On October 12, 2023, the International Industry-university-research-application Cooperation Conference undertaken by Chongqing University is held in Chongqing under the support and guidance of the Ministry of Education and Chongqing Municipal People's Government. Zhou Xuhong, a professor of Chongqing University and an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Billie F.Spencer, a professor of University of Illinois and a foreign academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Li Bin, Head of the Office of International Affairs of Chongqing Municipal Education Commission, and Li Yingmin, President Assistant of Chongqing University, attend the conference. The Conference is chaired by Yang Fan, Dean of the Graduate School of Chongqing University.

With the theme of "enabling a shared future by smart manufacturing and cultivating talents through industry-university-research-application", the conference is divided into opening ceremony and two parallel sessions: smart construction and smart manufacturing. The parallel sessions are undertaken by the School of Civil Engineering, the School of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering and the School of Opto-Electronic Engineering of Chongqing University respectively both online and offline.

At the opening ceremony, Zhou Xuhong, Billie F.Spencer, Li Bin, Li Yingmin and Professor Li Kun, representative of postgraduate supervisors of Chongqing University, deliver speeches respectively, hoping that the participants could carry out in-depth discussions and exchanges on smart construction and smart manufacturing and share wisdom and experience in an unified way.

Zhou Xuhong points out that the in-depth integration of education, science and technology and talents between China and foreign countries is an important way to improve the quality of talent training and promote scientific and technological innovation and economic development under the international industry-university-research-application cooperation framework. His commanding speech provides scientific and powerful guidance for the integrated development of international industry-university-research-application in smart construction and smart manufacturing.

Billie F.Spencer says that smart construction is the key for the current building industry to break through the development bottleneck, enhance the core competitiveness and achieve high-quality development, and it is an inevitable development trend of civil engineering. It is necessary to adhere to the combination of industry-university-research and achieve the inter-disciplinary integration.

Li Bin stresses that promoting the in-depth integration of industry-university-research-application is a key and effective means for building an important talent center and innovation highland, promoting regional economic development and deepening talent training in colleges and universities. The Conference is held in Chongqing for the first time. This is a substantial opportunity for Chongqing to enrich its existing development experience, achieve diversified win-win cooperation, and explore the integrated development of education, science and technology and talents.

Li Yingmin says that, in smart construction and smart manufacturing, Chongqing University takes improving its talent training ability as the core. It deepens education reform in terms of key elements, and promotes the renewal and transformation of traditional engineering majors. It is committed to cultivating excellent engineering talents in smart construction and smart manufacturing with both engineering manufacturing and scientific discovery ability. It strives to work out the solutions for the topic of the times "what should colleges and universities do for building a powerful country in education".

At the opening ceremony, China Construction Science and Industry Corporation Ltd., CCT Technology Holdings Limited, and Chongqing Intelligent Construction Research Institute respectively sign a Cooperation Agreement in Joint Innovation with Chongqing University.

At the parallel session of smart construction, 11 well-known experts from Carnegie Mellon University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Tsinghua University, China Construction Science and Industry Corporation Ltd., etc. deliver keynote speeches on scientific issues, core algorithms and key technologies in smart construction, show the latest achievements in the smart construction integrating civil engineering, Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, robotics and other multidisciplinary technologies in combination with their own engineering practice and scientific research experience.

At the parallel session of smart manufacturing, 10 well-known experts from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of Newcastle, Intel Products (Chengdu) Co., Ltd. give wonderful reports on topics such as smart factory, precision measurement, digital twin, intelligent networking, and new energy vehicles, from the aspect of global leading technologies, solutions, industrial applications, etc. They show the achievements of integrating industry-university-research-application in view of intelligent factory system architecture, intelligent equipment, manufacturing automation, networking, intelligent platform construction, non-contact precision measurement, 3D laser detection, MEMS measuring instrument development, etc.

The International Industry-university-research-application Cooperation Conference was initiated by the Ministry of Education in 2018. It has been held for successive five years. With wider and wider cooperation platforms, richer and richer cooperation modes, and more and more cooperation achievements, it has been popular among colleges and universities, enterprises and research institutes at home and abroad. The Smart Construction and Smart Manufacturing International Industry-university-research-application Cooperation Conference has carried out in-depth and continuous discussion and communication around smart construction and smart manufacturing, shared wisdom and experience, and built a platform for exchanges and cooperation between China and foreign countries. It has strengthened the in-depth integration of industry-university-research-application in smart construction and smart manufacturing, and effectively upgraded the talent training and discipline construction in the corresponding field.

Over 300 teacher and student representatives from relevant functional departments, the School of Civil Engineering, the School of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering and the School of Opto-Electronic Engineering of the University attend the Conference.