The 5th Annual Conference of the Chaoshan Innovation Economic Promotion Association and the 2019 Global Teochew Artificial Intelligence(AI) conference, which was supported by the Shantou Municipal Government, the China Internet Association and the Chinese and Foreign Entrepreneurs Alliance,  organized by the Shantou Industrial and Information Technology Bureau, and the Chaoren Innovation Economic Research Institute, and co-organized by the Guangdong Technion Israel Institue of Technology(GTIIT) was successfully held in Shantou on Oct. 19, attracting nearly 1,000 industry elites from around the world. Li Yu, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shantou Municipal Committee, and Deputy Mayor of Shantou Municipal Government; Li Yangchun, Deputy Director of the United Front Work Department of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and Huang Chengqing, Vice Chairman of the China Internet Association attended the event.

The theme of the Conference was "AI Leads to the Future of the World". Experts in various industries shared topics about the future of artificial intelligence, venture capital, 3D sensing etc. through lectures and round-table discussions.

Prof. Lin Danming, Pro-Vice Chancellor of GTIIT, introduced the background and significance of the release of the 2019 Global Teochew Artificial Intelligence Companies and Elites report, then presented awards to the winners during the opening ceremony.

GTIIT Associate Professor Wang Nan was invited to share his expertise, along with Hu Zemin, founder of Magic Capital and an early investor of Pinduoduo; Yang Zhilin, co-founder of Recurrent.ai; He Han, co-founder of SinoVest Capital and Xiao Jianxiong, founder of Auto X in the round-table session under the theme of "The Opportunities and Challenges of Artificial Intelligence in the New Context ".

Dr. Wang Nan introduced the roles that AI play in the field of materials science. "Driven by the large data generated in experiments, theoretical and computational models, Neural-Network (NN) based AI can be used to make fast predictions on materials properties, screen potential materials and accelerate materials discovery." He pointed out that the current NN based AI is essentially a universal fitting algorithm for large data sets. "It has its pros and cons compared with traditional theory and computational-model based research methods, and should be used to supplement the other in research." 

More than 150 GTIIT students also attended the event. Li Junhong, a sophomore of Materials Engineering was very interested in how AI helps self-driving cars react to difficult driving conditions with objects like pedestrians, traffic lights and other cars accurately and quickly as well as predict the best trajectories. Li also thought of potential problems which AI can't solve. "High-tech and multi-dimensional industries can't live without the solid support of basic science. The breakthrough of functional materials will certainly promote development of information technology. Our current research will point the way to the future of science and technology, " said Li.