On November 2, HNU's interdisciplinary team "Zhi Yan Fang Song" won the only gold award in the Sustainable Development and Cultural Preservation Track at the 1st Global Digital Intelligence Education Innovation Competition, being granted with a 100,000-yuan R&D fund. The team is specialized in empowering inheritance and innovation of ethnic brocade skills as an intangible cultural heritage.

The winning program was participated by teachers and students of the School of Design and the College of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, led by Prof. Ji Tie, and associate professors Wang Luo and Lao Yizhen from the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Digital Cultural Creation and Intelligent Design.

The team members focused on the challenges of sustainable development and the preservation of Dong brocade cultural ecology, using digital intelligence technology to enhance the inheritance and innovation of Dong brocade making skills. They developed an AI-based software development and service platform to solve the problems of difficult operation of generative tools, marginalization of the brocade maker role, and alienation of intangible cultural heritage innovative design.

The competition is under the guidance of the Ministry of Education, hosted by the Digital Intelligence International Development Education Alliance (DI-IDEA), and organized by Peking University and Wuhan University. It consisted of three tracks—Innovation, Sustainable Development and Cultural Preservation, and Application Development. Since its launch in June this year, 144 projects and 1,100 students from universities at home and abroad have registered for participation, with 58 projects entering the finals. Finally, one gold, two silver, and three bronze awards were presented for each track.

At the competition.

The winning project of HNU team.