Tsinghua University recently inaugurated a research center together with CNKI, a publishing company that operates databases of academic journals, conference proceedings, newspapers, reference works, and patent documents.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Peng Gang, Vice President of Tsinghua University; Pan Jianming, Secretary of the Board of Directors of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC); Li Chengfu, President and Deputy Party Secretary of Tongfang Co., Ltd.; and Jiang Lirui, Party Secretary and Chairman of CNKI.

Peng Gang addresses the inauguration ceremony.

Peng Gang highlighted the growing importance of the humanities in the digital age, calling digital humanities a perfect embodiment of ”humanities renewed.” He described the newly-established center as a milestone in Tsinghua’s humanities development and a step forward in integrating humanities and technology. By leveraging Tsinghua’s interdisciplinary strengths and CNKI’s technology, the center will build a new academic platform for the coordinated development of humanities research and technological innovation. This will provide new ideas for developing traditional cultural large models and reconstructing the evaluation system of humanities academic innovation.

Pan Jianming delivers a speech.

Pan Jianming emphasized the long-standing partnership between CNNC and Tsinghua, from pioneering China’s nuclear industry to now setting up a new humanities center. Marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of China's nuclear industry, he said that the center embodies the spirit of the historic "Two Bombs and One Satellite" program in the digital era and aligns with the national cultural digitization strategy. Tsinghua University has a leading advantage in the field of digital humanities, while Tongfang CNKI possesses rich knowledge resources and technical expertise. This collaboration will achieve complementary advantages and jointly promote the creative transformation and innovative development of  China's outstanding traditional culture.

The ceremony featured speeches by Feng Huiling, Director of the Research Center for Digital Humanities of Renmin University of China; Wang Jun, Director of the Research Center for Digital Humanities of Peking University; Zhu Cuiping, Editor-in-Chief of the Gulian (Beijing) Media Tech Co., Ltd.; Liu Zhiyuan, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University; and Deng Ke, Associate Professor of the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Tsinghua University.

A plaque is unveiled during the inauguration ceremony

Liu Shi, Dean of the School of Humanities at Tsinghua University and the designated director of the newly-established center, presides over the ceremony.

Following a plaque unveiling, scholars and practitioners from seven universities engaged in in-depth discussions on the application of AI in stylistics and poetic prosody, as well as the role of large language models in academic research and teaching.

Participants of the inauguration gather for a group photo.

The center will leverage Tsinghua University's strong humanities foundation, solid engineering expertise, and CNKI’s strengths in knowledge integration and technological innovation to enhance traditional culture research through digital technology, fostering new models of knowledge sharing and digital evaluation.

Editor: Li Han