Tongji University's Hangji Team Shines at the Huawei ICT Competition

On September 27, 2024, the Shanghai chapter of the 9th Huawei ICT Competition kicked off at Tongji University. The venue was buzzing with enthusiastic students crowding together to sign up for the various events of the competition. For our team, it was reminiscent of the Huawei ICT Competition 2023–2024 Global Final that had been held just four months earlier.

During those finals, our team – Tongji University's Hangji Team – won the Grand Prize in the Innovation Competition for our Aircraft Engine Damage Detection System Based on Snake-shaped Robots. The thunderous applause and cheers we were greeted with on stage were worth more than that the trophy we were being presented. It meant all the hard work we poured into our preparation for the competition had paid off (see Figure 1).

Aviation safety assurance for a new era of home-grown aircraft

Some wondered why we chose aircraft engine damage detection as our project for the Innovation Competition. What inspired us though was the success of China's first home-built passenger plane.

On May 28, 2023, China's first home-grown passenger jet, the C919, officially entered commercial use. This marked a major milestone for China's civil aviation. It meant China was capable of building large passenger planes on its own. The engine is the heart of an aircraft, but it has to be built in such a way as to withstand extreme stress conditions, handling high temperatures and pressure without cracking, breaking, or corroding. Any of those issues would create huge safety threats. The aviation sector – just like the broader transportation industry – is undergoing digital and intelligent transformation, using intelligent technology in more ways. We wanted to use that technology to more quickly and accurately detect aircraft engine damage.

Tongji University is located in Shanghai, giving it a few unique advantages when it comes to aviation research. Shanghai is a civil aviation hub, with highly concentrated industry resources thanks to the many major aerospace players located in the city. This facilitates our scientific research. In 2003, Shanghai Aviation Industry School was placed under the management of Tongji University, which made aviation research a higher priority for the university. All of these factors drive our enthusiasm for exploring aviation research. The idea to develop an intelligent robot dedicated to detecting aircraft engine damage was the ultimate result of this passion. Ever since then, the direction of our study has become more and more clear.

As it so happened, the timing of the Huawei ICT Competition 2023–2024 Global Final was perfect for us. During that competition, students started by identifying real-life needs and factoring them into industry applications. They were encouraged to use AI and other technologies like cloud computing, IoT, big data, Kunpeng, and HarmonyOS to develop complete solutions that demonstrate both social and commercial value. Huawei then provided a powerful cloud platform, a wide array of IoT devices with excellent performance, and an industry-leading AI technology system for them to work with.

Under the guidance of our mentor, the three of us – who were all from different faculties and years of study – partnered up as a team for the Innovation Competition. We decided we were actually going to go through with building our dream aircraft engine damage detection robot.

With Huawei's tech prowess, our idea blossomed into a concrete prototype

This was an ambitious goal, and the journey turned out to be full of hurdles challenging us during every step of the process.

The biggest challenge we faced was figuring out how to use AI to implement more automated and accurate damage detection. To achieve this goal, we needed a massive amount of raw data inputs. This data couldn't just come out of nowhere or be simulated purely based on our imagination. This challenge stumped us for quite a while before our mentor found a leading aircraft engine lab in China that was willing to work with us. We went to their site to collect high-quality damage datasets from experiments on their aircraft engine blades. These datasets significantly improved the accuracy of the model we were building.

With the raw data in place, we proceeded to the practice stage. Huawei's vast range of technologies was tremendously helpful to us, especially the cloud platform, their computing power, and their algorithms. These resources allowed us to focus on developing the detection system without worrying about all the other moving parts.

Huawei's technologies have been a critical part of our project, from the initial idea conception to implementation. Our team used 5G and Wi-Fi technologies to build an intelligent IoT robot control system. We used Huawei's IoT devices and technologies to implement access, including IoTDA for device access, ModelArts for AI development, and Astro for low-code development. Our data was also transmitted and stored on the Huawei Cloud platform.

To quickly and accurately identify damage, we developed the Youle recognition and classification model based on Maxbar and trained the model using ModelX. This allowed us to make training more efficient and development optimization faster. All through data collection and preprocessing, data segmentation, and model training and evaluation, our model became much better at aircraft engine damage identification.

