The Hopcroft Center on Computing Science (HCCS) Opening Ceremony and the Turing Seminar were held in the International Academic Exchange Center of HUST. You Zheng, President of HUST, and John Hopcroft, Honorary Professor of HUST, Turing Award winner, and Professor at Cornell University attended the opening ceremony. Yao Qizhi, Turing Award winner and Professor at Tsinghua University, as well as Alfred Aho, Turing Award winner and Professor at Columbia University, were invited to attend the ceremony online. Professor Feng Dan, Dean of the School of Computer Science and Technology, presided over the opening ceremony.
On behalf of the university, You Zheng welcomed the arrival of Professor Hopcroft and his wife. He congratulated the establishment of the center and fully affirmed the achievements of the cooperation between Professor Hopcroft and HUST. He said that HUST has always attached great importance to scientific research and human resource. He believed that the center will serve as a model for the entire university, inspiring original innovation in basic computer theory and frontier algorithms.
In his remarks, John Hopcroft, the center's Director and Professor at Cornell University, expressed his gratitude to HUST for supporting the establishment of the center and depicted the visions of the center. He hoped that the center will focus more on basic research and train young talents to lay foundations for the development of computer science and related fields.
Professor Yao Qizhi at Tsinghua University delivered a speech. He spoke highly of Professor Hopcroft for his decades of excellent contributions to academia and education, as well as HUST's vision to create one of the world's best computer science centers. He also expressed his expectation for the center's success under Professor Hopcroft's leadership.
Alfred Aho, Professor at Columbia University, described his experience as Professor John Hopcroft's first Ph.D. student. He conveyed his hopes and best wished for young scholars and the center.
After the speeches, Professor Hopcroft and President You Zheng inaugurated the Hopcroft Center on Computing Science at HUST.
After the opening ceremony, the Turing Seminar was held. Professor He Kun, Deputy Director of the Center presided over the seminar. Manuel Blum, Turing Award winner and Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, delivered a report on "Introduction to the Conscious Turing Machine". Jack Dongarra, Turing Award winner, Professor at University of Tennessee and Researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, gave a presentation on "Where We Are Today and A Look into the Future".
Written by: Huang Siming
Edited by: Zhang Zhanyu, Peng Yumeng