Serving the New Energy Industry Increasing Benefits and Reducing Costs

In line with the dual-carbon guiding policy and the vision goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, the outlook for the new energy industry is promising. According to the Ministry of Public Security’s statistics, as of the end of June of this year, the nationwide new energy vehicle ownership reached 16.2 million, and in the first half, the new registration of new energy vehicles increased by 41.6 per cent year-on-year, hitting a record high. According to the public data from National Bureau of Statistics, in the first half year, China’s new energy vehicles, solar batteries, charging piles and other new energy products output increased by 35%, 54.5%, 53.1%, with the new energy automotive field gaining momentum.

Focusing on new energy vehicle charging services, An Shuo, co-founder of “Shiji Yunan”, is a serial entrepreneur in the field of dual-carbon with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Manufacturing from the Engineering Department of University of Cambridge. In face of the new energy vehicle industry’s blowout trend, An Shuo believes that there are the following challenges in the building energy consumption segment: first, the energy structure has undergone a huge transformation; second, the deployment of microgrids and dispatching needs are obvious; and third, the transmission and distribution tariff reform continues to advance towards real-time. 

“With a focus on the destination scenario represented by community parking spaces, the ultra-high electricity load generated by new energy vehicles places enormous strain on existing built-ups. Taking the common 7kw slow-charging pile as an example, it is even equivalent to the electrical consumption of a usual two-bedroom domestic house.” She stated, “Every new slow-charging pile truly exerts a great demand on the existing community capacitance, which should not be ignored. Therefore, one of the industry’s growth goals is to better fulfill the aforementioned charging demand.”

Combined with the “unified construction and operation” model vigorously promoted by country for the residential community charging facilities, focusing on a series of problems in residential community scenarios—the insufficient of community power load , the high cost of capacity increase, the obvious safety pitfalls, the complex reporting process, the lack of maintenance and management., Shiji Yunan launched the community micro-grid charging solutions on combination of the “unified construction and operation” and “intelligent dispatching”, based on the core intelligent power dispatching technology on the microgrids between residential buildings and car parks and between the charging piles in car parks,.

“As the main replenishment time, usually the parking time of new energy vehicles in the community parking space is up to about 12 hours long, which is much longer than the 1 to 2 hours/day required for charging. This provides a sufficient operating window for intelligent dispatching between the microgrids of residential buildings and car park”, emphasised An Shuo. “The project is the only one in the industry that can achieve 100% coverage of charging services in car parking spaces without any need to increase the power capacity, and will not impact on the existing power grid.” It is reported that the products developed by “Shiji Yunan” have already entered the stage of application on the ground, stationed in nearly 1,000 communities, covering more than 50,000 parking spaces.

Another Cambridge alumnus brought a roadshow project— “SDL Energy”. This project is a service provider for electricity consumption management and sustainable operation in industrial and commercial scenarios. It targets at those large energy consumption sites, such as commercial buildings, data centres, industrial parks and transportation hubs, as well as power supply hubs such as new energy power stations, and offers users intelligent energy products and services, through independent research and development of smart meters, energy storage, energy management platforms, microgrid controllers, and other tools.

“SDL Energy is committed to facilitating the realisation of a balance between energy consumption demand and supply, resulting in a zero-carbon and sustainable future for businesses”, said the project’s CEO, Chen Zhi. According to reports, Chen holds a degree of Advanced Course in Design, Manufacturing, and Management from the Engineering Department of University of Cambridge  . He has extensive experience in sales, marketing, and supply chain management for the energy and power industries. Furthermore, the team’s coremembers also have extensive experience in industries relevant to the project, including smart meters, new energy, energy internet, commercial real estate, and others.

