Programmers' festival aims to boost Xi'an's reputation as tech hub

The third Global Programmers' Festival is kicking off today in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province.

Its goal is to enlighten innovative thinking and promote the programmer spirit of "enthusiasm, perseverance and struggle", while contributing to the city's growth as "China's Software City", according to the local government.

With a theme of "Connecting the Digits, Coding the Future", the two-day event includes a main forum held at its permanent venue Xi'an High-tech International Convention Center, a roundtable forum, a project signing ceremony, seven parallel forums, a carnival and an exhibition of scientific and technological innovations from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The project-signing ceremony attracts diverse projects which have distinct industrial features and broad market prospects.

The projects are of great significance to promoting the development of digital economy of Xi'an and its high-tech zones, officials said.

These projects come from companies and universities such as Shengdou Electronic and Information Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University and Chang'an University.

The CAS exhibition, another highlight of the event, lasts through Oct 31.

It will focus mainly on the academy's major breakthroughs and achievements made since 2018. Exhibits are divided into different sectors, including health, agroecology, energy, manufacturing and large science facilities.

The Xi'an branch of CAS will also display the local advanced innovations and applications in sectors of photonic information and technology, global environment, and plants, animals and microorganisms.

Top scientists, academicians and corporate leaders from around the world gather during this major event to explore and forecast the future of the software industry.

The event is chaired by famous hostess Yang Lan and attracts big names including Ni Guangnan, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering; Arieh Warshel, winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry; Adi Shamir, a Turing Award recipient; Li Deyi, an artificial intelligence expert and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; and Chen Yuhong, chairman and CEO of Chinasoft International, a leading information technology and software service provider headquartered in Hong Kong and Beijing.

The festival also aims to serve as a multi-level communication channel for talented people of information technology, as well as to accelerate the construction of a digital Silk Road and to boost cooperation and exchanges between Xi'an and cities involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, event organizers said.

In honor of programmers' outstanding contributions to China's software industry and social development, the festival puts them under the spotlight by unveiling a list of the top 10 programmers in Xi'an and leading exponents in China.

The provincial capital has an adequate supply of human resources in the software industry, with about 200,000 programmers working at the city's software park, a core area of the Xi'an Hi-tech Industries Development Zone.

The park is home to about 90 percent of the city's companies in the sector.

Ma Kun, founder of Clover Sec, a network security solutions provider based at the park, said network security is an emerging sector in China and so far the country has not formed a related educational system.

"Xi'an has 200,000 software industry practitioners, but less then 1,000 work in the network security sector," Ma said.

The company has resorted to media publicity, competition and cooperation with universities to enlarge the network security talent pool. It has so far maintained cooperation with internet companies including Ant Financial, Baidu and Tencent.

"We will reach cooperative agreements with more internet companies in the future, and let more people see the power of Xi'an companies," Ma said.

Last year, Ma participated in the second session of the programmers' festival as a guest, saying he was deeply impressed by its various activities covering different topics such as defining the world with software and pragmatic innovation in the IT industry.

"I hope this year's event continues to bring a whole new experience to programmers in terms of vision, body and mind, and makes them feel respected," he said.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/24/2019 page10)