2025-11-10
On 8 November, the “Emerging Engineering · Integrating for the Future: Multidisciplinary Innovation Forum” was held in Chongqing, hosted by the Chongqing Higher Education Society and organized by Chongqing College of Finance and Economics. Nearly 120 representatives from 25 undergraduate institutions inside and outside the municipality—including university leaders, directors of academic affairs offices and discipline leaders—as well as industry experts and teaching and research backbones from Baidu (China) Co., Ltd. and the Chongqing Academy of Educational Sciences gathered to discuss. Centered on “disciplinary integration, industry–education integration and innovation-oriented education”, the forum explored pathways to upgrade emerging engineering education initiatives, helping higher education in Chongqing better align with regional industrial development needs and injecting new impetus into the construction of the Chengdu–Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle.
Opening Ceremony Sets the Direction: Grounded in Strategic Needs, Addressing Development Challenges
The opening ceremony of the forum was chaired by Yu Zhixiang, Secretary-General of the Chongqing Higher Education Society. Wu Hua’an, President of Chongqing College of Finance and Economics, and Qiao Jian, Level II Inspector of the Chongqing Municipal Education Commission, delivered speeches in turn.
In his remarks, President Wu Hua’an shared Chongqing College of Finance and Economics’ experience in integrating “new finance” with emerging engineering education. He noted that the university has built a distinctive framework centered on the “Three Finance” (financial literacy, financial capability and financial intelligence) and the “Three Integrations” (integration of disciplines, industry–education integration and university–local collaboration), and has established flagship platforms such as the iFlytek Artificial Intelligence College and the China–Singapore FinTech Modern Industrial College. Among these, the “one college, three governance mechanisms and five integrations” model of the iFlytek Artificial Intelligence College has been selected as a typical case of industry–education integration by the Ministry of Education. Going further, the university has promoted curriculum integration, collaborative practice and the co-construction of innovation platforms, building a three-dimensional training system that links “programs–courses–projects–competitions” and exploring a deeply coupled practice pathway for “new finance + emerging engineering education”. He concluded that the “Three Finance integrating with the Three Integrations” has formed a Chongqing College of Finance and Economics model for “new finance + emerging engineering education”: integrating disciplines through the cross-fertilization of “intelligent technology + finance + engineering” to better align training objectives with social needs; integrating industry and education to build a new education ecosystem driven by real-world scenarios and university–enterprise collaboration; and integrating knowledge and action to help students grow into “unity of knowledge and action” talents through innovation-oriented practice.
In his speech, Qiao Jian, Level II Inspector of the Chongqing Municipal Education Commission, affirmed the phased achievements of emerging engineering education in Chongqing. Over the past three years, 138 new programs aligned with emerging industry needs have been launched across the city, with professional structure adjustments reaching 29%. Six high-level universities focusing on emerging engineering education and more than 200 specialized colleges have been established, significantly enhancing universities’ capacity to support industrial transformation and upgrading. He stressed the need to uphold the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, deepen industry–education integration and digital empowerment, and advance emerging engineering education in a more substantive and effective manner.
Keynote Reports Explore Pathways: Experts Chart New Paradigms of Integration
Following the opening ceremony, the keynote session was chaired by Cui Zhongshan, Vice President of Chongqing College of Finance and Economics. Two keynote speeches injected cutting-edge intellectual momentum into the forum.
Professor Huang Tingzhu, a national teaching master and former Director of the Academic Affairs Office at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, delivered a keynote titled “Exploration and Practice of Emerging Engineering Education from Version 1.0 to 2.0”, sharing insights from a decade of focused work. As a two-time recipient of the National Teaching Achievement Award (First Prize), he examined key issues such as disciplinary integration, curriculum restructuring and reform of teaching evaluation from three perspectives: “reconstructing the understanding of emerging engineering education”, “the logic of integrating first-class undergraduate education with emerging engineering education” and “the upgrading pathway from 1.0 to 2.0”. He proposed building a project-driven curriculum system centered on complex engineering problems, so that students can enhance their innovation capacity in authentic engineering contexts and form replicable and scalable “reference samples” for emerging engineering initiatives. “The core of Emerging Engineering 2.0 is the leap from ‘building programs’ to ‘cultivating ecosystems’,” he argued, pointing out the direction of further advancement for participating universities.