Specifically addressing the real concerns of B-end users, such as the challenges of managing data assets, the absence of intelligent analytical skills, the rising cost of electricity, the unnoticed security risk in power supply, and the unresolved charge management issues, Chen continues by explaining how SDL Energy applies its core competence on smart meter SaaS business to maximise the user’s management on electricity bills and reduce energy consumption on top of the reduction of energy costs, with a comprehensive service plan combining distributed photovoltaic, energy storage, big data, green finance, etc.. And it uses smart electricity meters as the customer data portal and artificial intelligence to drive microgrid services, to further explore the value of data.

Focus on Information Technology Industry Upgrading and Reinvention

The advent of low-code/no-code development in recent years is heralded as the future of coding. Unlike traditional coding languages and development techniques, it's a technical platform or tool designed specifically for non-technical users, allowing them to build websites, mobile apps, and other software without any coding knowledge.

The roadshow project “Functor-Z” is an application-oriented endeavor that leverages a generative UI engine and an intelligent application development platform. Using a no-code cloud IDE (Integrated Development Environment) suitable for all scenarios, the project has built a versatile no-code development platform called "Zion". It enables non-technical individuals and teams to quickly design, launch, and iterate custom applications like miniprograms, websites, and native mobile apps without writing a single line of code. It has proven useful in a variety of application scenarios such as data collection, e-commerce, community, enterprise process optimization, smart manufacturing, smart hardware, IoT connectivity and more.

"The team's vision is to reconstruct the application development paradigm, enabling everyday users to develop their own software as quickly as they would use PowerPoint and Excel", said Jiang Yaokai, co-founder and CTO of Functor-Z and a graduate from the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge. He adds, "It capitalizes on the inflection point where large language models begin to flourish, breaking down fundamental roadblocks so that these large language models can truly serve the users."

Using the traditional application development method, the development feedback cycle is measured in weeks, and it needs to go through a lengthy process of "Requirement → Product Manager → Designer → Front-end → Back-end → Operations → Testing → Delivery". However, through Functor-Z's Zion no-code platform, the development process is simplified to "Requirement → Zion → Test → Delivery", shortening the feedback cycle to mere minutes. For instance, when developing a small Wechat miniprogram, Zion can reduce the development cycle from 20 man-days traditionally to just 2 man-days.

Manufacturing of big passenger airplanes is a key indicator of a nation's industrial level. On 28 May, the first C919 large passenger aircraft delivered by COMAC successfully made its debut. On 16 July, the second C919 entered China Eastern Airline’s fleet as well and partnered with the first one to fly the Shanghai-Chengdu route. The era of AB (Airbus and Boeing) is progressively giving way to the era of ABC (Airbus ,Boeing and COMAC) in the worldwide civil passenger aircraft market.

At the same time, in order to catch up, the domestic aircraft industry must address two key technical issues: the first is the “heart disease” related to the general lack of advancement in domestic engine technology; the second is the “neurosis” related to the domestic avionics control system under-developed in whole.

The challenges always co-exist with opportunities. The avionics business, which has billions of dollars worth of untapped potential, is the focus of the roadshow project “Loongrise Avionics”, whose CEO Hu Xing earned a master’s degree from Oxford University. “Aviation manufacturing industry chain is long, wide-radiation, high technological content, strong linkage effect, with 20 times the industry driving capacity”, Sun Jian, the roadshow representative for Loongrise Avionics, stated, “C919 aircraft has about 3.5 million parts, of which over several hundred thousands are avionics-related parts. However, there are less than 100 parts independently researched and developed by China or co-developed with foreign countries, and the avionics equipment for the C919 aircraft is heavily reliant on imports. Loongrise Avionics mainly aims at the blue ocean market in which the current scale is less than a hundred, but is possible to reach several hundred thousands in the future, and accelerates domestic substitution of the avionics.”

