53-year-old Zhang Yaqin Officially Announced: Officially Joined Tsinghua University and Started Life 3.0 Mode
Academician Zhang Yaqin, a well-known figure in the industry, officially joined Tsinghua University today. After achieving success in the industry, the 53-year-old chose to return to academia and devote more energy to teaching, scientific research and talent training. At this time, let us count the glorious journey of the big man.
Tsinghua University’s official WeChat account announced today that Zhang Yaqin, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, has officially joined Tsinghua University!
He was appointed as a professor of intelligent science at Tsinghua University, and will carry out scientific research, teaching and talent training at the School of Vehicle and Transportation Engineering, Department of Computer Science and related schools and departments of Tsinghua University.
At the same time, it will be responsible for leading the construction Tsinghua University Institute of Intelligent Industry (AIR),Facing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we will build a world-leading innovative R&D platform with autonomous driving, artificial intelligence + Internet of Things, and brain-like intelligence as key technological breakthroughs.
A 12-year-old prodigy from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Junior Class
In 1978, Zhang Yaqin was admitted to the Junior Class of the University of Science and Technology of China at the age of 12, and received a bachelor's and master's degree in electronic engineering.
In 1986, he went to the United States for further studies and received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from George Washington University in 1989. In 1997, he was awarded the IEEE Fellow, becoming the youngest scientist in history to receive this honor.
Microsoft has built a legend in 16 years Microsoft Asia Research
Microsoft Research China was established in 1998 by Bill Gates, with Kai-Fu Lee as its director.
In 1999, Zhang Yaqin joined Microsoft. In 2001, Microsoft Research China was upgraded to Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), with Zhang Yaqin serving as the first dean. This was also the first research institute established by Microsoft overseas.
During his nearly 16 years at Microsoft, Zhang Yaqin served as global senior vice president and chairman of Microsoft Asia Pacific Research Group, dean and chief scientist of Microsoft Research Asia, chairman of Microsoft China, and global vice president of Microsoft's mobile and embedded business. In 2004, he was awarded the IEEE Industry Pioneer Award.
As an important research institution in China's IT industry in the past two decades, MSRA has also trained a large number of leading talents in the research field, including Kai-Fu Lee, Ya-Qin Zhang, Harry Shum, Zhang Hongjiang (former CEO of Kingsoft Group), Wang Jian (father of Alibaba Cloud), Ma Weiying (current head of ByteDance AI Lab), etc., profoundly influencing most of the industry leaders in China's Internet technology circle.
Also coming out of MSRA are Tang Xiaoou, Yin Qi, Sun Jian, He Kaiming, Jia Yangqing and other AI upstarts who have made important contributions and influences in the field of artificial intelligence.
Leaving Baidu
In 2014, Zhang Yaqin resigned from Microsoft and joined Baidu, where he was responsible for business areas including cloud computing, driverless cars, quantum computing, etc.
In 2015, Zhang Yaqin was the first to propose at Baidu that the next stop of "Internet+" is "Intelligence+", and pointed out that AI technology will be applied to every scenario, every device, and every service.
Today, "Intelligence+" has been written into the government work report. Later, Zhang Yaqin proposed the "Public Cloud ABC Concept", namely AI (artificial intelligence), Big Data (big data) and Cloud computing (cloud computing).
After Andrew Ng and Qi Lu left, Zhang Yaqin took over the businesses they had been responsible for.
In December 2018, Baidu issued a structural adjustment letter signed by Robin Li, announcing the integration of the technical system architecture. The Intelligent Cloud Division was upgraded to the Intelligent Cloud Group (ACG), which carries both artificial intelligence To B business and cloud business, and is led by Yin Shiming, who reports to Zhang Yaqin.
Zhang Yaqin will also continue to be responsible for EBG (Baidu's Emerging Business Group) and IDG (Intelligent Driving Group).
On March 15 this year, Baidu issued an internal letter announcing that 53-year-old Zhang Yaqin will retire in 6 months.
In response, Baidu Chairman Robin Li expressed his gratitude to Zhang Yaqin in an internal letter and wished him the best:"Yaqin will always be an important member of the Baidu family!"
Afterwards, Zhang Yaqin posted a retirement message on his WeChat Moments, saying: "The business is in its golden period of development, and I am very happy to retire happily." "Looking forward to starting life 3.0 mode in 6 months", and expressed his intention to devote more energy to teaching, scientific research, academic exchanges between China, the United States and Australia, United Nations charity projects, and of course the most important thing is to spend more time with his family.
Destined to be in Tsinghua University, Zhang Yaqin's Life 3.0
In the official news released by Tsinghua University today, it was mentioned: "Zhang Yaqin is a world-class scientist and entrepreneur in the field of digital video and artificial intelligence. Zhang Yaqin holds more than 60 US patents, has published more than 500 academic papers, and has published 11 monographs."
In addition to Tsinghua, Zhang Yaqin is also the director of the Steering Committee of the Information and Intelligence Department of the University of Science and Technology of China. He has served as a trustee, honorary or visiting professor at more than a dozen top universities in the world.
Zhang Yaqin has had a profound influence on the academic community. In 2017, he was awarded the title of Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), and was the only foreign Fellow awarded that year. In 2019, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was the only Chinese scientist elected in computer science that year.
I wish Dr. Zhang Yaqin all the best in his Life 3.0 and hope he can train more talents for the academic community.
References:
1. Tsinghua University WeChat official account:《Dr. Zhang Yaqin officially joins Tsinghua University》
2. Artificial Intelligence Alliance:"Zhang Yaqin, Kai-Fu Lee, Jian Sun... Why did they all choose to abandon Microsoft?"
3. AI Finance:"After joining Baidu for 5 years, 53-year-old Zhang Yaqin announced that he would retire. He was once a student of Bill Gates at Microsoft"
4. Phoenix Technology:Zhang Yaqin's departure: two extensions and a farewell
-- over--