The morning of Oct. 29 ushered in the opening ceremony of the 10th GIS Forum for Colleges and Universities. With “Transformation and Empowerment” as the theme, participants shared the latest achievements and experiences in fields such as the transformation and upgrading and high-quality development of the geographic information industry, enterprises’ acceleration in incubation and transformation of innovation fruits and improvement of their core competence, and higher institutions’ cultivation of high-caliber intellectuals to meet the demands of industrial transformation. In addition, the participants concentrated on the discussion about the orientations of “production, education, research, and application” of geographic information. Nearly 15,000 people attended the forum at the scene and online.

Guests of honour at the forum included Tong Qingxi, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor of Peking University, and Chen Jun, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor at the National Geomatics Center of China. Present were Prof. Wang Shunhong, Secretary of the Party Committee of Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU), and Prof. Shen Huoming, Vice President of SWJTU.  

Prof. Wang delivered a welcome speech, and Prof. Shen, on behalf of SWJTU, signed a cooperation agreement with Liu Yu, Deputy Director of the Sichuan Bureau of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation. The keynote speeches were given by an academician from Chinese Academy of Engineering, a fellow from the British Academy, an academician from International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, and a Professor from Jiangxi Normal University.

The Forum was jointly hosted by the National Engineering Research Center of Geographic Information System, Industrial Alliance for Technology Innovation Strategy of Geographic Information System, National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory of Geographic Information Technology, and 12 universities including China University of Geosciences, Peking University, Wuhan University, Tsinghua University, and Southwest Jiaotong University. Focusing on industrial growth, the keynote and plenary talks, academic salons, and subforums revealed robust development of spatial information. Concurrently, Excellent Teaching Achievement Award and Excellent GIS Dissertation Award were granted, and award ceremonies held for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and the 10th National GIS Skill Contest for Colleges and Universities.