From November 1st to 3rd, the auditorium of Guangdong Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) buzzed with excitement as the 2nd Materials Science Summit-Al Materials concluded with its final presentation. As a key academic event of the 4th Shantou Talent Week in 2025, this year's summit was a "constellation of stars"—attended by four Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) academicians and gathering nearly 180 top scientists and young students from over 60 universities and enterprises to chart the blueprint for AI-materials innovative integration.

Prof. Gong Xingao, CAS Academician, former Chancellor of GTIIT and Honorary Chairman of the summit, extended heartfelt gratitude to participating scholars. He highlighted that GTIIT offers undergraduates exceptionally rich research opportunities, with student involvement in scientific research ranking at the absolute forefront among domestic higher education institutions. He encouraged students to fully leverage this high-level academic exchange platform, boldly pose questions, and ignite innovative inspiration through intellectual collisions.

In August this year, the GTIIT Academician Workstation was officially approved, with Academician Gong Xingao as the resident academician. As a key supporting unit of this summit, the workstation leveraged its high-end think tank advantages to provide robust academic support and professional guidance for the event. As former Chancellor of GTIIT, Academician Gong’s "return" not only reflected his ardent expectations for the institute’s high-end research platform development but also marked the beginning of a new chapter of collaboration between his team and GTIIT’s faculty and students.

Prof. Liu Wenhua, Acting Chancellor of GTIIT warmly welcomed the distinguished guests and shared GTIIT’s "dual ascent" achievements: in educational quality, its unique innovation-driven system has empowered students with strong competitiveness for further studies, with many graduates admitted to world-renowned institutions; in institutional growth, its student population has surpassed 2,000, signaling a leap into a vibrant and healthy phase of rapid development.

"Rather than 'materials science seeking AI’s help,' it’s 'AI redefining materials research,'" said Daniel Tan, Deputy Head of Department of Materials Science and Engineering at GTIIT and Summit Chair, as he set the tone when hosting the opening ceremony. He emphasized that the summit brought together global top scientists to explore cutting-edge paradigms integrating algorithms, data, and experimentation, profoundly advancing interdisciplinary innovation between AI and materials science.

Representing the organizer, Caleb Snider, MDPI’s Managing Director (Asia), stated that MDPI's mission is to foster open scientific exchange by providing professional, accessible and efficient open access publishing services and platforms to scholars worldwide, and it’s deepening its collaboration with Chinese academic community. He hoped this cross-disciplinary connection would drive more free dissemination of scientific knowledge and innovative collaboration.

As a flagship annual event in materials science, the summit featured 31 invited talks, an academician forum, and parallel sessions under Shantou Talent Week, fostering multifaceted interactions to bridge talent and platforms. CAS Academician Wang Weihua, Honorary Chairman of the summit, delivered an online keynote titled AI and Data-Driven Amorphous Materials Research, discussing AI’s revolutionary role in shortening R&D cycles and advancing material design, performance optimization, and process enhancement.

The academician forum saw in-depth discussions among CAS Academicians Gong Xingao, Jia Jinfeng, and Ma Yuguang on AI-empowered materials research, AI-driven critical material transformations, and nurturing young scientists, offering attendees a high-level intellectual feast.

Live presentations showcased frontier research aligned with technological trends and national strategies—novel materials, high-performance computing, AI-aided material design, solid-state batteries, sparking dynamic debates and unleashing interdisciplinary creativity. Many guests praised the summit for highlighting GTIIT’s open, collaborative academic ecosystem as a young institution and creating a premium platform for cross-field dialogue that would inspire fresh perspectives for future industries.

The MDPI Summit Flag Handover, where Academician Gong Xingao passed the flag to Academician Jia Jinfeng, officially announced that the 3rd Materials Science Summit will be organized by Southern University of Science and Technology.

Concurrently, the summit launched the Michele Parrinello Award and introduced two new MDPI journals—AI Materials and Entropic and Disordered Matter, establishing fresh platforms to motivate pioneering research.

Text: GTIIT News & Public Affairs

Photos: GTIIT News & Public Affairs, Huang Jiaji