Nanjing Vocational College of Information Technology Takes the Lead in Establishing China's First Embodied Intelligent Robot Industry–Education Integration Community

On May 22, 2026, the Embarking on a New Journey of Embodied Intelligence, Co-creating an Ecosystem through Industry–Education Synergy Embodied Intelligent Robot Academic Seminar and Industry–Education Integration Community Founding Event was grandly held at the Jiangsu Dinghui Embodied Intelligent Robot Research Center. This event was jointly guided by the Industry and Information Technology Department of Jiangsu, the Jiangsu Education Department and the National Steering Committee for Teaching in Vocational Education in Machinery, and was co-hosted by the Jiangsu Embodied Intelligent Robot Industry Alliance, the Jiangsu Intelligent Manufacturing Engineering Society, Southeast University, Estun Automation Co., Ltd., and Nanjing Vocational College of Information Technology. More than 150 leaders, experts, renowned teachers, and industry representatives from provincial authorities, national industry organizations, Double First-Class universities, leading manufacturing enterprises, vocational colleges, and research institutes gathered on site to jointly explore cutting-edge industrial trends and to draw a new blueprint for high-quality, integrated development of industry–education integration in the field of embodied intelligence.

Planning from a high vantage point: Grasping the pulse of the times in national strategy and industrial transformation

At the opening ceremony, Yang Songlin, Director of the First Equipment Division of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, stated that embodied intelligent robots are not a by-product of technological iteration, but the core carrier and key gateway for artificial intelligence to empower a new type of industrialization. He pointed out that Jiangsu is accelerating the construction of a new industrial ecosystem for intelligent manufacturing driven by embodied intelligence, and that it is now urgently necessary to break down disciplinary barriers and the divide between universities and enterprises, address the mismatch between talent supply and demand, promote the transition of cutting-edge technological breakthroughs from laboratories to industrial production lines, and extend talent training models from classroom-based theoretical teaching to real-world industrial application scenarios.

Zhang Haizhu, Level-II Investigator of the Vocational Education Division of the Jiangsu Education Department focused on the transformation and upgrading of vocational education in the new era and put forward the three initiatives for development: taking the initiative to align with the pace of industrial and technological iteration, taking the initiative to restructure the knowledge system of professional curricula, and taking the initiative to upgrade the practical teaching and education paradigm, so as to make the cultivation of high-caliber technical and skilled talents a frontline core force for innovation-driven development in the embodied intelligence industry.

Wang Zhiqiang, Deputy Director of the National Center for the Development of Education in the Machinery Industry, and Tang Wencheng, Secretary-General of the Jiangsu Intelligent Manufacturing Engineering Society, gave an in-depth explanation of the core construction value of the community from the dual perspectives of industry governance and academic collaboration.

Strengthening principal responsibility: NJCIT leads the creation of a new paradigm for deep integration of the four chains

As the leading institution for the construction of this community, Nanjing Vocational College of Information Technology has been deeply engaged in the field of electronic information, highlighted its distinctive focus on intelligent manufacturing, proactively fulfilled its responsibilities, and empowered the development of new quality productive forces through vocational education. In his speech, president Zhao Xiangjun introduced that, building on the foundation of the national Double High Plan for the construction of high-level professional clusters, NJCIT has built a whole-chain teaching and research platform that covers robot research and development, intelligent perception, algorithm development, and human–machine collaboration applications; At the same time, the university will work together with Estun Automation to build a joint laboratory for intelligent robots, promote the integration of real enterprise projects into daily teaching, facilitate the transformation and implementation of teachers' and students' scientific and technological innovation achievements, and achieve a precise match between talent cultivation and industrial needs. He stated that the building of the community will not stop at a mere formal plaque unveiling but will focus on improving long-term operational mechanisms. It is not a loose cooperative organization but a community of shared responsibility, shared interests, and shared development, with clearly defined powers and responsibilities and a focus on mutual benefit and joint progress. Going forward, NJCIT will take the education chain as the foundation, the talent chain as the link, the industrial chain as the goal, and the innovation chain as the driving force, and will make every effort to promote the deep integration and coordinated advancement of the four chains in the field of embodied intelligence.

