On June 3, opening ceremony and the first technical seminar of the "2020 China-Italy Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Forum", co-hosted by EEA of Tsinghua University, the University of Bergamo and the University of Naples in Italy, China Sci-Tech Automation Alliance and Campania New Steel, were successfully held online. Wang Zhigang (Chinese Minister of Science and Technology) sent a congratulatory letter, and 11 Chinese and Italian guests including Li Junhua (Chinese Ambassador to Italy), Yang Bin (Vice President of Tsinghua University), Liu Hui (Deputy Director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Science and Technology), Gaetano Manfredi (Italian Minister of Science and Technology), Fabrizio Nicoletti (Director of Innovation Research of Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Arturo De Vivo (President of the University of Naples, and Remo Morzenti Pellegrini (President of the University of Bergamo) attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches, and 400 experts and scholars from the two countries attended the forum. The forum was chaired by Vincenzo Lipardi, vice president of Campania New Steel.

At the opening ceremony, Chinese and Italian guests delivered speeches respectively and expressed warm congratulations on the holding of the China-Italy Advanced Manufacturing Forum. In his congratulatory letter, Wang Zhigang mentioned that advanced manufacturing is one of the important areas of scientific and technological cooperation between China and Italy, and he hopes that both sides will take this forum as an opportunity to expand academic exchanges between young people of the two countries, promote industry-university-research cooperation, and jointly make new contributions to the economic and social development of China and Italy.

Yang Bin reviewed the profound cooperation and friendship between Tsinghua University and Italian universities, and said that in promoting exchanges between scholars and students in the field of intelligent manufacturing between China and Italy, China-Italy Joint Laboratory on Advanced Manufacturing is undoubtedly a very important platform for bilateral cooperation. Especially during the pandemic, the China-Italy Advanced Manufacturing Forum carried out large-scale forum activities for the majority of experts, scholars and students online to explore more new ideas, advanced technologies, best practices and more new challenges and solutions in the field of intelligent manufacturing. Tsinghua University will work with Italian universities to overcome the pandemic.

Dean Kang Chongqing, Deputy Dean Xiao Xi and Deputy Dean Zhu Guiping of EEA attended the opening ceremony of the forum.

In the first technical seminar, Wang Jian, Secretary General of China Sci-Tech Automation Alliance, shared the theme of "The future of manufacturing systems". By describing the pictures of future life, he showed the potential changes taking place in the fields of enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence, intelligent robots and 5G. Wang Jian expounds the new definitions and new characteristics of the future manufacturing industry, and interprets the importance of hybrid man-machine collaboration and new material innovation.

CI-LAM (China-Italy Joint Laboratory on Advanced manufacturing) is the earliest cooperation project established between China and Italy in the field of intelligent manufacturing, smart factory and manufacturing digitalization. During the China-Italy Innovation Cooperation Week in November 2017, the agreement on CI-LAM, witnessed by the Chinese Minister of Science and Technology and the Italian Minister of Education and Research, was signed by Tsinghua University, University of Bergamo, University of Naples, China Sci-Tech Automation Alliance and Campania New Steel; In December 2018, CI-LAM was formally established during the China-Italy Innovation Week and coincidently the days when Minister Wang Zhigang of Science and Technology paid a visit to Italy. The purpose of CI-LAM is to promote cooperation between the two countries in talent training and cutting-edge technology research and development, including technology transfer and entrepreneurial incubation, and its vision is to become the most effective and successful cooperation bridge in the field of advanced manufacturing and intelligent robots between China and Italy.

In 2020 to face the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the China-Italy Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Forum 2020 will be conducted in the form of online reports and exchanges. The series activities will include online education and training, technical seminars, demonstration of innovative entrepreneurship projects, business and technology matching, etc.