Class of 2016 Computer Science and Engineering student Liu Yi from Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) set a new standard with his selection into Tencent’s Rhino-Bird Elite Training Program. This is the first time a SUSTech student has earned the privilege of joining such a select group of programmers.

The 2019 Rhino-Bird Elite Training Program will promote the latest learning and research domains such as robotics, autonomous vehicle technology, and artificial intelligence in medicine and healthcare. It also seeks to set up an “intellectual study” and “intellectual sharing” platform to provide students with academic exchange opportunities with Rhino-Bird academic experts from around the world.

Liu Yi studies within a project group investigating intelligent software. Their research interests include search-based software engineering, software testing and analysis, automatic software repair, service computing, mobile computing, and software security. With help from the head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering Yao Xin and Assistant Professors Zhang Yuqun, Liu Yepang and Chen Xinhui, Liu Yi was effectively able to deal with some real problems facing the industry. He expanded on his scientific research ideas and verified the academic theory. Liu Yi also achieved practical results through the joint publication of papers and filing of patent applications. All his work has laid a solid foundation for his being preferred by Tencent.

The 2019 Rhino-Bird Elite Training program received more than 140 outstanding applications from more than 50 universities and research institutions around the world. After an exhaustive process, 56 candidates stood out and were chosen for the 2019 program. The applicants are required to prove that they have published CCFA/B papers or joined national key scientific research projects or obtain competition awards at significant events.

Up to 2018, 78 people were selected, mainly from ETH-Zurich, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Peking University, and other top universities from around the world. Many scientific research results have been verified and transformed into real scenes and data. The confirmed and transformed results were subsequently published in top journals and conferences.