In addition, we built a data screen for the inspection and maintenance center so that they could observe the inspection work in real time. Using Huawei Cloud, we then implemented secure data transmission and storage for the robot's inspections, and realized full-lifecycle monitoring for the aircraft engines.

Learning through competition, growing through innovation

After toiling through the night for weeks, we finally made it to the Global Final in May 2024. It was a technological gala that gathered some of the world's brightest minds in ICT. The venue was located in Shenzhen – a city bursting with innovation and vitality.

For the Innovation Competition, contestants from all over the world showed their most creative ideas. The jury panel weighed in with unique insights from professional perspectives and evaluated every entry in a stringent, fair, and authoritative manner. The jury also provided clear guidance for each project on future research and implementation directions.

Our team stood out despite the fierce competition because of the originality of our design concept, the quality of our demonstration, and our performance during the on-site presentation (see Figure 2). Ultimately, we took home the Grand Prize for the Innovation Competition. The moment they announced our win, it felt like the world had recognized all of our hard work and persistence in solving the myriad of problems encountered along the way. Holding the trophy in our hands, our hearts swelled with pride.

There is a Chinese poem that goes: Through repeated tempering the sharpest sword is forged, and through a bitter cold winter the most fragrant plum blossom blooms. This rings true for our story. The strenuous competition ended up also being a journey that pushed all of us to grow. Through this competition, we not only developed a firmer grasp of technical knowledge and skills, but improved our abilities to think and innovate. This competition was the most rigorous test we had faced in university. It also honed our expertise and gave us the opportunity to combine solutions with real-world applications. Competing and being recognized at the international tech arena of the Huawei ICT Competition has been a most valuable and rewarding experience to us.

It was not only an opportunity for intense learning and growth for us, but for our teachers. Our teacher, Qi Peng, became an active communicator and steadfast practitioner of Huawei's technologies as he guided our journey. He has now been appointed as a Huawei advocate (see Figure 3). Mr. Qi said that the competition tests the quality and effectiveness of education and teaching, while also motivating more teachers to integrate Huawei's innovative technologies into daily teaching. Teachers like him are inspired to cultivate more talent who have both an innovative spirit and practical abilities. These students go on to become the professionals needed in this era of rapid technical advancement.

Continued collaboration bears abundant fruit

To a degree, the honor and achievements embodied by the Grand Prize of the Innovation Competition represent the years of close collaboration between our university and Huawei.

Tongji University began working with Huawei in the field of ICT in 2020 and has since been actively promoting teaching reform and curriculum optimization. The university has integrated Huawei's technologies into its curriculum to help cultivate students' innovation abilities. This process has allowed Huawei and the university to establish a new collaborative education mechanism that deepens industry-education integration. Through various models such as the university-enterprise curriculum system and innovation workshops, they provide students with new learning resources and practice opportunities, comprehensively consolidate the professional knowledge foundation, and significantly improve students' abilities to create and innovate.

This collaboration continues to deepen today. In September 2024, the Advanced Huawei ICT Academy, jointly established by Huawei and Tongji University's College of Electronic and Information Engineering, held its inauguration ceremony, marking a new milestone of the partnership. The university will continue to run the Huawei ICT Academy in a spirit of industry-education collaboration, further integrate Huawei's tech into the university's curriculum system, and cultivate more outstanding technical talent.

As the curtain drops and rolls up again, we are set for an even more wonderful stage. Now, the registration for the Innovation Competition of the 9th Huawei ICT Competition has closed, and it is time for new teams of students to embark on a new journey. More than 2,000 students from seven competition regions around the world, brimming with hope and aspirations, have signed up for this year's competition. It has been a great honor for us to be one of the pathfinders in this journey, and we have benefited a lot from it. To those getting ready for the upcoming competition and beyond: Stay brave, stay sharp, keep pace with times, and boldly tackle the most pressing issues in the real world. Build your solution by deeply integrating hardware and software, and shine at the 9th Huawei ICT Competition.

As we look up at the stars and set our feet firmly on the ground, we are driving towards new territories, and the best is yet to come. We are the next generation that will lead the ICT industry, so we must work together to innovate and make the world a better place with the power of tech.