A CONTEST on artificial intelligence was launched among global participants in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, on Saturday, as part of an effort to promote the development, innovation and collaboration of AI.

As an important part of the 2019 International Big Data Industry Expo, the China International Big Data Fusion Innovation and AI Global Competition kicked off at the end of February and lasted for three months.

The preliminary rounds were held in Germany, Israel and China’s Shenzhen, Chengdu, Wuhan and Beijing. Ten teams stood out from more than 1,100 participating groups worldwide and competed in the final contest.

Interstellar Glory Space Technology Co., an aerospace high-tech startup, won the first prize of 500,000 yuan (US$72,474) thanks to an intelligent control system of launch vehicles.

According to Zhang Siwen, director of investment relations for the company, the system is powered by the architecture of a hardware platform and equipped with intelligent power supply and distribution, online diagnostic and health management and other functions.

The system is designed to help reduce the cost of recycling launch vehicles through controllable recovery and reuse.

The company has cooperation projects with Guizhou on ground equipment, motor and battery sectors.

Zhang said Interstellar Glory hopes to promote the company’s intelligent development based on fusion with big data and the support of the province.

“The contest is a good platform to showcase our company, and people can learn about the details of launch vehicles through our project,” Zhang said.

“It also provides us a learning platform to discuss project cooperation on algorithms, chips and applications with other teams,” Zhang said.

Guizhou Crancloud Technology Co. and True Micro Technology Guangzhou Co. won the second and third prizes, respectively.

An AI big data company in Israel named Pzartech, which focuses on visual recognition technology to serve the maintenance department in airline companies, won the Excellent Award.

Jeremie Brabet-Adonajlo, CEO of Pzartech, said the company conducted research on Guiyang and the big data industry before coming to the competition.

They hope to find business partners and launch projects in Guizhou in the future. Chen Jian, vice chairperson of Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, said AI is the core driving force of a new industrial revolution will become a new engine of economic growth.

“This year’s competition is more mature and professional with better participating teams,” Chen said. “Through the brand effect of the competition, we will build a long-term AI innovation ecosystem and attract professionals and companies to Guizhou.”

Wang Jingtian, vice president of Tencent Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Internet giant Tencent and one of the judges of the contest, said AI is one of the most important investment fields of Tencent.

The company launched an accelerator program, which selected 40 AI projects from 1,500 companies worldwide, covering more than 20 sectors, such as medicine, retail, agriculture, robot and autonomous driving. After nine months’ acceleration, their valuation increased from 13.5 billion yuan to 36.2 billion yuan. “It’s the fifth year for Tencent to participate in the big data expo. We will start deep integration with Guizhou, Guiyang and the expo with our techniques, professionals, investment in the future,” Wang said. (China Daily)