Vice president Sun Gang delivered a special report on the preparatory work for the community, giving a comprehensive overview of the overall preparations of the community. He provided a systematic and all-round explanation of key aspects such as the background for its establishment, development goals, organizational structure, operating mechanisms, and major tasks, and clearly defined the implementation pathway and work direction for the community's subsequent standardized, regular, and substantive operation.

Zhou Ailin, executive president of Estun Automation, based on the perspective of industrial implementation and market application, highly recognized the contemporary value and practical significance of community building and stated that the company will give full play to the resource advantages of leading enterprises and deeply participate in talent cultivation, technology research and development, and joint construction of application scenarios. Lu Jinyu, director of the Academic Affairs Office of Southeast University, responded positively from the perspectives of discipline development, scientific research innovation, and integrated talent cultivation, and proposed to rely on the strengths of top disciplines and research platforms to help the community open up the innovation chain linking industry, academia, and research and to consolidate the foundation for industrial talent.

Implementation mechanisms in place: landmark projects empower the efficient operation of the community

After the unveiling ceremony was successfully held, the community officially released the first batch of three landmark implementation projects, using concrete projects to drive deeper and more practical industry–education integration:

Launch the “Estun Cup” College Student Robot Competition. The competition focuses on real industrial scenarios and is organized around core capabilities such as multi-robot collaborative operations, dynamic obstacle avoidance, and task generalization applications, creating the country’s first specialized embodied intelligence brand competition for higher vocational colleges and application-oriented undergraduate institutions.

Implement the series of textbooks titled “Introduction to Embodied Intelligent Robot Technology” and the paper incentive program. Led by Nanjing Vocational College of Information Technology, together with several universities including Southeast University and Zhejiang University, a series of textbooks will be jointly compiled, with synchronized development of an open-source code repository, typical scenario datasets, and a virtual simulation experiment platform, in order to improve the system of teaching resources in this field.

Build the nation’s first robot 4S center (Solution services, Skill training, System integration, Support collaboration). At the venue, Wang Chunfeng, Dean of the School of Intelligent Manufacturing of NJCIT, presented the center construction plan. The center will integrate four core functions: technical consulting, certification training, scenario validation, and achievement transformation. In its first phase, it will open 10 typical industrial application scenarios to the Yangtze River Delta region, including flexible assembly, warehouse inspection, and precision welding, and will provide lightweight, implementable, “plug-and-play” embodied intelligence solutions for small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, while also regularly carrying out teacher training and student on-the-job practical training to build a platform for two-way empowerment between schools and enterprises.

Deep Collaborative Discussion: Reshaping a New System for Vocational Education to Serve Cutting-Edge Scientific and Technological Development

On the afternoon of the same day, a special sub-forum on vocational education was held in parallel, focusing on the core topic of How Vocational Colleges Can Build Active Nodes in the Embodied Intelligence Industry Ecosystem to carry out in-depth discussions and build consensus on development. At the forum, participants held in-depth exchanges and discussions on key topics such as AI-empowered teaching diagnosis, the county-level service model of 4S centers, and development paths for micro-majors in embodied intelligence. They generated many pragmatic and innovative development ideas, providing new paths and practical paradigms for vocational colleges to deeply connect with the embodied intelligent robot industry and to regularly cultivate high-caliber technical and skilled talent.

The completion and commissioning of this brand-new platform marks that, in serving the national AI+ initiative, keeping pace with the general trend of new industrialization, and helping upgrade the regional intelligent manufacturing industry, NJCIT has successfully transformed itself from an industry participant and talent cultivator into an industry ecosystem co-builder and a promoter of industry–education integration. Next, NJCIT will continue to deepen the four-party coordination mechanism among government, industry, enterprises, and universities, consolidate the foundation for the development of the community, promote a qualitative leap in cooperation models from shallow resource integration to deep integration of talent, technology, platforms, and projects, take root in the local area, serve industry, support scientific and technological innovation, and fully inject NJCIT momentum into Jiangsu's industrial technological innovation, intelligent manufacturing transformation, and the cultivation of new quality productive forces.

Photo/Text by Yang Yuxin and Guo Jianwei, School of Intelligent Manufacturing

Reviewed by Li Hongchang, Office of Domestic Exchanges and Cooperation; Wang Chunfeng, School of Intelligent Manufacturing