In March, the Ministry of Education announced the filing and approval results of undergraduate majors in ordinary colleges and universities in 2019. Among the 1,672 newly registered majors, artificial intelligence frequently appeared, and a total of 180 colleges and universities set up the major. Among the 181 newly approved undergraduate majors, network and computer majors are also popular, and a total of 23 universities added cyberspace security and information security majors. Another 19 universities added intelligent perception engineering, intelligent equipment and systems and other majors.

Set up a major, who can laugh last?

“Universities need to have a relevant foundation to open artificial intelligence majors. If you have relevant courses and teachers, you can say that you have an advantage.” Liu Xiwei, secretary-general of the Intelligent Education Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Automation, told the China Science Journal.

Tailor, don’t follow the crowd

It is worth noting that in addition to science and technology colleges and comprehensive universities, there are many teachers, finance and agriculture colleges and universities in the new record list of such majors. Huaihua College, Baoding College. Local institutions such as Hezhou College are also among them.

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In this regard, Liu Xiwei pointed out that although the professional name is the same, different universities should distinguish their development positioning, and the focus of research and application is different, “to do something and do something.”

“Comprehensive universities should focus on theoretical foundations and interdisciplinary development. Science and technology colleges should focus more on specific industry applications and do a good job in technology research and development. Local universities and colleges must combine the needs of local economic development and reform with regional economic characteristics.”

“Artificial intelligence is an interdisciplinary discipline that covers several professional categories including electronic information, automation and computers. If it is combined with application fields, it will also involve electrical and mechanical majors.” Liu Xiwei pointed out that the establishment of artificial intelligence major needs to combine the existing courses of computer, automation and other majors, and deploy existing resources to do a combination.

Liu Xiwei takes automation as an example: “Some universities focus on the automation of chemical process control, some focus on motion control, robot automation, and some focus on power automation.”

He stressed that tailor-made planning should be done, and new professional directions should not be blindly opened. “Artificial intelligence is similar to the automation major in the past, and not all schools can follow the trend to do computer vision, big data, and must focus on related industry applications.”