Loongrise Avionics, that focuses on the field of avionics intelligent R&D and manufacturing, is based on the technologies of aviation communication system, aviation display, and IMA integrated modular avionics, offering intelligent solutions for China’s large aircraft industry and the global civil aviation industry, as well as avionics products dominated by domestic technologies. By applying the segmented aviation communication products as an example, Loongrise Avionics has produced successful R&D results, including the first domestic replacement for the airborne satellite phone (IPPhone) manufactured by a U.S. comparable company, the first domestic Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT) device, the first domestic replacement for the wireless quick access recorder (WQAR), and a commitment to turning the “black box” into the “bright box” and “white box”. Loongrise Avionics, which was founded just two and a half years ago, has reportedly been recognised as National High-tech Enterprise and Prospective Unicorn Enterprise in Hangzhou in 2023.

The roadshow included application-oriented initiatives focusing on the strategic industry of optoelectronics in addition to avionics projects emphasizing the vastness of the sky. The “OSEN Optics” project, which focuses on integrated hyperspectra sensing device, is run by Yang Haining, professor at Southeast University and Doctor of Engineering at University of Cambridge, as CEO, and Professor Dapin Chu, director of the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics at the University of Cambridge, as the chief advisor, both of whom have extensive technological backgrounds.

By gathering the spectra of the target items, it is possible to perform non-contact detection of substance components thanks to the distinctive spectral information—also referred to as “spectral fingerprints”—that these components have. Hyperspectral detection is a crucial detection technology that is widely employed in contemporary scientific study and industrial production because of its benefits of non-contact, high precision, and flexible application. However, the traditional hyperspectral systems developed on dispersion system, narrow-band filtering, Fourier, and other technologies or theories have obvious drawbacks, such as high price (often in the 100,000 yuan range), bulky desktop structures, and the limit on environment due to the  high stability required for discrete components, the wide use of hyperspectral technology is still severely constrained.

Unlike traditional hyperspectral systems, Nie Jiewen, the COO of the project and representative of the roadshow, introduced that the computational spectroscopy solution based on liquid crystal super-surface, provided by “OSEN Optics”, relies on three core technologies, namely, “sub-sampling solution based on the theory of compressed perception, spectral coding technology based on liquid crystal super-surface devices, and high-precision spectral reconstruction algorithm based on deep learning”. It breaks through the pain points for application of te traditional hyperspectral technology and has the advantages of a streamlined structure, stability and vibration resistance, wide coverage of wavelength bands (visible to mid-infrared), and can achieve a millimeter-sized ultra-small device at cost of 100 yuan for mass production.

“Thanks to the advantages of low-cost and miniaturised devices, the project opens up a different track from traditional bench-top hyperspectral detection equipment. OSEN’s devices can be integrated into the production of process equipment, to realise online in-situ detection and promote the further popularisation of hyperspectral applications.” Returning to the application scenarios, he concluded, “In many fields such as food processing, chemical testing, water quality testing, medical and healthcare, as well as wine brewing, with the advantages of small size, low cost, and application flexibility, OSEN’s technology has the potential to develop many emerging application scenarios as well as a wide range of application values”.

Over the past three years, focusing on both technology foresight and application, the Cambridge University Nanjing Centre has successfully hosted six roadshows on International Technology,. More than 20 top-notch applied innovation projects have been promoted to investment institutions and local industrial parks, covering popular research fields like biomedicine, electronics and optoelectronics, computer science and artificial intelligence, materials science and sensing technology, dual carbon, and new energy.

Following the complete research and innovation value chain of “Original Basic Research — Original Applied Innovation —Technology Development — Commercialisation”, the Centre is anchoring on the intermediate stageof applied innovation in the process of “R&D” and promoting the successful leap from “R” to “D”. The Centre is, as usual, emphasizing on the primary line of long-term development onapplied innovation, constructing an efficient docking platform between the advanced applied achievements of the University of Cambridge and its innovation ecosystem and domestic innovation and entrepreneurship industry demand and innovation capital, through a variety of approaches, including project introduction, technology roadshows, and innovation incubation.  The platform is actively encouraging the landing of top-notch applied projects and the commercialisation of cutting-edge scientific research findings. The Centre will work towards the industrialisation of scientific research and the application of technology to open up the chain of innovation transformation, release the productivity of technology, and make scientific research truly “useable” to serve the society.