BFSU holds 2022 National Science and Technology Week activities from May 21 to 28. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

A ceremony was held by Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) on May 27 to mark the closing of the BFSU 2022 National Science and Technology Week.

Under the theme of "Walking Together into Science and Technology," the five-day event was launched by the BFSU Artificial Intelligence and Human Languages Lab (BFSU•AI) with the support of the Beiwai Online, the School of Information Science and Technology at BFSU and Beijing Waiyan Online Digital Technology Co., Ltd.

Zhao Gang, member of the standing committee of the CPC BFSU Committee and vice-president of the university, gives a speech at the opening ceremony of the BFSU 2022 National Science and Technology Week. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

In his speech at the opening ceremony, Zhao Gang, member of the standing committee of the CPC BFSU committee and vice-president of the university, extended warm welcome to teachers and students and gave an introduction to the development of the university and BFSU•AI.

Zhao said the organization of the event was expected to promote the application of artificial intelligence in education, and encourage young people’s enthusiasm in science in both knowledge and technical skills.

Gu Yueguo, chief expert of BFSU•AI and honorary dean of Beiwai Online, called on students to master both science and technology and learn to grasp their importance to the world.

Li Zuowen, director of BFSU•AI and the Multilingual Center for Natural Language Processing, talked about the concept of data literacy and its role in the artificial intelligence era. He said it is of great significance for all countries to boost their international competitiveness through enhancing their labor force’s data literacy under the background of new technological revolution.

Tang Jinlan, dean of Beiwai Online, deputy secretary-general of BFSU•AI council and director of the Research Center for Computer-Assisted Language Learning, briefed attendees on the arrangements of the BFSU 2022 National Science and Technology Week.

Researchers at BFSU•AI will hold lectures on computer-assisted language learning, multilingual natural language processing, multilingual brain science, multilingual corpus and studies on the capacity-building of learning foreign languages to help the public become interested in science.

Zhang Haizheng, a professor from the BFSU Law School, gave an interpretation on the Law on Scientific and Technological Progress and the Law on the Popularization of Science and Technology in a lecture.

A guide introduces BFSU World Language Museum to online audience. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

During the five-day activity, a virtual tour to the BFSU World Language Museum and a series of online science popularization lectures were organized to showcase the latest achievements made by BFSU•AI.

BFSU professors present lectures via video conference to showcase the latest scientific and technological achievements made by the BFSU•AI. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

Nearly 200,000 people followed the virtual activity on the social media platform Sina Weibo and 13,000 people participated in the livestream event via multiple platforms.

BFSU•AI, founded in December 2019, focuses on frontier issues in artificial intelligence and education. It has leveraged BFSU’s academic strength to conduct research on such topics as language-learning mechanism, artificial intelligence-assisted language learning, multilingual corpus, multilingual natural language processing and capacity-building by learning foreign languages.

The lab has played a leading role in promoting theoretical, institutional and practical innovation in basic linguistic disciplines, making breakthroughs in the application of cutting-edge technologies in linguistic research, building an inclusive, open and flexible education system, and facilitating the construction of a learning-oriented society.