On January 25, at the National Finals of the 3rd National Artificial Intelligence Application Scenario Innovation Challenge, two innovative projects jointly submitted under the lead of our Institute's jointly-appointed professor, Professor Yujian Ye from Southeast University, achieved outstanding results. Among them, the project "Intelligent Amphibious Unmanned Transport System," completed in collaboration with Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Imperial College London, and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, won the National Final Top Award. Another project, "ePortSimAI – an AI Agent for Integrated Simulation of Electrified Port Logistics and Energy Flow," completed jointly with the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, was awarded the National Final First Prize.

The competition, themed "Scenario-Driven, Digital-Intelligence for a Strong Nation," was organized by the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence (CAAI) under the guidance and support of the Department of Strategic Planning of the Ministry of Science and Technology. It aims to accurately grasp global trends in scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and to deeply implement the innovation-driven development strategy and the artificial intelligence action plan. Since its launch, the competition attracted over 3,314 teams from key domestic and international universities, research institutes, and technology enterprises. The Intelligent Amphibious Unmanned Transport System project stood out for its functional implementation, technical maturity, and innovation in application scenarios, earning the National Final Top Award (only 5 such awards in the university seed group nationwide) and was selected as a "National Typical Case of AI Application Scenarios." Concurrently, Professor Ye received the "Excellent Advisor Award."

Artificial intelligence is a critical direction leading the future of global technological competition, and real-world application scenarios are the key support for technology to realize its value and achieve maturity.

The Top Award-winning project responds to national strategies including Maritime Power, Low-Altitude Economy, and AI+. It accelerates the transformation of traditional transport industries towards electrification, unmanned operation, and intelligentization. Through in-depth collaboration with multiple universities, Professor Ye's team proposed an end-to-end AI-enabled architecture encompassing "Perception-Decision-Control." Combined with integrated intelligent hardware design, the team constructed a dual-use (civilian and military) water-air amphibious unmanned vehicle. It serves typical missions such as offshore wind farm inspection, material transport, emergency support, and national defense applications. This project has laid a solid foundation for the development of China's intelligent amphibious unmanned systems, powerfully demonstrating the team's technical accumulation and efficient translation capabilities.

Infographic: Industry Pain Points and Technical Roadmap of the Top Award Project

The First Prize-winning project responds to national strategies including "Electrified Transportation," "Smart Ports and Shipping," and "AI Plus." It is dedicated to promoting the high-quality transformation of port hubs towards digitalization, greening, and intelligentization. Through deep collaboration with the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Professor Ye Yujian's team proposed a technical system integrating digital twin, intelligent decision-making, and fused control. By combining multimodal Real2Sim2Real digital twin technology with a dual-driven (data and model) decision-making approach, the team constructed the ePort series (SimX/LogicX/EnergyX) AI agent cluster. This achievement has been successfully deployed in leading ports like Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, serving key scenarios such as intelligent logistics scheduling, multi-energy integrated regulation, and low-carbon operations. It has significantly achieved cost reduction, efficiency improvement, and carbon emission reduction.

(Infographic: Technical Solution Diagram of the First Prize Project)

In the future, the Shenzhen Loop Area Institute will collaborate with partner universities like Southeast University. It will leverage the Institute's comprehensive strengths in AI fundamental research, system architecture design, and engineering translation. The goal is to establish a cross-university, cross-scenario collaborative innovation and achievement incubation mechanism. The Institute will continuously advance the deepening of key technologies and product iteration, expanding the large-scale application of AI technology in scenarios represented by eVTOL for the low-altitude economy, smart ports and shipping, and AI Agents. Concurrently, it will promote the standardization and maturation of related technical systems and industrial chains through collaborative R&D, joint standard development, and industrial ecosystem cultivation. These initiatives will strongly support the Shenzhen Loop Area Institute in deepening inter-university collaboration and the integration of industry, academia, research, and application. They will serve major regional and national strategic needs, fully demonstrating the Institute's disciplinary advantages in AI and its mission of high-level internationalized education.

Introduction

Yujian Ye, Ph.D.

Yujian Ye, Ph.D., is a recipient of China’s National High-Level Talent Program and the New Era Young Pioneer Award, an IET Fellow, Young Chair Professor at Southeast University, and a Huawei Zijin Young Scholar. He serves as a jointly appointed Professor and Ph.D. supervisor at the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence (Shenzhen Loop Area Institute and Beijing Zhongguancun Academy). He received his Ph.D. from Imperial College London (ICL) with the President’s Scholarship and is also an Honorary Lecturer at ICL. His research focuses on intelligent scientific computing for next-generation power systems. He has led seven national-level research projects, including those funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key R&D Program, and innovation joint projects of central state-owned enterprises. He has published over 40 papers in top-tier journals such as Nature sub-journals, Proceedings of the IEEE, and IEEE Transactions, with a cumulative impact factor exceeding 500. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for leading CAS Q1 journals, including IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid (TSG), IEEE Power Engineering Letters (PESL), IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (TII), and Applied Energy (APEN). Over the past three years, he has received multiple honors, including the China Electric Power Outstanding Young Talent Award, the Wu Wenjun Artificial Intelligence Outstanding Young Scholar Award, and the Huawei Spark Award for Grand Challenge Problems. Under his supervision, students have won numerous prestigious awards, such as the Grand Prize (Special Award) in the Challenge Cup “Unveiling the List” Competition, the Grand Prize (Special Award) in the Challenge Cup “AI+” Application Competition, the National Gold Award in the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition (Main Track) and the Grand Prize (Special Award) in the National Finals of the AI Application Scenario Innovation Challenge. Research collaborations in the field of artificial intelligence and power & energy systems, as well as applications from outstanding students, are warmly welcomed. The research group can provide joint training opportunities at world-class universities, including ICL.