CHINA  SCIENCE  AND  TECHNOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
The Ministry of Science and Technology
People's Republic of China

Build up Counties with Science

Not long ago, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance launched a joint initiative to build up counties with science and technology. In an attempt to provide S&T support for some 300 counties or townships in the middle and west sections, and in less developed areas in the east section, the initiative will mobilize some 1,000 countries or townships to work on capacity building, and make local people rich, in a timeframe of 3 to 5 years.

To implement the initiative, the Ministry of Finance has created a special fund to go along with other incentives such as rewards and compensation. State funds will be allocated for the starting period, and be followed by diverse incentive schemes for later phase development. Efforts will be made to mobilize all walks of life to respond the initiative, encouraging diverse S&T oriented investments in the implementation of the initiative, and in the economic development at the county level.  The pilot counties or townships are asked to enhance and secure their own investment in line with the implementation of the initiative. Local authorities will pool up resources to implement the initiative, forming a concerted effort to promote S&T advancement at the national, provincial, prefectural, and county levels.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance will jointly work on an S&T information service network at the county and township level. On the one hand, integration of advanced and proven technical information will be made at the national, ministerial and provincial levels, in an attempt to establish a comprehensive S&T information database accessible to grassroots, and realize nationwide technical information sharing. On the other hand, efforts will be made to construct an S&T information platform at the county and township level, especially in less developed areas. Efforts will also be made to integrate the existing specialized information networks, realizing the connectivity between S&T information networks and technical databases at the national and local levels, taking advantage of the role of technology information. S&T service network will further extend to the county level, and to townships, villages, major enterprises or special households, when conditions permit.

National Digital Media Base

In the morning of June 12, 2005, an inauguration ceremony was held to open the National Industrial Base for Digital Media Technology, at the Digital Entertainment Software Garden, part of the National Software Park in the Chengdu High Tech Zone. LI Xueyong, Vice Minister of Science and Technology, KE Zunping, Vice Governor of Sichuan Province, and GE Honglin, Mayor of Chengdu Municipality attended the ceremony.

During the 10th Five-year period(2001-2005), the Ministry of Science and Technology has established flash and online game related projects through the National 863 Program. These projects have aroused local and industrial passions for technological innovations and associated commercial applications. The effort also creates a platform for the cooperation between industry, universities, and research institutes. Up to date, the Ministry of Science and Technology has approved the establishment of four national 863 industrial bases for digital media in Sichuan, Shanghai, Beijing, and Hunan. The first batch of projects has also been kicked off in the four centers. Collaboration with local government makes the coordinated technical development between industry, universities, and research institutes possible. Along with the steady development of the involving industry, and the capacity building of digital media bases, a national digital media engineering center bearing regional features, and a national research center focusing on visionary and basic digital media technologies will loom up. These efforts will get China prepared, both structurally and technically, to make the digital media industry a pillar in the national economy.

Chengdu National Industrial Base for Digital Media Technology has the nation’s first game software incubator facilities, covering an area of 14,000 m². In the facilities are stationed or will be stationed some 20 domestically renowned game software makers. These enterprises are contracted to 11 projects under the National 863 Program, and 7 projects under other national S&T initiatives.

Venture Capital Irreplaceable Role

Along with the development of China’s high tech industry, venture capital booms up, playing an irreplaceable role in spurring up the development of high tech industry, pointed out LIU Yanhua, Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology at an investment forum for software industry recently held in Beijing.

