China releases report on global engineering frontiers

BEIJING -- The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) released on Tuesday a report examining the global frontiers of engineering science and technology.

The annual report, titled Engineering Fronts in 2021, deals with nine engineering fields, including mechanical and vehicle engineering, information and electronic engineering, energy and mining engineering, agriculture, and medicine and health.

It identifies 93 engineering research frontiers and 93 engineering development frontiers, among which 28 key engineering research frontiers and 28 key engineering development frontiers have been selected for detailed interpretation, including national layout and cooperation trends.

The report selects several emerging research areas, such as 3D printing, quantum intelligent algorithms, artificial intelligence-enabled system engineering and mRNA-based therapeutics.

Calculated by the core papers output in the past six years, China came out on top in multiple areas including the unmanned underwater vehicle, in-memory computing technology for intelligent computing, and high-resolution millimeter-wave radar 4D imaging technology, according to the report.

Jeremy Lawson, a senior commercial executive at Clarivate, a global analytics firm and co-publisher of the report, said at the press conference that the fruits of this report will "enable the global research community to better turn scientific discoveries into the innovative technologies of tomorrow."