Recently, the Annual Launch Conference of the Chinese Graduate Innovation and Practice Series Competition and a forum on cultivating innovative graduate talent were held in Hangzhou (2026). Two national champion teams from Harbin Engineering University (HEU) presented their technological innovations at the event. The conference comprehensively reviewed the competition achievements of 2025 and recognized outstanding institutions and teams. HEU ranked 6th nationwide in overall contribution—securing its position among the top tier of participating institutions. This fully demonstrates HEU’s comprehensive strength and contribution in four key areas: competition scale, quality, institutional development, and organization throughout 2025.
YANG Wei, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and President of the China Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Society, and WU Gang, Director of the Department of Degree Management and Graduate Education under China’s Ministry of Education, attended the conference, together with nearly 700 participants.
The Chinese Graduate Innovation and Practice Series Competition is a national, public-oriented event exclusively for graduate students. In 2025, HEU secured 200 awards in the competition series, including two national “Graduate Innovation and Practice Stars” and a record-breaking 23 first prizes. The total number of awards increased by 23.5% year-on-year, and the number of registered participants grew by 34.5%. Specifically, HEU claimed the national championship in the Dual Carbon Competition, winning six first prizes (ranked 1st nationwide); achieved national champion in the Open Source Operating System Competition; earned national runner-up in the Artificial Intelligence Competition with five first prizes (ranked 1st nationwide); won three first prizes in the Energy Equipment Competition (ranked 3rd nationwide); and secured four first prizes in the Graduate Electronic Design Competition (ranked 4th nationwide).
At the forum on innovative talent and achievements, HEU graduate representatives presented their projects to attending experts and scholars and engaged in in-depth discussions.
HEU places a strong emphasis on cultivating graduate students’ innovation capabilities, promoting learning and skill development through competition participation. Looking ahead, HEU will continue to strengthen its four-in-one training chain—“selection and cultivation by schools, problem-driven project design, faculty mentorship, and student-led problem solving.” The university will shift competition preparation from broad-brushed mobilization to targeted cultivation, providing end-to-end support from project selection and incubation to outcome presentation. It also encourages all schools to deeply integrate into the competition system, fostering a virtuous cycle of “educating through competition and competing through education.” HEU will explore multiple pathways for degree conferral based on high-level practical achievements, bridge the transition from competition stage to workplace and from innovation to entrepreneurship, and guide more graduate students to engage with disciplinary frontiers and industrial realities—honing their innovation capabilities and writing their own chapter of youth in service of national strategic needs.
List of HEU’s National First-Prize Winning Teams in 2025 (see attached table)