LIU revealed that the Ministry of Science and Technology has worked to spur up the development of venture capital in the country, using organized coordination and resources consolidation, in the following six aspects: 1) formulating preferential policies to encourage the participation of venture capital institutions and industry based proprietary innovations; 2) working out solutions for the withdrawal of venture capital institutions. On the one hand, MOST advocates setting up a pioneering board at the stock market, in collaboration with other involving government agencies. On the other hand, it will work with China Securities Regulatory Commission to realize the circulation of floating and tradable shares of high tech enterprises via other viable channels, creating a platform to build a multi-layered capital market; 3) consolidating S&T resources, and strengthening the connection between S&T plans and policies and venture capital, and associated support; 4) guiding more public money into venture capital, using diverse policy means. At present, MOST, in collaboration with other interesting government agencies, is working to establish a fund to guide venture capital. Under the principle of “guided by government, with market participation, professional management, and regulated operation”, capital from non-government sources will be attracted to support the conversion of S&T findings; 5) MOST will join other involving government agencies and local venture capital associations in establishing a nationwide association for S&T venture capital; 6) MOST will work with the State Development Bank to enhance loan support for venture capital, particularly striving to address fund-raising difficulties of small and medium-sized S&T enterprises. 

Statistics show that as of the end of 2004, there were 217 venture capital institutions serving for diverse sectors in the country, managing a fund approaching RMB 50 billion. 77% of the investment has poured in high tech businesses, including software industry.

Progress for High Performance Computer

LIAO Xiaohan, Deputy Director of Department of High Technology, part of the Ministry of Science and Technology, recently visited the SEHNTENG 6800 Supercomputer developed by LEGEND Group at a network center in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was briefed of the latest development of high performance computers and associated core software.

High performance computers and associated core software, a major special project under the National 863 Program, has the following strategic objectives: develop a high performance computer; build a high performance computer environment; program a proprietary grid software; and establish two or three major application grids to meet urgent demands of scientific research, economic construction, social development, and national defense.

At present, SHUGUANG 4000A, a super server, has registered a peak speed of 11.2 trillion times per second, with a linpack sustainability reaching 8.1 trillion times per second, and a general efficiency score at 71.56%. As major grid equipment for 863 CNGrid, the server is homed at Shanghai Super Computation Center. In June 2004, it was ranked 10^th place among top 500 high performance computers in the world. The SHENTENG 6800 Supercomputer, developed by LEGEND Group, has recorded a peak speed at 5.324 trillion times per second, with a linpack sustainability of 4.183 trillion times per second, and a general efficiency score at 78.5%. The system, housed at CAS Computer Network Information Center, was rated 14^th place among top 500 high performance computers in November 2003.

CNGrid GOS v1.0, a grid software, was published in December 2003. The version has basic computation grid functions, including service packaging, assignment coordination, and resources management. As of November 30, 2004, the CNGrid software has been installed on all grid knots, making the software a dominating grid program in the country.

High performance computer and grid software project, supported by a special plan for grid, has led to the construction of CNGrid. Equipped with home developed high performance grid computers, CNGrid is made up of 8 knots, including CAS network center (core knot), Shanghai Super Computation Center, Tsinghua University, Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics, Xi’an Jiaotong University, the University of Science and Technology of China, National University of Defense Technology, and Hong Kong University.  These knots have formed up an open grid environment, supporting grid environment based operation and development of application grids, using proprietary grid software. In an attempt to support resources sharing and teamwork, CNGrid has become an experimental bed for scientific research, technology development, and applications and demonstration.

Science Promotes Modern Media

The 2^nd China International Forum for New Media Industry, sponsored by the Shanghai Media Group, was held on June 11, 2005. FENG Jichun, Director of the Department of High Technology, part of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and industry people attended the forum. With a core topic on spurring up the development of domestic digital media industry, the forum also discussed a wide range of novel technologies and associated market perspectives relating to integration and copyright management of digital contents, strategic development of IPTV, digital high definition TV, mobile TV, digital ground broadcasting, and digital family.  In addition, the forum invited major content providers, vendors, network service providers, terminal equipment makers, researchers, and overseas media groups to present keynote speeches, discussing concerted development strategies for the novel media industry.

