Xiangjiang Laboratory, HUTB, and Hunan Iron and Steel Group Hold Exchange Symposium
2025-07-19
On the afternoon of July 18, the exchange symposium between Xiangjiang Laboratory, HUTB, and Hunan Iron and Steel Group was held in the Zhiyuan Lecture Hall of Xiangjiang Building. Attending the meeting were Academician Chen Xiaohong, Secretary of the CPC HUTB Committee and Director of the Xiangjiang Laboratory; Li Jianyu, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Hunan Iron and Steel Group; and Professor Liu Guoquan, Executive Deputy Director of the Xiangjiang Laboratory.
Academician Chen Xiaohong extended a welcome to Chairman Li Jianyu and his delegation for their visit. She introduced that as a major scientific and technological initiative deployed by the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the People’s Government of Hunan Province, the Xiangjiang Laboratory, over its three years of establishment, has focused on the frontiers of artificial intelligence and advanced computing technology. It has carried out the "AI+" initiative around core elements such as data, algorithms, computing power, and computing networks, and has successively released 24 scientific and technological innovation products labeled "Xiangjiang No. 1" to "Xiangjiang No. 24" in fields including AI pre-trained large models, embodied (humanoid) intelligent robots, intelligent agents, brain-like intelligence, bio-intelligent manufacturing, and industrial digital twins. The laboratory has also laid out a number of major and key scientific research projects and, as the sole or primary unit, has been granted over 160 national invention patents. She pointed out that artificial intelligence has become the core driving force of future industries, with industrial embodied intelligence, digital twins, and AI large models serving as important tools and carriers for promoting the transformation, upgrading, quality improvement, and efficiency enhancement in the industrial sector. She expressed hope for the three parties to deepen industry-education-research collaboration, jointly establish laboratories, tackle key core technologies together, and co-cultivate outstanding engineers and artificial intelligence talent.
Chairman Li Jianyu expressed gratitude to Academician Chen Xiaohong and the Xiangjiang Laboratory for their warm reception. He introduced that Hunan Iron and Steel Group is a large enterprise group formed at the end of 1997 through the merger of three major steel enterprises in Hunan Province—Xiangtan Steel, LY Steel, and Heng Steel. It oversees multiple wholly-owned and holding subsidiaries, including Valin Steel Co., Ltd., Xiangtan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., Lianyuan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., and Hengyang Steel Tube Group Co., Ltd., with total assets exceeding RMB157 billion, making it the largest state-owned enterprise in Hunan Province. Facing the new trends in the steel industry development, he expressed the hope to leverage the strong research capabilities of the Xiangjiang Laboratory and HUTB in the fields of artificial intelligence and advanced computing to promote the informatization, greening, and intelligentization transformation and upgrading of Hunan Iron and Steel Group, further enhancing the group's industry competitiveness. Hunan Iron and Steel Group will also leverage its industrial strengths, financial advantages, and resource benefits to support the high-quality development of the Xiangjiang Laboratory and HUTB.
Participants engaged in in-depth discussions and reached a consensus on cooperation regarding project cultivation, achievement transformation, resource alignment, financial support, and the joint establishment of innovation research institutes.
Before the meeting, Chairman Li Jianyu and his delegation visited the Xiangjiang Laboratory's scientific research achievements exhibition hall, watched the laboratory's promotional video, and learned about the laboratory's construction and development overview, academician achievements, team building, platform development, research progress, and innovative products. They also inspected the research and application outcomes of embodied (humanoid) intelligent robots, offering high praise for the reform, construction, and development achievements of the Xiangjiang Laboratory and HUTB.
(Written by Zhang Gaoyang and photo by Ling Haotian)
