The Xi'an Software Park is showing it is ready for Industry 4.0 after it hosted a software technology week activity in October.

Enterprises and institutions in the software park, part of the Xi'an High-Tech Industrial Development Zone in the capital of Shaanxi province, displayed their latest technologies at Xi'an Software Technology Week in mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things that they claimed were ready to be integrated into traditional manufacturing.

The event was held from Oct 17 to 23 as part of the National Mass Innovation and Entrepreneurship Week, an event that is held simultaneously in several cities in China.

Chi Fang, head of the park's management committee, said the event attracted more than 3,000 delegates from home and abroad, including representatives for Intel, Bosch, Qualcomm, Unity, Catchoom, Daqri and Wikitude, as well as scholars, experts, investors and venture capitalists.

They took part in a number of activities related to China's Internet plus strategy, which is the nation's plan of integrating high-tech companies into traditional business sectors. These activities included an innovation and entrepreneurship competition, a summit, the opening ceremony of the Xi'an Dark Horse Club for Entrepreneurship, a technology salon and an augmented reality technology expo.

At the summit, delegates agreed that the fusion of the Internet and manufacturing industries would greatly promote the development of the software park and the Xi'an high-tech development zone.

Lu Bingheng, dean of the Mechanical Science Research Institute at Xi'an Jiaotong University and also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, introduced the 3D printing technology. Known as a pioneer of China's 3D printing, Lu said the technology will bring a new revolution to China's manufacturing industries and will play a crucial role in the Industry 4.0 strategy.

The Internet-plus innovation and entrepreneurship competition from Oct 19 to 22 gathered a number of high-tech projects.

The Universal Toolbox software developed by Xi'an Ai'ou Software Technology Co, a small firm launched by a group of young entrepreneurs, won the final competition held on Oct 22. Judges said they recognized the project's creativity, technology level, business model and market potential.

During the software technology week, Xi'an Software Park launched its "mobile dream workshop", a facility that offers offices, fundraising assistance, business planning guidance and other services to young entrepreneurs who want to start their businesses in high-tech industries.

Contact the writers through luhongyan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/16/2015 page18)

(From China Daily, 2015-12-16)