Tech hub Hangzhou steps up efforts to lure global AI talent

Hangzhou's sincerity has attracted many high-level talents. Zhang Zeqiang, a PhD AI specialist from Ulm University in Germany, flew to Hangzhou from Germany to attend the job fair.

"Hangzhou ranks among the top tier of the domestic AI industry, with not only a cluster of AI companies, but also a large number of high-level research institutes," he said, adding: "Moreover, unlike German research that focuses more on exploring fundamental theories, Hangzhou places greater emphasis on technology implementation, efficient transformation, and diverse scenarios."

It has been learned that in the overseas talent project-matching and negotiation area, over 200 entrepreneurs from around the world came with hardcore projects to conduct in-depth docking with local industrial parks, venture capital institutions, and leading enterprises in Hangzhou.

From the perspective of project structure, AI projects account for 52.53 percent, life and health projects at 21.2 percent, high-end equipment projects at 7.37 percent, and projects related to materials, energy, and environmental protection account for 13.82 percent, presenting a distinct industrial feature.

Wang Yaxi, a PhD researcher from the Robotics program at University College London, made his first appearance at the conference to participate in the project-matching activities. "Our minimally invasive cardiovascular intervention surgical robot project aims to diagnose and treat high-risk cardiovascular diseases," he said.

According to Wang, in terms of hardware, the self-developed robot system can perform high-precision surgery in a magnetic resonance environment, avoiding the radiation damage caused by traditional CT surgical robots relying on X-rays. In terms of software, building a virtual surgical platform can not only train doctors to practice, but also integrate AI algorithms to learn and accumulate the surgical skills of clinical experts, and then empower robot systems. At present, the project has been clinically transformed at the Royal Free Hospital in the UK.

At the conference site, Wang docked with United Bank of Hangzhou, Hangzhou Medical Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Hangzhou Medical Port, and will send his project plan to complete the commercial evaluation.

As Wang sees it, Hangzhou has a good entrepreneurial environment and a well-developed AI industry. His team plans to land the project in Hangzhou by 2027.