Inside China’s 2024 Advanced Computer Science Teacher Training: AI, Cloud, and EDA Highlights

From March 23‑24, 2024, the second session of the National Higher‑Education Computer‑Science Curriculum Capability‑Improvement Advanced Training Program was held at Huawei’s Hangzhou Research Institute, with close to 200 teachers from 74 universities attending.

The program was organized by the Ministry of Education’s Higher‑Education Computer‑Science Teaching Guidance Committee and the National Computer‑Education Research Association, and co‑hosted by Tsinghua University Press and Huawei.

The opening ceremony was attended by Professor Fu Yuxi (Deputy Director of the Teaching Guidance Committee), Chen Kun (Director of Huawei Hangzhou Research Institute), and other senior officials and university professors.

Professor Fu Yuxi emphasized that excellent teachers must master every detail of the textbook, draw on experience from reading, teaching, and authoring, and cultivate not only knowledge but wisdom to nurture internationally competitive talent.

Chen Kun highlighted the accelerating digital transformation across industries, the growing demand for diverse computing power, and the upcoming golden era of AI, cloud, and computing technologies, pledging continued collaboration with teachers.

The faculty team included university experts and Huawei specialists in cloud AI, industrial software, Ascend CANN, and OpenHarmony.

Key AI sessions featured the "EI Ascend Cloud AI" course led by Shanghai Jiao‑Tong University’s Chu Pengzhi and Huawei EI ecosystem experts, focusing on AI talent cultivation and large‑model education.

Huawei cloud AI experts introduced the Ascend cloud AI talent program and detailed the technical solutions of the Ascend cloud platform.

Hands‑on labs on cloud migration were conducted by Liu Yu and Tian Zhuang, allowing teachers to experience the migration workflow.

The "Board‑level EDA Toolchain" course, taught by experts from Huawei and several universities, covered the new generation of cloud‑native PCB design tools and included practical exercises.

The "Ascend CANN" course, presented by Zhejiang University’s Wang Zeke and Huawei CANN specialists, explained AI accelerator design, the Da Vinci architecture, and CANN training camp integration.

In the "MindSpore Deep Learning" track, Professor Tang Siliang and Huawei instructors discussed natural‑language processing, large‑model training, and practical MindSpore development, offering hands‑on labs with development boards.

The "OpenHarmony OS Experiment and Development Kit" session, led by Kunming University’s Gao Lianxiong and a technology director from Xiamen Beiqi Technology, introduced the OpenHarmony ecosystem and hardware solutions.

Overall, the training served as a bridge between academia and industry, emphasizing the importance of school‑enterprise cooperation, enriching teaching methods, and fostering the next generation of computer‑science talent.