The Lijia 5G Network Pavillion located in Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn]

The 2022 Peak Forum on Economic & Social Development from Mathematics took place in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality on July 16.

Centered on how mathematics plays a significant role in serving national strategic demands and industrial innovation and how to promote the coordination of math research and industrial chains, seven academicians from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and about 100 representatives from governments, research institutes and enterprises were invited to attend the event.

"That basic science promotes sustainable development is accepted around the world," said Yuan Yaxiang, vice president of the China Association of Science and Technology.

"Math is a scientific language. It is so hard to move forward in scientific areas when you don't know math," said Peng Lianmao, professor at Peking University. Peng illustrated his point by giving an example related to electronics – his area of expertise – highlighting that the reason for major breakthroughs made in IC is that every step of the process design can be simulated precisely. Without the support of math, complicated chips would not exist.

Zhang Pingwen, vice president of Peking University, explained the reason why enterprises need math: when a company enters its original innovation stage, what matters most is to have groundbreaking thoughts in order to research new methods, skills and materials. And much of the research is in nature either mathematical or physical.

In addition, Zhang highlighted Chongqing’s abundant application scenarios, helping mathematics better serve economic and social development.

"We operate a sci-tech company committed to the digital innovation of scientific areas, and we have recruited many young doctors who just graduated. They have very limited knowledge of the industry," said Sun Wei, president of Infinite Brain Technologies Co, who suggested that higher education institutions give students more opportunities to solve practical industrial issues.