ADIA Lab–Tsinghua SIGS Summer School Kicks Off

The 2026 ADIA Lab–Tsinghua SIGS Summer School opened in Shenzhen on July 6.

Co-hosted by Abu Dhabi research institute ADIA Lab and Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School (Tsinghua SIGS), the summer school centers on the theme Applied AI for the Digital Economy and drew over 40 young students and scholars from across the globe.

Over the two-week research program, participants will engage in in-depth exchanges and joint research covering cutting-edge areas including healthcare, smart cities, robotics, climate and energy, finance, and responsible AI. The initiative aims to build an interdisciplinary and cross-regional platform for academic communication.

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At the opening ceremony, Meng Bo, Director of the Special International Cooperation Office of Tsinghua University, extended a warm welcome to international participants traveling from afar. She introduced the university’s century-long educational heritage, top-tier disciplinary strengths, cutting-edge research platforms and global cooperation framework. She encouraged participants to make the most of the summer school, engage actively in cross-cultural academic dialogues, leverage the premium academic resources at Tsinghua SIGS, explore Shenzhen in depth, and fully embrace this research journey.

Zhang Yi, Director of the Office of Global Affairs at Tsinghua SIGS, elaborated on the school’s distinctive educational features. As Tsinghua University’s sole off-campus graduate school on the Chinese mainland, the institute is rooted in Shenzhen with a 6+1 disciplinary layout and an international industry-education integrated talent training system. She expressed hopes that participants would seize this research opportunity to gain thorough insights into Shenzhen’s innovative industrial ecosystem and forge long-term bridges for international academic exchange.

Amelie Koch, COO of ADIA Lab, noted that the summer school features far more than classroom lectures. Participants will gain immersive exposure to China’s AI industrial landscape, acquiring a comprehensive understanding of cutting-edge domestic research frameworks, tech enterprise development, and how AI technologies are integrated into daily life. She urged them to stay curious, step outside their familiar social circles, and fully immerse themselves in the program.

Two keynote presentations were delivered on the opening day. Liu Moxian, Senior Research Fellow at Tencent Research Institute, shared Tencent’s research achievements and frontline industrial practice cases under the topic The Wave of LLMs: Progress and Trends in Generative AI and Its Applications. His presentation explored how AI is reshaping products, enterprises and the broader digital economy. Professor Ercan Engin Kuruoğlu from Tsinghua SIGS delivered a speech titled Future Challenges of AI: from Deterministic to Probabilistic Learning. He summarized the current status of AI research and applications, identified the challenges, and made a proposal for a new framework for the next generation of AI.

Tsinghua SIGS professor Ercan Engin Kuruoğlu delivers a speech.

The summer school adopts a training model combining academic lectures, industrial practice and cultural immersion. Participants will take part in group research collaborations, holding case studies and project research on frontier topics such as medical intelligence, urban climate AI, and sustainable digital economy.

Industry experts from multiple tech firms will deliver special lectures to share technical approaches and commercialization experience from real-world AI implementation. For on-site practical visits, scholars toured the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen to observe high-performance computing infrastructure firsthand, and visited local AI enterprises to witness R&D and commercialization of innovations in the Greater Bay Area’s AI industry.

Event guests and participants visit the National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen.

Meanwhile, cultural activities including Chinese language classes, calligraphy workshops, Chinese martial arts experiences and Shenzhen food culture sessions will be held to allow international participants to experience traditional Chinese culture and advance exchanges and mutual learning among diverse civilizations.

Participants during the exhange event.

The launch of this joint summer school in Shenzhen marks a landmark event for deepened international academic exchange and joint talent cultivation between Middle Eastern research institutions and Tsinghua SIGS. Moving forward, both sides will build on this summer school partnership to expand diversified cooperation models, including joint research projects, youth scholar exchange programs, and collaborative research on cutting-edge topics.