William Xu talks with scientists: Sticking to open innovation and inclusive development

At the opening ceremony of the Nanjing Tech Week 2019's Purple Mountain Innovation Conference, the President of Huawei's Institute of Strategic Research William Xu met with Nobel Prize and Turing Award winners to discuss open innovation. The moderator for this session was Bai Yansong, one of China's most recognizable news commenters. During the discussion, William Xu stated that Huawei supports open innovation and inclusive development, and values IP protection. The scientists in the discussion agreed that in the current global environment, we need to stick to international cooperation because science knows no borders. Only through cooperation can we drive scientific research forward.

Several world-famous scientists attended the event, including Richard John Roberts (Nobel Prize winner and Chairman of the Laureate Science Alliance), Finn Kydland (Nobel Prize winner in economics), Dan Shechtman (Nobel Prize winner in chemistry), Samuel Chao Chung Ting (Nobel Prize winner in physics), Wang Zeshan and Qian Qihu (Chinese Highest Science and Technology Award winners and members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), as well as Andrew Chi-Chih Yao (Turing Award winner). In total, nearly 180 members of academia, university leaders and entrepreneurs from around China and the rest of the world, as well as diplomatic envoys in China attended the event.

Extracts from the discussion between William Xu and scientists are as follows:

Moderator: Recently we've seen many concerns around the world, but in general people think that cooperation is a must in the field of science. What do you think about cooperation and the idea that "science knows no borders"? What are your opinions?

Noble Prize winner and Chairman of the Laureate Science Alliance Richard John Roberts: The idea of "science knows no borders" is meaningful. There must be communications and mutual-learning between countries, organizations, and scientists. People from different countries, in different disciplines, and with different backgrounds getting together can generate infinite creativity.

Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Dan Shechtman: According to my personal experience, international cooperation is critical and helps push the advancement of science. As to my research area, most related research was not conducted in my country, but by people from different countries. In addition, interdisciplinary cooperation is also very important.

Turing Award winner Andrew Chi-Chih Yao: First, knowledge is not possessed by a single country or region. Second, anyone who tries to cut off communications will find negative results. They will only hinder the advancement of science. Third, the scientific community is like a family. Scientists from different disciplines communicate with each other like families. Close cooperation and free exchange of ideas have already been the culture and tradition of science. Global scientists should work together to solve scientific and technical problems. If scientists only focus on their own campaigns, it will be hard to significantly impact society.

Scientific Director at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence and member of the European Academy of Sciences Hans Uszkoreit: AI technologies should be used for the benefit of humanity, and this depends on international cooperation. In addition, international cooperation is important for the long-term development of technologies. Openness and cooperation are the foundation of technological transformation. Considering these issues from a fragmented point of view is short-sighted.

Nobel Prize winner in physics Samuel Chao Chung Ting emphasized the importance of basic research to innovation, calling on people not to be indifferent to basic research. He argued that basic research forms the very foundation of the "science pyramid" and serves to lift the top of the pyramid. As a case in point, he said that cutting-edge research in physics is usually driven by the advancements of basic research, and that basic education and basic research are the original driver of urban innovations.

Moderator: Speaking of Huawei, another context in which innovation happens comes into my mind. Sometimes, innovation is reactive. A case in point is China's Two Bombs project. In that case, China was left with no choice but to innovate. Given the current changes in the macro environment, Huawei will have to innovate reactively too. So how do you view being proactive and being reactive? What's Huawei's understanding of innovation?

William Xu: Huawei has always advocated for open innovation and inclusive development. Open innovation means innovating together with global experts. In this process, resources and capabilities are shared. Inclusive development means the fruits of any innovation should be shared and used by all humanity and all industry players, including Huawei and other companies.

The common challenge currently facing the communications industry is that the industry is running into theoretical bottlenecks. Moore's Law is hitting its limits. In the past, CPU performance improved by a factor of 1.5 every year. Now, it's only 1.1. Over the past few decades, building on existing theories and basic technologies, the information industry has primarily engaged in solution and engineering innovation driven by customer needs. At Huawei, we call that Innovation 1.0.

How can we address the bottlenecks we are facing now? I think we must do some so-called "useless" research, because what seems useless today can make a big difference tomorrow. We need to engage in basic technology research and invention based on our vision and assumptions about the future. This effort, however, should be led by universities and their professors, not companies. Huawei will provide funds to universities and their professors so that they can explore into the future, particularly the unknowns.

How can industry players like Huawei contribute to these scientists? We should share the challenges we encounter in engineering and commercialization with these universities and their professors so that we can research and innovate together. This kind of innovation must be open innovation. The idea is to conduct joint innovation with global resources to address the challenges facing industries. In the meantime, this process must ensure inclusive development, which means the fruits of innovation are shared by all of humanity, society, and industries.

Last but not least, the key to innovation is the protection of intellectual property. Only by protecting intellectual property can we drive innovation. Without proper protections for intellectual property, no one will be investing in research because everyone will be looking to copy others. A sound intellectual property protection system is the very foundation of innovation.

Source: Organizing Committee for 2019 Nanjing Tech Week