From December 12 to 13, the third session of the ninth council of China Institute Of Navigation (CIN) and the annual academic conference 2021 were successfully held online. He Jianzhong, President of CIN, attended the meeting and made a speech. And Zhang Baochen, Executive Vice President of CIN, made a work report. Liu Xingping, Minister of Science and Technology Innovation Department of China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), and Cen Yanqing, Deputy Director of Science and Technology Department of Ministry of Transport, delivered speeches at the opening ceremony. More than 3700 people attended the conference via online platform including representatives of professional committees of CIN and local institutes and nautical science and technology workers, teachers and students of maritime universities.
Promote the construction of first-class institute with Chinese characteristics
He Jianzhong stressed that CIN should fly the flag and strengthen the ideological and political leadership of the institute. CIN should build a good bridge of the spirit of the great Party, scientists, navigation in the new era and the leading value, the bridge between the Party’s innovation theory and nautical science and technology workers, the bridge between the strategic needs and the supply and demand of nautical science and technology workers with “four orientations”, the bridge of the integration of innovation bodies including industry, academy, research and utilization, and the bridge of promoting to build a community with a shared future for mankind. Secondly, CIN must firm our goals and promote the construction of first-class institute with Chinese characteristics. CIN should make new progress in enhancing cohesion, academic leadership, social credibility and international influence of the organization. And CIN also should ensure the compilation work of nautical science and technology with a higher level and quality. Thirdly, CIN must innovate the platform, more highlights “quaternity”. For science and technology workers, innovation-driven development, higher science and quality of population and the scientific decisions of the Party and government, CIN will continue to build service brand driven by academy, popular science, think tank. Fourthly, CIN will deepen the reform and further improve the internal governance system. CIN will insist on building the Party and strengthening the institute, governing the institute according to the regulations, academic establishment and talent development. Meanwhile, CIN will improve the member-centered contact service mechanism and promote the extension of reform to branches and member units to make the Secretariat professionalize.
Bao Qifan, former Vice President of Shanghai International Port (Group) Co., Ltd, Xu Qing, researcher of the 701 Research Institute of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Niu Xinqiang, Party Secretary and Chairman of CISPDR Corporation and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Yan Xinping, Chief Professor of Wuhan University of Technology and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), delivered keynote speeches at the annual academic conference. Bao Qifan and Xu Qing also received the first highest nautical science and technology award of CIN.
Zhang Baochen introduced that in 2022, CIN will strengthen the overall planning, organize and carry out high-level nautical academic exchanges, and build the “Week of China Navigation Day” with China Navigation Day Forum as a leading role. And CIN will strengthen international and regional communication and cooperation, enhance its international influence and level, and intend to hold the World Congress of Nautical Science next year. CIN will continue to improve the ability of the integration of nautical science and technology resources and boost the nautical science and technology services, strengthen the recruitment of talents, the development and publication of group standards and science communication capability. And CIN will put much emphasis on the construction of science and technology innovation platform to promote the integration between capitalization and industry, and on the construction of think tank to deepen the integration among industry, university and research. At the same time, CIN will adhere to the political construction as the leader, turn the advantages of Party building into the development of the institute, deepen reform, improve governance, actively promote the construction of first-class institute with Chinese characteristics, and launch eight practical matters about member services in 2022, etc.
On the third session of the ninth council, CIN decided to add the professional committee of water transport safety engineering, the professional committee of ship-lift technology and four science education bases of CIN such as Weihai Vocational College. In addition, the meeting reviewed other matters.
According to the statistics, up to now CIN has 29 professional committees, 48 nautical science education bases, more than 500 unit members and nearly 5000 individual members. In 2021, CIN held the forum on “China Navigation Day”, “Silk Road Maritime International Cooperation Forum”, Asia Navigation Conference (ANC), International Symposium on Arctic Navigatin Safety and Sustainable Development and a dozen other academic activities. The proposal of How to break through the engineering difficulties of far reaching marine equipment manufacturing and safety guarantee recommended by CIN was selected as one of the ten major engineering technical problems issued by CAST. In addition, CIN organized 104 evaluations of nautical scientific and technological achievements and accepted 120 awards for nautical scientific and technological progress and nautical technical inventions. CIN also gave CIN-China Classification Society (CCS) scholarships for 80 outstanding students from 23 colleges and universities, and gave CIN-Zhang Rongfa Foundation subsidies for 275 students from 20 colleges and universities.
Build a forward-looking academic exchange platform
At the opening ceremony of the annual academic conference, He Jianzhong stressed that the academic work must firmly grasp the correct political direction, strengthen academic leadership, promote scientific and technological research, deepen the integration of science and technology industry, strive to effectively transform the organizational advantages of CIN into high-quality development advantages and modernized governance energy efficiency, and effectively transform the talent resources and innovation resources gathered into the construction of a strong science and technology, transportation, marine and shipping country. CIN should insist on innovation and creation to improve the scientific and technological support ability, expand the resources link to build the platform of “nautical science and technology innovation”, give full play to the academic-oriented role of academic conferences to create academic exchange activities with diversified services, multiple levels and various scales and forms with nautical discipline’s characteristics, promote international communication and cooperation to advocate the joint construction of international nautical science and technology, and respect the law of growth of scientific and technological talents to stimulate the inner motivation of workers and build a platform for talent recommendation and entrepreneurship.
Bao Qifan is known as the pioneer of the international standard of Chinese inventions, and has won national awards of technical inventions, scientific and technological progress, provincial and ministerial science and technology, and the title of “100 important heroes and models” during the centenary of the founding of the Party in 2021. His personal work experience is consistent with the pace of China’s port science and technology development. In his keynote speech, Mr. Bao Qifan, the “Grab King”, told the innovation story about a new grabber technology research since 1980s, promoting the mechanization and automation of port loading and unloading.
The high-quality development of shipping industry cannot be separated from the innovative development of ship engineering technology. Academician Xu Qing analyzed the current situation and challenges of ship engineering technology development, and summarized the innovative practices and explorations in the fields of green and smart development of ships, “higher efficiency with less cost” and energy saving in ship design, and research and development of deep and high sea equipment. Finally, he predicted the development trend of technology innovation in ship engineering. He thought that green and smart ship is still the inevitable trend, and new clean energy will be widely used. In addition, deep and high sea equipment is still a hot spot. It is necessary to strengthen the forward-looking layout, seize the high point of industrial development and promote the high-quality development of ship industry sustainably.
Academician Niu Xinqiang said, the topography and geological conditions of high-mountain gorge areas are complex, where the navigable head is high, and the navigable building construction is extremely difficult. So the boat lift is the main type of high dam navigable structure. In order to deal with the problems of navigable structures on 300-meter high dam, China has researched and carried out packaged crucial technologies including rack and pinion climbing type, wire rope winch lifting type, friction driven type and combined vertical lift with a wide range of application and promotion value.
Academician Yan Xinping analyzed the current situation and trend of green and smart technology of inland waterway shipping at home and abroad. The green technology includes energy substitution, energy efficiency control, carbon capture and sequestration, carbon sink mechanism, etc. And the smart technology includes assisted driving, remote driving and autonomous navigation, etc. The path of green and smart technology for inland waterway shipping was proposed, including the technical system, equipment spectrum and standard architecture, which is of great guidance for building a new generation of inland waterway shipping system.
During the annual academic conference, an exchange meeting of excellent academic papers on navigation was also organized, and nearly 40 papers participated in online Q&A and expert evaluation.