The finals of the Second China Graduate Student Robot Innovation Design Competition was held on Sept 24 in the Western China Innovation Harbor in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.  

The opening ceremony of the competition is held on Thursday.

As part of efforts to promote the innovation and development of robot science and technology, which could better promote economic development and benefit the people, the competition primarily focuses on robot technology and its applications. It seeks to test graduate students' ability to assess market demand, create innovative design and use key technologies.

Zheng Qinghua, vice president of Xi'an Jiaotong University, makes a speech at the competition opening ceremony.  

Zheng Qinghua, vice president of Xi'an Jiaotong University, said that as a concentrated embodiment of artificial intelligence, innovative robot design has a profound impact on social development, and will become a new direction in the next generation of industrial development.

"The purpose of this robot innovation competition is to let young people actively meet the needs of society and apply what they have learned to solve social problems. I hope that through this competition and high-end academic forum, we can make new contributions to the national artificial intelligence and robot cause together," the vice president said.  

Graduate students taking part in the competition show off their robot innovation achievements in the competition.   

According to the maturity and technical characteristics of the creative works, the competition is divided into a simulation group, a component group and an integration group, incorporating advanced industrial robots, medical robots, service robots for the elderly and disabled and other robot technologies and their application fields.

In total, 154 teams from 69 universities and scientific research institutes including Tsinghua University, Harbin University of technology, Zhejiang University, Huazhong University of science and technology and Xi'an Jiaotong University entered the final.

The robots designed and made by the graduate students are displayed at the competition.  

Yuan Ning, Secretary General of Shaanxi Provincial Academic Degree Committee, pointed out that the competition aims to investigate and improve graduate students' innovative thinking, design ability, ability to realize key technologies and their insight into market demand. With the goal of achieving technological breakthroughs, it is of great significance to promote the development of innovative robot technology and seize the great strategic opportunities for the development of artificial intelligence.

During the finals, some related events will also be held, including the "2020 artificial intelligence/robot academic high-end forum", the "2020 artificial intelligence/robot high-end professionals recruitment fair", and the "2020 artificial intelligence/robot industry exhibition".