During the 10th Five-year period, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Shanghai Municipal Government have jointly initiated a special study to support broadband based high performance information network. In addition to expanding the needed network bandwidth using T-bit high speed transmission equipment, the study pays a weighted attention to the structures, technical standards, and innovation patents suitable for the novel media. Thanks to more than 4-year efforts of some 50 enterprises, universities, and research institutes, including Shanghai Media Group, the high performance information network has started to run on an experimental basis. The pioneering efforts will provide useful evidences and users’ feedbacks for future novel media network structures, transmission modes, operational modes, and content setting. The scale and level of the experiment has surpassed that of similar experiments conducted in developed countries. The study, started in Shanghai, will combine media technology and network technology, allowing the novel media to approach people’s life and guide the future development of information technology.

Easier Pesticides Detecting

Under a special initiative for food safety organized by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology in the 10th Five-year period, a project to develop a handy fluorescent probe for measuring pesticides residues has seen major progresses.

Based on careful examination of operational parameters and repeated optimizations of data handling techniques, researchers developed an enzyme-inhibiting oriented fluorescent probe able to tell organic phosphor and carbamate residues. The system has a range of merits, including simplified operation, strong resistance to interference, a testing limit lower than 0.005mg/kg (Furadan as benchmark), and reliable repetition. Catering for both ac and dc power sources, and with a menu reminding function and a weight of 5 kg, the system can directly test organic phosphor and carbamate residues in vegetables and fruit juices, and produce a result within 15 minutes.

To further test its usability, researchers have used the prototype system to test some 20 types of vegetables and fruits available in the market. In the meantime, they compared the derived data with national standards, and concluded with fine results. The project also came up with two national patent applications.

High Resolution Radar Eye

The National University of Defense Technology has recently rolled out a proprietary high resolution ground probe radar system called RadarEye. With the support of information acquisition and processing technology component under the National 863 Program, it took three years for researchers to work out the system, taking advantage of the University’s strength in super broadband radar theory, system development, and experiment capacity. Derived from the project are three invention patent grants, one software copyright, one registered trademark, and 33 academic papers.  The system can work either vehicle carried or hand held, in different work modes for shallow high resolution and deep low resolution. The system is designed with a resolution ranging from 3 cm to 5 cm, and a road layer accuracy approaching 4 mm. It offers numerous functions, including 2-D and 3-D synthesized aperture imaging for underground targets, abnormality detecting, and classification of underground targets. Massive field and highway experiments and verifications have made the system domestically advanced in terms of its performance. The system can be used in road and bridge quality testing, fault detecting, structure quality evaluating, and dam failure detecting.

Low Temperature Food Shelves

A major national food safety project to develop circulation temperature control technology and shelf life indicator, initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, has called a success. With numerous merits, including small size, simplified operation, reliable performance, repeatable usage, aesthetic design, and waterproof, the instrument is able to track down full-range variations of ambient temperatures, with extended recording time (lasting for 5 months or longer, at a recording per 15 minutes). The system consumes little power, and can last for one year or longer using embedded high performance lithium battery. Equipped with a printing function, the system can work in both Chinese and English languages. The uncorrectable temperature data can be used as evidences for legal investigations or compensation claim for safety and storage problems.  

The temperature recorder has found successful applications in Shanghai Bright Dairy Group and Zhejiang Provincial Blood Center, and won users’ trust. Derived from the project are 4 national invention patent applications, 3 utility models applications, and 1 national utility model grant.

Prototype for MEMS Generator

A MEMS generating system, developed by scientists from the Chongqing University under an initiative of the National 863 Program, has recently passed the verification check. The successful development of the mini generating system creates a solid theoretical and technical ground for the integration of energy sensors, implementers, electric circuits, and systems in the micro world.

Designed with numerous features, including minimized size, high performance, longevity, no need for battery change, no waste emission, simple and flexible operation, and easy for mass-production, the innovative MEMS system is of a broad application perspective and strong market demands for embedded device, distributed sensor system, wireless telecommunication, toys, space and aviation, and environmental monitoring.

       Comments or inquiries on editorial matters or Newsletter content should be directed to:

Mr. Mao Zhongying, Department of International Cooperation, MOST 15B, Fuxing Road Beijing 100862, PR China  Tel: (8610)58881360 Fax: (8610) 58881364

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