"Industrial Metaverse, as an advanced form of integration between digital economy and physical economy, is a crucial approach to accelerating the construction of a new type of industrialization and supporting the establishment of a modern industrial system."
Recently, in an interview with the Chinese Science Bulletin, National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) member, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and deputy director of the National Expert Committee on Intelligent Manufacturing, Qian Feng, stated that the global Metaverse industry is evolving rapidly, bringing disruptive changes with innovations like ChatGPT and Sora. Five departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have introduced relevant action plans, requiring the construction of the Industrial Metaverse and empowering the manufacturing industry as the primary goal to promote high-quality development of the Metaverse industry. However, there are still some prominent issues that need to be addressed to achieve the goal of empowering the manufacturing industry with the Industrial Metaverse.
Qian Feng pointed out that the lack of core software and hardware such as artificial intelligence, industrial big data, industrial cloud computing, and edge computing poses significant challenges to the innovative development of China's Industrial Metaverse in empowering manufacturing. Although China's Industrial Metaverse relies on the development of the industrial internet, it still faces challenges such as inadequate real-time performance, interactivity, and realism, with prominent technological bottlenecks in areas such as networking, computing power, scenario innovation, and virtual-to-real integration.
At the same time, a collaborative innovation mechanism has not yet been formed in the field of Industrial Metaverse, and a long-term cooperation mechanism between enterprises and universities/research institutes has not yet been established. The integration between key technology research and development and industrial applications has not yet been deeply realized, and the innovation chain, industry chain, and application chain have not effectively coordinated, urgently needing to converge resources, talents, and technologies through application scenarios.
"As digital transformation in the manufacturing industry progresses, the demand for composite talents in the field of Industrial Metaverse is increasing," said Qian Feng. Currently, the Industrial Metaverse field is facing a dual gap in both the quantity and quality of talents. There is a severe shortage of talents who understand both business scenarios and technical logic, and the market lacks professionals with experience in the Industrial Metaverse industry, while universities lack mature models for cultivating talents in the Industrial Metaverse.
In response, Qian Feng suggested that relevant departments should establish major projects and research and development platforms. By setting up major scientific and technological projects for the Industrial Metaverse, priority support should be given to the research and development of core underlying technologies and future technologies. Relying on leading enterprises in the Metaverse industry, establish research and development platforms for Metaverse technology and industry to support the formation of the entire industry chain.
Strengthen the research and application of core industrial software and hardware. Develop core industrial software in the field of Industrial Metaverse such as research process simulation, process twinning, and operation and maintenance management, and promote the upgrading of key equipment technologies such as optical lenses, display panels, main control chips, sensors, and memories.
Accelerate the construction of new infrastructure for the Industrial Metaverse. Accelerate the construction of new networks, break through key technologies such as efficient scheduling and distribution of industrial computing power, and green and low-carbon technologies, efficiently coordinate computing resources, and meet the differentiated needs of different application scenarios of the Industrial Metaverse.
In addition, it is also necessary to construct an industrial ecosystem for the coordinated development of the Industrial Metaverse. Qian Feng suggested establishing a collaborative innovation alliance composed of government, enterprises, universities, and research institutes, closely integrating breakthroughs in key technologies, commercialization of products, and the construction of application ecosystems, and encouraging the establishment of Industrial Metaverse innovation application pilot zones, technology parks, and industrial parks at the local level to build characteristic Industrial Metaverse industrial clusters. At the same time, focus on research and development design, production equipment, marketing channels, etc., to form a batch of replicable and scalable application scenarios and business models, establish Industrial Metaverse integration and empowerment innovation centers, and basic service public platforms for testing, experience, and evaluation to provide strong support for empowering the manufacturing industry with the Metaverse and forming industrial chains.
"Based on demand and goal orientation, further optimize the setting of disciplines and majors in universities, improve the top-level design of talent cultivation in the field of Industrial Metaverse, set up interdisciplinary courses in professional fields such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and virtual reality, to create a talent cultivation system for composite talents in the field of Industrial Metaverse," he said. It is necessary to select several key industries (such as aerospace, petrochemicals, etc.) facing national major demands, explore new ways to cultivate high-level talents in real engineering scenarios, and establish mechanisms for collaborative education, collaborative talent cultivation, and collaborative innovation between schools and enterprises, deepen the integration of science and education, production and education, international cooperation, and promote the cultivation of high-quality engineering and technical talents in the field of Industrial Metaverse.
