On October 23rd to 24th , the 8th National Conference on Intelligent Information Processing (NCIIP 2021), and the 6th Formal Concept Analysis and Granular Computing (FCA&GrC 2021), organized by the Chinese Association on Artificial Intelligence, co-organized by CAAI Knowledge Engineering and Distributed Intelligence Committee, and hosted by Northwest Normal University was successfully held at Northwest Normal University.

This symposium aims to discuss the new technologies of intelligent information processing and their important role in social development, and to look into the future development trend of intelligent information processing technology. A total of 158 valid papers were received, and 99 papers were finally recommended for the journal. There were two specially invited conference presentations, four thematic forums and six group presentations, as well as a symposium on formal concept analysis and granular computing. Due to the recent epidemic, the conference presentations were held in online format throughout the conference, which greatly met the needs of scholars from different regions for communication and discussion, and attracted more than 8000 participants. It not only promoted the exchange and collision of academic thinking, but also enhanced the development and progress of intelligent information processing.

01 Promoting the Development of Intelligent Information Technology

The conference was hosted by Prof. Zhao Hongzhang, Secretary of the Party Committee of the College of Computer Science & Engineering, Northwest Normal University and gave an opening speech, introducing the basic information of the conference and the members of the organization. At the beginning of the conference, Prof. Liu Zhongkui, Co-Chair of the conference and President of Northwest Normal University, gave a welcome speech. President Liu Zhongkui pointed out that this symposium not only provided an opportunity to strengthen academic exchanges, broaden academic horizons and follow the frontiers of the discipline, but also greatly promoted the level of scientific research in the field of intelligent information processing. Conference co-chair, Wang Xizhao, Director of CAAI Committee on Knowledge Engineering and Distributed Intelligence and Professor of Shenzhen University, proposed that this conference provides a platform for experts and scholars to discuss the key issues and challenges, aiming to promote the development of intelligent information technology.

The symposium began with a keynote presentation by Prof. Jin Zhi from Peking University, entitled "Deep Learning Enabled Program Understanding", detailing the ongoing exploration of deep learning technologies to improve software development efficiency in recent years, and showing how to support software engineers' programming tasks through code representation learning.

The forum on "Natural Language Processing" was hosted by Prof. Xu Ruifeng from Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen). Professor Cai Yi from South China University of Technology, Researcher Zhao Dongyan from Peking University, Associate Professor Zhang Peng from Tianjin University and Associate Professor Feng Xiaocheng from Harbin Institute of Technology were invited to give presentations. The forum on "Natural Language Processing" was chaired by Prof. Xu Ruifeng from Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen). Professor Cai Yi from South China University of Technology, Researcher Zhao Dongyan from Peking University, Associate Professor Zhang Peng from Tianjin University and Associate Professor Feng Xiaocheng from Harbin Institute of Technology were invited to give presentations. The presentations were on "Nested Named Entity Recognition with Entity Boundary and Entity Type Information", "Research and Prospects of Intelligent Media Technology", "Quantum Machine Learning and Its Application in Natural Language Processing" and "Knowledge Guided Conversation Summary Techniques".

In addition, the conference held a paper group presentation and the first forum of FCA&GrC. The first forum of FCA&GrC was hosted by Prof. Xu Weihua from Southwest University and Prof. Li Jinhai from Kunming University of Science and Technology, respectively. Professor Chen Hongmei from Southwest Jiaotong University, Associate Professor Tan Anhui from Zhejiang Ocean University, Professor Yang Hailong from Shaanxi Normal University, Professor Li Jinjin from Minnan Normal University, Associate Professor Li Leijun from Hebei Normal University, and Associate Professor Zhai Yanhui from Shanxi University were invited to make presentations. During the meeting, the scholars and experts had in-depth discussions and communications.

02 Looking into the Future Development Trend

In the morning of October 24, Prof. Qin Bing from Harbin Institute of Technology was invited to give a keynote speech on "Knowledge Construction and Knowledge Reasoning". After that, a thematic forum on "Machine Learning" was held, hosted by Prof. Liang Bai from Shanxi University. Professor Yu Kui from Hefei University of Technology, Associate Professor Zhang Changqing from Tianjin University, Associate Professor Shi Yinghuan from Nanjing University, and Professor Li Ming from Zhejiang Normal University were invited to give presentations on " Partial DAG Learning and Robust Machine Learning Problems", "Trustworthy Multi-modal Machine Learning", "Efficient Labeling for Medical Care", and "Graph neural networks: theory, models, algorithms and applications".

In the afternoon, the conference held a thematic forum on "Knowledge Graph", hosted by Prof. Huajun Chen from Zhejiang University, and invited Prof. Wang Xin from Tianjin University, Researcher Li Zhixu from Fudan University, Associate Prof. Liang Xiaodan from Sun Yat-sen University, and Associate Prof. Hu Wei from Nanjing University to present on "New Advances in Knowledge Graph of Semantic Representation Learning", "Practical Discussion and Sharing on Knowledge Graph in Industry Cognitive Implementation", "Application of Self-Supervised Learning in Complex Knowledge Inference", and "Application of Representation Learning Based Knowledge Graph Entities", and "Representation Learning Based Knowledge Graph Entity Alignment Techniques".

The subsequent forum on the theme of "Intelligent Education" was hosted by Professor Liu Qi from the University of Science and Technology of China. Professor Liu Jun from Xi'an Jiaotong University, Professor Jin Bo from Dalian University of Technology, Associate Professor Lu Yu from Beijing Normal University, and Dr. Ma Haiping from Anhui University were invited to give lectures on "Knowledge Forest: Educational Knowledge Map for Aggregating Fragmented Knowledge", "Research and Application of Intelligent Assessment Model for Special Education", "Research and Practical Application of Intelligent Guiding Learning System", and "Multi-learning System based on Student Cognitive Modeling". In addition, the conference also held the second forum of FCA&GrC, which was hosted by Prof. She Yanhong from Xi'an University of Petroleum, and invited Prof. Min Fan from Southwest University of Petroleum, Associate Prof. Xiao Zhang from Xi'an University of Technology, and Associate Prof. Qi Jianjun from Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology to make presentations. The participants exchanged and discussed extensively with the invited experts, and the atmosphere was unprecedentedly warm.

After the smooth conduct of the conference agenda, Prof.  Zhang Yonggang from Jilin University, the organizer of the next Conference on Intelligent Information Processing and Formal Concept Analysis and Granular Computing, made a speech, introducing the basic situation of the development of Jilin University and the preparation of the conference, and extending a sincere invitation to the experts, scholars, and students. Finally, Prof. Wang Xizhao, the co-chair of the conference, summarized the conference.