On the afternoon of June 28, 2023, the Inauguration Ceremony of Tsinghua Uniersity (DESS)-Xi’an Geotechnical Investigation & Surveying Institute New Intelligent Surveying Joint Research Center (hereafter referred to as "the Center") was held in the Bing Suo conference room of Tsinghua University. Jiao Lili, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Xi’an Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, Gan Bin, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the Xi’an Geotechnical Investigation & Surveying Institute, Meng Xiangli, Vice Director of the Research & Development Affairs Office, Tsinghua University, and Luo Yong, Dean of the Department of Earth System Science (DESS), Tsinghua University attended the ceremony and jointly inaugurated the Center. Yang Jian, Zhang Zhanyu and Zhang Guoqiang from the Xi’an Geotechnical Investigation & Surveying Institute, and Lu Hui, Yu Le and Fu Haohuan from the DESS, Tsinghua University witnessed the Inauguration Ceremony presided over by Luo Yong.

Meng Xiangli, Jiao Lili, Gan Bin and Luo Yong inaugurates the Center

On behalf of Tsinghua University, Meng Xiangli welcomed the leaders and teachers attending the ceremony and thanked them for their long-term support for the construction of the joint research center. Meng Xiangli noted that through the establishment of the Joint Research Center, Tsinghua University and the Xi’an municipal government joined hands to further improve the cooperation mechanism with a focus on the major strategic needs of national artificial intelligence development, deepen the strategic partnership of two-way service and mutual benefit, and promote the transformation of technical strength into actual productivity, in efforts to constantly make greater achievements on the road of independent innovation.

Meng Xiangli delivers a speech

Jiao Lili congratulated the establishment of the Joint Research Center in her speech, and expressed the hope to take the Inauguration Ceremony of the Center as an opportunity to further develop their respective advantages, establish a cooperation mechanism at a higher and deeper level, enhance cooperation, expand cooperation areas, and innovate cooperation models, striving to write a new chapter in university-local government cooperation in terms of talent cultivation, platform construction, scientific and technological research, and achievement transformation.

Jiao Lili delivers a speech

Following the Inauguration Ceremony, Fu Haohuan, Director of the Center, introduced the operation and research progress of the joint research center. The two sides held in-depth discussion on the next research direction.

Site of the Inauguration Ceremony

Tsinghua University (DESS)-Xi’an Geotechnical Investigation & Surveying Institute New Intelligent Surveying Joint Research Center, set up in April 2022, is the first joint research center established by the DESS. The Joint Research Center serves the important needs of national and local development, committed to tackling technical challenges that hinder the country’s development, promoting the further integration and development of remote sensing, surveying and mapping, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and other related disciplines, addressing the difficulties and pain points in urban management, improving the efficiency of urban management decision-making and upgrading the level of urban management. Since its establishment one year ago, the Joint Research Center has made gratifying progress in urban remote sensing multi-source data fusion, road identification, building identification, change monitoring, urban air duct simulation, urban waterlogging simulation and many other aspects, published many high-level papers and obtained many software copyrights. Among these achievements, "Weakly Supervised Machine Learning Method Able to Complete Hourly Land-cover Mapping of China" won the nomination award for the best application of supercomputing in 2022, and the work "50-Year Remote Sensing Luminous Image of Xi’an" was exhibited in the Science and Technology Hall of Tsinghua University.

Written by Tsinghua University (DESS)-Xi’an Geotechnical Investigation & Surveying Institute New Intelligent Surveying Joint Research Center

Edited by Wang Jiayin

Reviewed by Geng Rui