In today’s world, the level of human science and technology has reached an unprecedented height. With the entry into the intelligent era, a new round of scientific and technological and industrial revolution characterized by the deep integration of information technology and manufacturing industry has flourished, and technical groups in many fields have broken through and merged, which has promoted profound changes in manufacturing production methods. Countries all over the world have taken a series of major measures, hoping to rely on the manufacturing revolution with intelligent manufacturing as the core, consolidate the foundation of innovation and development of manufacturing industry, and build new kinetic energy and new advantages. As a manufacturing power in the world, China has listed intelligent manufacturing as the main direction determined by Made in China 2025, which is not only the key to promote the transformation and upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry, but also an important strategy to become a manufacturing power in the world.
Professor Song Xuan from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in south university of science and technology of china, whose main research direction is artificial intelligence and its related fields, including big data analysis, data mining and urban computing, has applied the research results to disaster emergency and epidemic prevention of major infectious diseases, and achieved good results. At present, in the series of research in the field of intelligent manufacturing, it contributes scientific research strength to promote the development of intelligent manufacturing in China and accelerate the pace of building a manufacturing power in China.
Intelligent analysis of data model is committed to tackling the key core technology of "intelligent brain"
Since 2013, China’s development strategy has specifically pointed out that "the country’s strength depends on the real economy and cannot be bubbled" and "the innovation-driven development strategy is deeply implemented to enhance the core competitiveness of industry". "Made in China 2025" clearly emphasizes the need to accelerate the integration and development of a new generation of information technology and manufacturing technology, and take intelligent manufacturing as the main direction of deep integration of the two; Efforts will be made to develop intelligent equipment and products, promote the intellectualization of production processes, cultivate new production methods, and comprehensively improve the intelligent level of R&D, production, management and service of enterprises. Intelligent manufacturing can effectively improve the production efficiency of manufacturing industry, shorten the product development cycle and reduce the defective rate of products, which is the key to building a digital China, realizing "Made in China 2025" and breaking the chip blockade.
The national science and technology strategy points out that "it is necessary to cultivate a large-scale team of young scientific and technological talents, focus on the policy of cultivating the strength of national strategic talents, and support young talents to take the lead and play the leading role." As a young scientist born in 1980s, Professor Song Xuan is currently presiding over the national key R&D project "Multi-dimensional data space and service theory of manufacturing product life cycle value chain". The project focuses on the key technology of "manufacturing brain", which is the key theoretical model and technical method of tackling the problem, and provides technical support for the intelligent upgrading of high-end manufacturing industries (such as automobile manufacturing) in China.
Professor Song Xuan said that there are some problems in the process of data storage and analysis in manufacturing industry, such as chaotic data interface, inefficient storage, low level of intelligence and opaque information, which affect the quality of product collaboration and data value-added in manufacturing industry and are not conducive to the sustainable development of manufacturing intelligence. In view of this situation, the project puts forward a set of multidimensional data space and service theory of manufacturing product life cycle value chain, which integrates data sharing and integration and data analysis service. The multi-dimensional collaborative data space prototype model theory of product life cycle value chain based on blockchain proposed by this project can guide safe and efficient data sharing and assist product R&D collaboration; The data analysis method based on deep learning and knowledge generation technology proposed by the project can realize causal inference, speed up the traceability of problems and shorten the product development cycle. Taking intelligent manufacturing as an opportunity and the actual upgrading demand of manufacturing industry as a guide, the project focuses on the two cores of "manufacturing brain": data flow and intelligent analysis, which is of great significance for China’s manufacturing industry to build a competitive advantage in the industrial chain and further improve the intelligent level of manufacturing industry. The project also puts forward a set of multi-dimensional data space and service theory of manufacturing product life cycle value chain, which integrates data sharing and integration and data analysis service.
Professor Song Xuan believes that intelligent manufacturing needs a "manufacturing brain", and manufacturing data is the "blood" of "manufacturing brain"; Algorithm models such as deep neural network are the main part of "manufacturing brain" and play the role of thinking and decision-making; Data flow is collected in the "manufacturing brain", which can automatically complete data analysis, intelligent decision-making and product life cycle prediction and deduction, and realize efficient intelligent manufacturing. The theory of multi-dimensional collaborative data space prototype model of product life cycle value chain based on blockchain proposed by Song Xuan can guide safe and efficient data sharing and assist product R&D collaboration. The data analysis method based on deep learning and knowledge generation technology proposed by the project can realize causal inference, speed up the traceability of problems, shorten the product development cycle, and predict and simulate the product life cycle.
Building an urban brain platform and focusing on building a smart city
From December 2019 to December 2022, with the liberalization of the epidemic, the pneumonia epidemic in Covid-19, which lasted for three years, finally came to an end, and the epidemic situation was gradually controlled. In this epidemic prevention and control, Professor Song Xuan led the project team to develop the "novel coronavirus (Covid-19) communication modeling, prediction and simulation deduction platform driven by human flow big data and AI", which played an important role. Based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the model of potential infection sources and risk areas was mined on the city scale, and the communication modeling, prediction and simulation deduction platform for COVID－19 was built. For the big data analysis and AI modeling platform for novel coronavirus communication, the prediction and simulation deduction model was complete. Made outstanding contributions to the prevention and control of the epidemic.
In addition, Professor Song Xuan, as the project leader, has developed an "epidemic prevention chain" APP on the mobile device side. The APP on the mobile phone side can assess the risk of epidemic or major infectious diseases (such as new crown pneumonia, seasonal influenza, etc.) in real time by sensing the contact between users and others and analyzing various urban environmental big data (such as crowd density, air quality, environmental humidity and temperature, etc.).
In fact, as early as 2011, the big data analysis and modeling of people flow carried out by Song Xuan’s team contributed to the fight against viruses and natural disasters. In March 2011, after the earthquake in Japan and the Fukushima nuclear accident broke out, Song Xuan led the team to develop a number of emergency flow prediction models and a system to help the Japanese government analyze the evacuation and migration of victims after the disaster and formulate more efficient post-disaster reconstruction policies. In 2016, in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the research of Song Xuan’s team helped the International Telecommunication Union to analyze the flow of people in West Africa and the spread and infection of Ebola virus, which played an important role in the prevention and control of Ebola virus.
Professor Song Xuan has been deeply involved in the field of artificial intelligence for 15 years. He deeply realized that the main place for modern people to live and work is the city, and the core of urban management is to make people’s life in the city safer, more comfortable and more convenient. With the proposal of building a smart city, Song Xuan now pays attention to urban data and tries to alleviate or solve various "urban diseases" such as traffic congestion, environmental pollution and natural disasters. His team realized the simulation and prediction of the large-scale movement of urban people by building a modeling model of urban mass people movement, thus realizing efficient urban intelligent management. Song Xuan is currently tackling key problems and building an urban brain platform, bringing together all aspects of urban informatization and the whole process of urban management through high and new technologies to carry out control and support, so as to ensure travel safety, give full play to the efficiency of urban infrastructure, improve the operational efficiency of transportation system and the level of urban governance, alleviate all kinds of "urban diseases" to the greatest extent, and help urban governance to be more scientific, refined and intelligent.
"Scientific research should always serve the public" is precisely with such a sense of mission and responsibility. In the future scientific research, Song Xuan will always focus on his mission, aim high and live up to his youth, take data as the core and science and technology as the weapon, and strive to build an intelligent brain, help build a smart city and build an intelligent manufacturing power.
