Reposted from "China Science Daily" reporter Wen Caifei
Pan Zhigeng (right) teaches metaverse technology to students. Photo provided by the interviewee
The wave of running schools in the Yuan Universe is undercurrent in colleges and universities.
Not long ago, the Information Engineering Department of the School of Artificial Intelligence (School of Future Technology) of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology officially changed its name to the Department of Metaverse Engineering, becoming the first department named after the Metaverse among universities in mainland my country.
Coincidentally, in recent years, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University has set up a metaverse science and technology major, Tsinghua University has established a metaverse culture laboratory, Renmin University of China has established a metaverse research center, Zhejiang University, Communication University of China, Northwest University, Shanghai University and other universities have built metaverse campuses .
As a "crab eater", Pan Zhigeng, dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence (Future Technology College) of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology and executive vice chairman of the Metaverse Industry Working Committee, is firmly optimistic about the "blue ocean" of talent cultivation in Metaverse. Why?
Is the metaverse a gimmick?
Perhaps what is more important than running a school at present is disenchantment.
In the past few days, Pan Zhigeng has been running non-stop in Nanjing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Kunshan and other places. Wherever he goes, he talks about "What is the Metaverse?" "From virtual reality to Metaverse". People always ask him, is Metaverse a bubble, a capital gimmick? Regarding this, Pan Zhigeng could only smile helplessly.
The "Metaverse" that is popular all over the world comes from the novel "Avalanche", which constructs a "Metaverse" virtual world. Users can live, work and socialize in a digital space as long as they wear VR (virtual reality) glasses. 2021 will be the first year of the Metaverse, and Facebook (Facebook) will be renamed Meta to arouse public attention to the Metaverse.
The reason for being questioned is nothing more than a few reasons-many people do not understand what the metaverse is; the foundation of the metaverse itself is unstable, and artificial intelligence and blockchain are facing technical challenges; Construction, such as the revision of personnel training programs, the construction of teaching materials, curriculum reform, and the construction of training bases are still under development.
"If you don't understand these things, which parent can safely send their children here?" This is one of the reasons for Pan Zhigeng's "non-stop".
In many lectures, he emphasized that the Metaverse is not a video game, a virtual world, or an escape from the world. The maturing process of technology may take 10, 20 or even longer, but technology is realized step by step. In fields such as games, medical care, and education, Metaverse may be the first to realize it. For example, pilots practice flying in a virtual cockpit, students learn how to operate instruments in a simulated environment, and virtual humans act as image spokespersons for organizations.
All walks of life are enthusiastically embracing the Metaverse. Since the beginning of this year, more than 20 cities in China have successively introduced the Metaverse Action Plan and related supporting policies, which has brought about a huge talent gap.
According to the latest "2022 Metaverse Industry Talent Development Report" released by Zhaopin.com, from January to July 2022, the recruitment positions related to Metaverse increased by 16.6% year-on-year. The talents it recruits are highly concentrated in the information technology industry, and gradually penetrate into education and training, media, manufacturing and other fields. R&D and design posts are the main force of Metaverse.
Just a few days before the name was changed to the Department of Metaverse Engineering, the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Tokyo, Japan, "Metaverse Engineering Department" (a discipline specializing in the study of the virtual space "Metaverse") officially opened its lectures. On October 11, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University launched a new Master of Science in Metaverse Technology.
Although there are "crab-eaters" abroad, some people still question that there is no metaverse major in the subject catalog of the Ministry of Education of my country. Could this be a "pheasant" major?
In fact, the public does not know much about the education sector. "Professional setting must be based on the subject catalog of the Ministry of Education, but the name of a department is not restricted by the catalog." Pan Zhigeng said.
What kind of people does the Metaverse Engineering Department train?
At four or five in the morning, Pan Zhigeng was still replying to WeChat. There are too many units looking for him to cooperate, including the government, museums, manufacturers, universities, etc., basically all of them are "compound needs". Recently, several experts from Waseda University in Japan also approached them, hoping to cooperate to establish a metaverse research center combined with art.
"Compound talents are really in demand." Pan Zhigeng said that the annual salary of artificial intelligence undergraduates at Nanjing University is 300,000 to 40,000 yuan. If a graduate knows a little about artificial intelligence and blockchain, he can do both. Recruit two people, now one person is enough.
