The 2017 Hunan Science and Technology Forum & the 35th Annual Meeting of the Chinese Association of Automation (CAA) South Central Area was launched in Changsha recently. More than 400 automation experts and scholars from the six provinces of south central China discussed on “intelligent manufacturing” at the forum.

Hunan Science and Technology Association Vice Chairman Liu Xiaohe, Hunan University (HNU) Vice President Xie Chi addressed the meeting. Hunan Association of Automation President and HNU professor Wang Yaonan presided over the opening ceremony.

The event was hosted by the Hunan Association for Science and Technology and HNU, and co-organized by the automation associations of Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Henan, Hubei, and Hainan.

There were one main forum and four sub-forums, receiving thousands of papers and attracting thousands of researchers.

The participants discussed how to promote integration of informatization and industrialization; and how to upgrade the manufacturing industry from an automatic to intelligent mode. Academician Gui Weihua from Central South University, Senior Engineer Zhou Xiang from a Changsha-based technology company, Prof. Wang Yaonan and Prof. Li Kenli from HNU, Prof. Zeng Zhigang from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Prof. Wan Jiafu from South China University of Technology (SCUT), and Prof. Xu Xin from National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) gave academic reports at the forum.

This is the 15th session of the forum since inception in 2001. Every year, researchers get together to concentrate on hot and important issues related to Hunan’s economic and social development, and offer suggestions and advices to the government and decision-making departments.