China forges ahead as a computer science power
- By Lu Rucai
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E-mail China Today, July 17, 2017
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Dr. Yao at a class. [Photo/China Today] |
From the very beginning, Yao envisioned an international program for this class. Besides its all-English curriculum, it nurtures in students a global vision by engaging them in scientific research and regular international exchanges. These efforts have paid off. John Hopcroft, another Turing Award winner, commended Yao's Class as constituting the world's best undergraduate students and best undergraduate education.
By the end of 2016, Yao's Class students had published 121 theses, and 42 were invited to international conferences to present their papers. One third of the students have also delivered research results, a rare feat even for globally top-ranking universities. "This is now an internationally recognized brand of undergraduate education. And its graduates are sought after by the best research institutes in other countries," Dr. Yao said. "For instance, Princeton has offered nine full-tuition scholarships this year to our graduates."
In 2011 Yao founded the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences in Tsinghua University, which studies computer science and related areas, including quantum, energy, electricity, and economy. He went on to establish a quantum computer lab and a financial sci & tech lab, among other achievements. "Our quantum computer lab is truly a world leader in this promising sector. We have realized a multiplexed quantum memory with 225 individually accessible memory cells, a world record," Yao said. The remarkable progress the lab has made in such a short time span is nothing short of a miracle in the eyes of physicists in China and internationally.
"More overseas Chinese will return"
Since his return to China, Dr. Yao has encouraged dozens of other overseas Chinese scientists to make the same decision. "China is developing fast economically. What's more, it gives high priority to scientific research, so showing highly commendable foresight," Dr. Yao said.
Dr. Yao is aware that most Yao's Class graduates will go abroad for further study, as the U.S. is still at the global forefront of computer science. But he expects many will come back. "It is unlikely that every one of them will return. But if only half of the most accomplished graduates do, this will still be of tremendous benefit to China's development."
Yao observed that if the work and research conditions in their home country were of a similar standard to those abroad, most Chinese scientists would choose to work in China. He therefore proposed that Chinese sci & tech institutes offer institutional guarantees to overseas Chinese talents of the same living standards as they enjoy abroad; and what's more, that these entities create a dynamic environment for scientific research. "This will convince these scientists that returning to China is their best choice." Yao believes that, given China's advantages as regards its talent reserves and scientific research funding, it will not be long before the country welcomes an influx of returning overseas professionals.
Dr. Yao gave up his U.S. citizenship in 2014, and became an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in February 2017. He said of this decision: "I am proud and glad to be 100 percent Chinese once more."
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