On July 6, 2026, the Nanjing University Ph.D. Forum on AI Reasoning and Learning was successfully held at the Conference Center of Phase II, Jiangsu International Data Port. The forum was co-hosted by Nanjing University and the Administrative Committee of Nanjing Xuzhuang High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, and organized by the NJU-Xuzhuang Joint Laboratory for General Artificial Intelligence. The event brought together university experts, early-career researchers, and industry professionals for in-depth discussions on cutting-edge directions in artificial intelligence.
Gao Yang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Executive Dean of the School of Intelligence Science and Technology at Nanjing University, delivered the opening address. He welcomed the attending guests and encouraged young scholars to focus their innovative research on national strategic needs and frontier issues in artificial intelligence.
Sha Sha, Deputy Director of the Software and IoT Industry Development Center at Xuzhuang High-Tech Industrial Development Zone, introduced the zone's industrial foundation and the policy ecosystem for artificial intelligence. She expressed her hope that the forum would serve as an opportunity to further strengthen university-local government collaboration and promote the translation of scientific research outcomes into practical applications.
The forum featured four thematic sessions: "Learning Mechanisms and Continuous Evolution of Large Models," "Multimodal Perception and Generative AI," "Embodied Intelligence and Autonomous Systems," and "World Models and Agents." Nineteen Ph.D. students delivered presentations on topics including continual learning, medical imaging, video generation, robotic manipulation, agent safety, and world models. The reports showcased the research achievements of the Nanjing University AI Reasoning and Learning group in cutting-edge areas such as multimodal large models, generative AI, embodied intelligence, and agent systems, highlighting both the group's research depth and the innovative energy of its young researchers.
Following the presentations, the forum featured in-depth interactive exchanges and expert review sessions. Participating experts offered targeted feedback on research questions, technical approaches, and application value, fostering a lively and substantive academic discussion throughout the event.
The forum presented five Outstanding Presentation Awards to recognize research work demonstrating innovation, strong presentation quality, and promising potential. The awards were presented on-site by the attending experts. Other presenters and actively participating audience members also received commemorative gifts.
The forum not only facilitated the exchange of ideas among young scholars in the field of artificial intelligence, but also served as a platform for deepening collaboration between Nanjing University and Xuzhuang High-Tech Industrial Development Zone in industry-university-research integration, technological innovation, and application deployment.
