party construction and the company’s business developments, and gave an overview as to how they have applied AI technology to their publicity work, guidance of public opinions, management of network content security, and how they have used intelligent educational solutions for targeted poverty alleviation.

After that, the head of Baidu’s Education Division gave a detailed introduction to the new educational products of Baidu Smart Classroom (study.baidu.com), including the smart class preparation system, AI Innovation Laboratory, VR classroom, smart class scheduling system, smart security system, the in-class concentration analysis system, the smart assessment system, the career development platform for students, and the evaluation and growth system for teachers, available on Baidu’s intelligent education service platform. Besides, he explained the three core advantages of the platform in promoting intelligent education, i.e. massive and continuously enriched document resources, core resources brought by question banks and comprehensive coverage of subjects, and the Baidu Brain that calls AI service about 150 million times a day as well as more than 4 billion visits per day. In addition, the platform also boasts core technological advantages and one-stop delivery services such as 960,000 courses, OCR of exam questions, document trans-coding, as well as support and optimal solutions from professional consultant teams.

Following the business introduction, the symposium came to the session for discussions. The two sides exchanged ideas freely on how to apply Baidu’s intelligent educational solutions to universities and engaged in discussions on topics such as the development and positioning of course resources, “one person, one space” for teachers and students, sharing of lecture resources, training for teachers, network platforms for teaching and learning, and intelligent teaching buildings. Director Sun Hua and Vice Directors Deng Hui and He Shan of the CETL spoke at the session in succession. They put forward relevant suggestions, expressed their intent for further cooperation with Baidu, and invited representatives of Baidu to visit Peking University and explore more possibilities for cooperation between the two sides.

At last, Cheng Hong, director of Baidu’s Public Affairs Department, made a concluding speech. After the symposium, the two sides took group photos at the lobby of Baidu’s headquarters building, bringing an end to the visit in a harmonious atmosphere.

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