Yang Yiying, Director of Enterprise AI Service Solutions at Baidu Smart Cloud, delivered a keynote entitled “A New Paradigm of Industry–Education Integration Driven by Large Models”, offering first-hand experience from the front line of industry. Drawing on Baidu’s practice of using large models in talent development, she proposed a closed-loop logic of “technology empowering education, and education in turn feeding back into industry”. By building large-model talent bases nationwide, Baidu has already helped leading enterprises such as FAW and GoerTek transform their AI talent teams. If universities embed real industrial scenarios into curriculum design, students can master cutting-edge industrial skills while still on campus. “Large models are not just ‘tools’; they are a new infrastructure for reshaping industry–education integration,” she stressed, opening up new avenues for university–enterprise joint talent cultivation.
Sharing and Exchange Spark Ideas: University–Local Collaboration Showcases New Practice Achievements
The afternoon sharing and exchange session was chaired by Qin Yuelin, Director of the Academic Affairs Office of Chongqing University of Science and Technology. Representatives from nine universities engaged in in-depth discussions on topics such as university–local joint practice of emerging engineering education, talent cultivation and curriculum innovation.
Song Chaosheng, Deputy Dean of the National Academy of Outstanding Engineers at Chongqing University, presented a “project-based innovation talent training model for emerging engineering education”. The “Mingyue Class” training system he introduced is built on national key R&D projects, achieving seamless integration between academic research and engineering practice. Zhang Li, Vice President of Chongqing College of Finance and Economics, used the iFlytek Artificial Intelligence College as an example to unpack how the “three governance mechanisms and five integrations” model addresses pain points such as aligning university–enterprise interests and building distinctive features, thereby forming a sustainable mechanism for university–enterprise cooperation. Representatives from Chongqing University of Science and Technology, Chongqing Engineering Institute and other institutions shared their experience in building engineering practice platforms and designing university–local collaborative education mechanisms, providing a “Chongqing sample” for emerging engineering education.
Representatives from Chongqing Technology and Business University, Chongqing University of Technology and other institutions exchanged views on topics such as “integration of business and engineering”, “top-level design for emerging engineering talent cultivation” and “AI+ curriculum development”. A consensus emerged that disciplinary integration can break down barriers, industry–education integration can better connect supply with demand, and innovation-oriented education is fundamental to talent cultivation. The discussions were lively, and participants noted that the cases shared by various universities provided valuable reference for addressing the challenges of emerging engineering education. In addition, representatives from Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing Normal University and Chongqing City Vocational College of Science and Technology shared their experiences from the perspectives of undergraduate talent training reform and engineering program development.
Forum Concludes Successfully: Building Consensus and Embarking on a New Journey of Development
Over the one-day agenda, which ranged from policy interpretation to case sharing and from conceptual debate to pathway exploration, participants reached three core points of consensus: disciplinary integration is the “core code” of emerging engineering education; industry–education integration is the “key to unlocking” development bottlenecks; and talent cultivation is the “fundamental goal” of serving regional development.
The successful convening of the forum not only served as a “central showcase” of Chongqing’s achievements in emerging engineering education, but also became an “important link” for promoting collaborative innovation in higher education within the Chengdu–Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle. Going forward, participating institutions will use the forum as a new starting point to deepen cross-institutional and cross-sector cooperation, advance emerging engineering education from concept to practice and from isolated initiatives to diversified models, and inject stronger “engineering power” into the development of the Twin-City Economic Circle and the building of a modern new Chongqing.
(Source: Hualong Net)
