From December 12 to 13, 2018, Ms. LiuChang, Director of Division of International Cooperation of the International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology under the Auspices of UNESCO (IKCEST), and Prof. Wang Juanle, the Technical Director of Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service System (DRR) of IKCEST, were invited to attend the Forum on ArtificialIntelligence in Africa sponsored by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) in Benguérir, Morocco.

The IKCEST International Symposium 2018, with “Next Generation Artificial Intelligence and Knowledge Service” as its theme, was held in Deqing on October 26, 2018. The symposium is cohosted by UNESCO and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and organized by IKCEST and the People’s Government of Deqing County, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province and so on.

The First Session of the Second Advisory Committee of the IKCEST took place in Deqing county, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province on October 25, 2018. The meeting was cochaired by Committee Cochairs Pan Yunhe, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Prof. Raj Reddy, Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and attended by CAE Members Wu Cheng and Li Guojie, Prof. Zhuang Yueting, Prof. He Liang and Mr. Liu Xiaoyun. Members of the Second Governing Board of the IKCEST, members of the IKCEST general platform and subplatform teams and relevant personnel of the IKCEST Secretariat were in attendance.

The First Session of the Second Governing Board of the IKCEST was held in Deqing County, Huzhou, Zhejiang province, on October 25, 2018.

The American Association of Geographers (AAG)’ Annual Meeting, held in Washington, D.C, from Wednesday, April 3-Sunday, April 7, 2019. The Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service System Sub-platform of IKCEST attended this conference and made the research progress presentation.

Director General of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan Dr. Safdar Ali Shah visited IKCEST Silk Road Training Base (IKCEST SRTB) on 1st, April, 2019. Chen Ling, Vice Dean of School of Continuing Education introduced development of the IKCEST SRTB and the cooperation with other universities. After visiting office of IKCEST SRTB, Dr. Safdar went to 1400 room and had a warmly communication with Pakistani students who study in Xi’an Jiaotong University.

On the afternoon of April 1, 2019, Vice-President Zheng Qinghua of Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) and project leader of Silk Road Engineering Sciences and Technology Knowledge Service (SRST Knowledge Service) hosted a special meeting on SRST Knowledge Service in XJTU. Deans and directors from the School of Electronics and Information Engineering, the School of Foreign Studies, College of Continuing Education, College of International Education, Network Information Center, Department of International Cooperation & Exchanges and the university library attended the meeting, together with representatives from Aopeng Education.

To address the overall requirements of IKCEST and user requirements, Disaster Risk Reduction Knowledge Service System, DRRKS’s portal system upgraded the “Global Earthquake Daily Distribution Map Service” module, developed the “Global Earthquake Daily Distributed Automated Mapping Tool”, and added the “Newsletters” section. The new features were released at the end of March 2019.

Recently, CAE Member Wu Zhiqiang brought a wonderful report titled Urban Future and Intelligent Planning to more than 300 teachers and students present at the 227th Sustainability Salon of Tongji University. Wu mainly elaborated on the following aspects: the origin and motivation of urban development, the urbanization process in China and the world, the development history of artificial intelligence cities, the practice of smart cities, and the practice cases of artificial intelligence cities.

Roland Berger published the second version of Smart City Strategy Index (SCSI) in March 2019, which measures the comprehensiveness and ambition of urban centers against the key ingredients of a Smart City. SCSI 2019 identifies 153 cities with an official Smart City strategy and analyzes and ranks each one.