Academician Zhonglin Wang is the Director of the Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Systems at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a former endowed chair professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. As the recipient of three top international awards—the Global Energy Prize (2023), the Albert Einstein World Award of Science (2019), and the ENI Award (2018, known as the “Nobel Prize of Energy”)—Academician Wang’s scientific achievements have been highly recognized by the global academic community. He is a pioneer in the field of nanogenerators, having established self-powered systems based on nanogenerators and the vast domain of blue energy, providing new directions for the development of high-entropy energy systems. He invented the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), delivering sustainable power solutions for self-powered sensors, artificial intelligence, wearable electronics, and IoT devices. He also founded the third-generation semiconductor research areas of piezoelectric electronics and piezo-phototronics, establishing the disciplines of piezoelectric electronics, piezo-phototronics, and triboelectric electronics, and discovering six new physical effects. His theoretical contributions extend to the electrodynamics of moving media and inelastic scattering of high-energy electrons. According to a comprehensive evaluation by Stanford University and Elsevier, Academician Wang ranks among the top two most influential scientists worldwide for lifetime impact and held the No. 1 annual influence ranking from 2019 to 2023. His Google Scholar citations exceed 490,000 with an h-index of 333. Academician Wang’s excellence has garnered wide international recognition: he is a Foreign Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the US National Academy of Inventors, a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the European Academy of Engineering, an International Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, and a Foreign Member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Nano Energy, providing a critical academic platform for global nanogenerator research.

“The advent of the Internet of Things, sensor networks, robotics, and artificial intelligence poses new challenges—one of which is how to continuously power the large numbers of widely distributed, highly mobile, low-power electronic devices. This energy challenge defines the era in which we live. In 2006, we invented the piezoelectric nanogenerator, and in 2012, we first developed the triboelectric nanogenerator and introduced the original concepts of self-powered systems and blue energy. This new energy technology, applied to the IoT, sensor networks, and the big data era, has opened a new chapter in human energy paradigms, providing fresh pathways for micro-nano electronic systems and enabling energy self-sufficiency and self-powering of IoT and sensor network devices. Today, some 20,000 scientists across 90 countries and regions worldwide are following our research on nanogenerators. In this lecture, we will share our scientific journey—how to develop an original discovery from 0 to 1, and how to transform what initially appears to be a small invention into a major energy field, becoming the new sensing technology of the AI era.”

Researcher at the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and former Chief Engineer of the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Professional Committee of the Chinese Computer Society, Director of the Computer Graphics and Human-Computer Interaction Professional Committee of the Chinese Automation Society, Honorary Chairman of the ACM SIGCHI China Chapter, and expert in the Information Field Advisory Expert Group of the National Key Basic Research and Development Program (973). He has engaged in research in software engineering, computer graphics, and human-computer interaction, and is one of the pioneers in the field of computer user interfaces in my country. He has published over 200 academic papers in leading international journals and conferences, and is the author of the academic monograph "Pen-Based User Interfaces." He has presided over and participated in numerous National Natural Science Foundation projects, the National High Technology Research and Development Program (863 Program), and the National Key Basic Research and Development Program (973 Program), achieving remarkable results and making significant contributions to the nation. In 1992, he was awarded a special government allowance by the State Council and has received numerous National Science and Technology Progress Awards, Beijing Science and Technology Progress Awards, and Chinese Academy of Sciences Science and Technology Progress Awards.

Yunhao Liu is a Professor at Tsinghua University, Dean of the Global Innovation Institute, and doctoral advisor in the Department of Automation. He is an IEEE Fellow and ACM Fellow. He earned his Bachelor of Engineering in Automation from Tsinghua University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Michigan State University. He has served as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Ph.D. Supervisor in the Department of Computer Science at HKUST, as Dean of Tsinghua’s School of Software, and as Chair Professor and Department Head of Computer Science at Michigan State University.

His research focuses on the Internet of Things and embodied intelligence. As the lead contributor he has received the National Natural Science Award (Second Class), the Ministry of Education Natural Science Award (First Class), the Ministry of Education Technology Invention Award (First Class), and the China Electronics Society Natural Science Award (First Class). For his outstanding contributions to computer networking, he was honored with the ACM Presidential Award and the CCF Wang Xuan Award. He has led major projects on large-scale sensor networks and the Industrial Internet, published over 400 academic papers with an H-index exceeding 100, and authored books including Introduction to the Internet of Things, Embodied Intelligence, and From Connectivity to the New Industrial Revolution.