The same logic applies to the entire industry. The Internet has brought earth-shaking changes to the entire industry, but individual technological breakthroughs such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things are not enough to bring about revolutionary changes. What can bring impact to the next Internet revolution is the metaverse that many people are optimistic about.
Pan Zhigeng said that it is not a certain technology, but an integrated concept. Metaverse has six core technologies, which are vividly compared to "BIGANT". Among them, B is blockchain technology (Blockchain), I is interactive technology (Interactivity), G is video game technology (Game), A is artificial intelligence (AI), N is network and computing technology (Network), T is material Internet of Things (Internet of Things).
The six major technologies did not suddenly add 6 courses. In fact, artificial intelligence is a part of the metaverse, and many courses in the metaverse have been offered in the field of artificial intelligence. "There are mainly two newly added courses-human-computer interaction or virtual reality and blockchain. Now we just use the 'hat' of metaverse to recruit students in." Pan Zhigeng said.
One person cannot be proficient in all eighteen kinds of weapons, and the cultivation of talents in the Metaverse is also different from the design of traditional disciplines.
"We hope that the students of the Department of Metaverse Engineering will have a broad range of knowledge, develop comprehensive thinking skills, be able to integrate and understand the relationship between disciplines." Pan Zhigeng said. For example, the Internet smart consultation room involves technologies such as the Internet, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, and blockchain. Students participating in project development must master the technologies involved in the Metaverse.
When most people hear that they have learned 6 core technologies in 4 years, their first reaction is "how to learn it". "Actually, it is neither realistic nor necessary to learn every subject profoundly. It must be emphasized." Pan Zhigeng said.
The virtual society under the metaverse background has trading activities. A gives B a digital collection of the Forbidden City, how to ensure that the collection is not pirated? Knowing the transfer information requires learning blockchain knowledge. Smart education mainly involves virtual reality and artificial intelligence, and it will not be affected if you are not familiar with blockchain knowledge.
Pan Zhigeng hopes that students will be "miscellaneous". "Because the metaverse is currently the largest interdisciplinary subject, which intersects with computer, artificial intelligence, industrial design, geography, economics and other disciplines." However, the most basic is still mathematics. Not long ago, Qiu Chengtong, an internationally renowned mathematician and foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that there are still many technical problems in the Metaverse that require the support of basic disciplines such as mathematics. "The ancient discipline of mathematics works well with graphics and various numerical problems."
Pan Zhigeng believes that Metaverse talents should also pay attention to foreign language learning. Domestic technologies such as virtual reality engines are not as good as those of foreign countries, and foreign languages have become the basic requirements for studying foreign materials and conducting international exchanges.
What changes did Metaverse bring to higher education?
Like many engineering courses, it is difficult for students to understand the metaverse only by lectures. What changes will the addition of the Metaverse Engineering Department bring to the classroom?
When they hear the metaverse, many people will imagine the scene of taking classes in the metaverse. Wearing VR glasses in class will make you feel uncomfortable and dizzy after a long time, but is it not like attending classes in the Metaverse without wearing VR glasses?
This is actually a misunderstanding of the public. Pan Zhigeng pointed out that although Metaverse continues the three major characteristics of virtual reality - immersion, real-time, and natural interaction, there is no need to overemphasize immersion in many occasions. For example, in the online virtual marathon they developed, running with VR glasses will feel uncomfortable; to go to a virtual hospital for consultation, you only need a large screen to have a normal conversation with the doctor, and you don’t need too much immersion. "It is not necessary to wear VR glasses to attend classes in the metaverse, otherwise it will greatly limit its scope of application."
Many colleges and universities have had virtual simulation teaching in the past. How is the virtual simulation teaching in the metaverse different?
In the past, virtual simulations were mostly simulated scenes in computers, mainly animations. With the support of metaverse-related technologies, future chemistry courses can be built like this—the temperature perception test under the scene of concentrated sulfuric acid dilution. Through the equipment, the experimenter's hands can sense the heat; there is no need to worry about the explosion of sodium and water reaction, through Human-computer interaction, the experimenter raised the smart beaker to "pour water", even if he made a mistake, the virtual "explosion" would only happen on the computer screen.
"Just like artificial intelligence majors springing up in colleges and universities, who can predict that metaverse-related majors will not usher in explosive growth in the future?" Pan Zhigeng said before the interview ended.
"Chinese Journal of Science" (2022-12-06 Edition 4 Higher Education Focus)