A spearhead of the Chinese technological innovation system makes a stop at Città della Scienza and at the Agency for Digital Italy in order to create and strengthen partnerships on big data, manufacturing 4.0, automation and robotics. The axis with China is thus strengthened in view of the “Italy-China Week of Science, Technology and Innovation” scheduled in Naples, Rome and Cagliari from 22nd to 25th October.

Representing the Guiyang municipal government, a delegation led by Deputy Mayor Sun Zhiming visited Città della Scienza on Thursday 12th July to explore the opportunities of the regional system of research and entrepreneurship in the field of digital technologies related to the analysis and processes of huge data streams created by digital ecosystems. The delegation was welcomed by the Città della Scienza Commissioner Giuseppe Albano, by the General Secretary Giuseppe Russo, and by the delegate of the regional councilor for scientific research, Valeria De Gennaro.

“The activities of cooperation with China based on research and innovative entrepreneurship – said Giuseppe Russo, general secretary of Città della Scienza – fortify not only our economic relations with one of the leaders of the global market, but also make more solid our cultural relationships. Città della Scienza has paved the way for relations with the most advanced realities in China and will continue to play a central role at national level in the coming years”.

Known as the “Big Data Valley” of China, Guiyang is home to Hi-Tech giants such as Alibaba, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, Dell, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft and Qualcomm. Recently Apple has decided to transfer there the servers for storing all the data of the users of its iCloud service. In May 2018 Guiyang hosted the China International Big Data Expo, in which an Italy-China focus was also held on the potentials and scenarios opened by the use of big data in the health sector.

Accompanying the deputy mayor of Guiyang, Wu Hongchun, Director of Guiyang Science and Technology Bureau, Liu Jun, Deputy Director of Administrative Committee of Guiyang National High Technology Developmental Zone, Chen Feng, Associate Researcher at Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Deputy Director of Guiyang Information Technology Research Center, Ren Zhong, Director of Planning Division of Guiyang Science and Technology Bureau, Zhang Hailong, Director of Middle and Small-sized Enterprises Division of Guiyang Industry and Information Technology Committee.

The delegation visit crossed with another ongoing cooperation between Italy and China in Città della Scienza. A young team of six students of electronic engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing, in fact, arrived in Naples on Monday July 9th for a week-long workshop on advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and interactive design together with eight students from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information from Federico II University. Main goal: to design innovative boards for smart greenhouses. The hydroponic greenhouse will be presented on the occasion of the Italy-China Innovation Week scheduled in Naples on October 22nd and 23rd.
The workshop is the first result of the “Ci-Lam Joimt Lab” (China-Italy Joint Lab on Advanced Manufacturing), a joined Italian-Chinese research and training laboratory focused on the themes of the Intelligent Factory created for the 2017 edition of the Italy-China Innovation Week held last November in Beijing. Signed on the Italian side by the University of Naples Federico II, the Campania Newsteel incubator and the University of Bergamo, and on the Chinese side by Tsinghua University and the China Sci-Tech Automation Alliance (Csaa – Chinese Industrial Automation Cluster) which boasts over 60 companies).

After the Neapolitan stop, on Friday July 13th, there will be another meeting in Rome at the headquarters of the Agency for Digital Italy. The delegation of the Guiyang City Science and Technology Commission led by the Deputy Mayor, Sun Zhiming, met the Italian digital governance structure, discussing some of the most important projects under construction, including “SPID”, the Electronic Health Record and the Pre-Commercial Contracts System. In addition, the Agency’s experts have focused their attention on the use of artificial intelligence and of the blockchain in the public sector.