WIC releases 15 sci-tech achievements of 2018

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The fifth World Internet Conference (WIC) unveiled 15 world leading Internet scientific and technological achievements in the east Chinese water town of Wuzhen, on the first day of the world's Internet feast.

These major achievements were selected by a recommendation committee consisting of 47 representatives from home and abroad led by Honorary Chair Wang Gang, who is also chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, and Chinese Co-Chair Wu Hequan and Foreign Co-Chair Whitfield Diffie.

Come with CGTN to see what went down at the ceremony.

1. WeChat Mini Programs Business Model Innovation

WeChat launched their "mini program" function last year. /VCG Photo

It can be extremely hard to make money out of a free product. But the WeChat team managed to build an empire on a free-to-use model. The wide adoption of the mini programs is a solid proof that the web app is more hopeful than we thought.

2. Ascend 310

Huawei Ascend 310 is the company's new chip announced in October. /CGTN Photo

Like Apple, Huawei is also making AI chips for its own smartphones.

Huawei Ascend 310 is the company's new chip announced in October to be applied in different deployment scenarios for AI and to help business, governments, and organizations improve their services and operations by using AI.

It is aimed at achieving a perfect balance among speed, power consumption and cost. It also enables Huawei to build smartphones with one more domestic part.

3. The Proprietary Financial-Grade Blockchain Platform of Ant Financial

Ant Financial managed to use technology to solve real-life problems. /CGTN Photo

Blockchain is not an interesting word anymore to us partly because the usage is too limited. But Ant Financial managed to build a financial-grade product that is helping people in a real-life scenario.

4. Highly efficient Interoperability Technology for Opening Information Islands and YanCloud DaaS System

The YanCloud DaaS system developed by Peking University. /CGTN Photo

Every Internet company has its own cloud service. It's very hard to link all the services together because each of them has a unique design. This is what we call isolated information islands. YanCloud released by Peking University is trying to provide a bridge to link the millions of islands together, forming a global data-sharing pool that can benefit anyone with goodwill.

5. Amazon SageMaker

Amazon SageMaker is a piece of software that helps developers to quickly find a way to collect data and train machine models. /CGTN Photo

After the success of cloud computing, Amazon is tapping into the AI sector. SageMaker is a piece of software that helps developers quickly find a way to collect data and train machine models, making it much easier to build AI-based programs. Put the data in, get the training going and test it on the cloud. It's as intuitive as talking with a robot.

6. 360 Brain of Security – Distributed Intelligent Cybersecurity Protection System

Qihoo 360's founder and CEO Zhou Hongyi introduced the 360 Brain of Security. /VCG Photo

The Internet is penetrating everything. It's possible that we can program each grain of sand in just a few years. That's why Internet security must be reconsidered. Qihoo 360's new solution is based on cloud and can provide users a whole picture about security. It's AI engine can help you make smart decisions on how to protect you and your data, which plays an important role in cybersecurity monitoring, early warnings and responding to major security incidents.

7. The Smart Supply Chain Technology Service Platform

JD's delivery robots. /VCG Photo

Pay before sunset and the delivery man will arrive tomorrow. JD.com's fast delivery experience is based on its highly-digitalized supply chain. With the latest technology like wearables and robots, the company managed to increase the delivery speed while reducing the cost.

8. Apollo

Apollo L4 self-driving car developed by Baidu. /VCG Photo

Developed by Chinese search engine giant Baidu, Apollo is an open-source platform for autonomous driving. It's the leading solution in China and one of the most vibrant globally, which connects transportation with technology.

In the future, we'll see more emerge beyond our imagination in the big environment, said Zhan Jianqin,

9. Arm China AI Platform Zhouyi

Arm China's Zhouyi AI platform can perform complicated AI operations with very little power supply. /CGTN Photo

As the writer of the de facto standard of smartphone cores, Arm is pushing hard on AI. The Zhouyi platform is created by the company's China branch and can perform complicated AI operations with very little power.

10. Tesla Smart Service

Tesla is optimizing its services for customers. /VCG Photo

Forget the 4S stores and try Telsa's remote service. The engineers are coming to you, not the other way round. So you are the center of the service system. This is what a customer deserves.

11. supET Industrial Internet Platform

The supET Industrial Internet Platform developed by Alibaba Cloud helps industries to get digital easier. /CGTN Photo

The supET Industrial Internet Platform helps industries to go digital more easily. It aims to bring the whole benefits of Internet companies to traditional manufacturers.

12. The World's First Fully-integrated 5G NR Millimeter Wave & Sub-6 GHz RF Modules

Frank Meng, chairman of Qualcomm China, introduced the features of its 5G innovation. /CGTN Photo

It's no surprise that Qualcomm built the first 5G modem for smartphones, as the company is the leader of 4G modem chips. Although other companies are trying hard to catch up, Qualcomm is moving one step ahead to 5G. Prepare to switch your phone and embrace the fast-like-crazy data connections.

13. Dynamic Check and Control Technology for CPU Hardware Security

CPU security has become a concern for researchers. /VCG Photo

CPU is the core of a computer, and one of the most complicated machines ever made. Yet its performance is so solid that for most of the time we trust it wholeheartedly. But with incidents like Meltdown and Specter, it's a good time to look into the security of our hardware. Tsinghua University and Montage Technology have been working together for years to come up with a tool to check the control of the hardware dynamically.

14. Azure Sphere – A Security Solution of IoT Based on MCU

Microsoft Azure Sphere is a new solution for creating highly secure, Internet-connected microcontroller devices. /CGTN Photo

Microsoft put hard work into Internet of Things researches, and came out with a security solution for billions of IoT devices.

Its Azure Sphere is a new solution for creating highly-secure, Internet-connected microcontroller (MCU) devices. It includes three components – Azure Sphere certified MCUs, Azure Sphere OS and Azure Sphere Security Service that work together to protect and power devices at the intelligent edge.

The system can ensure what the company sees as the seven basic requirements of security on these small gadgets. The best part: It's open and free.

15. Xiaomi's AI Open Platform for Smart Homes

The smart-home devices developed by Xiaomi. /VCG Photo

Xiaomi is not only a smartphone maker, it is now one of the best smart home solution providers in China. With Xiaomi AI, all the individual products are now connected as one integrated system.

(CGTN's Gao Yun and Yu Yiwei also contributed to this story.)