The "metaverse" has arrived with a roar and become a new high ground for global innovation competition, as well as a brand-new track for reflecting international technological innovation and integration capabilities. To deepen and continuously promote research on this cutting-edge and strategic issue, continuously clarify the educational value orientation, practical application orientation, and quality improvement direction in the metaverse, and always adhere to the educational standpoint, maintaining a clear awareness of "technology supremacy" and "education-oriented", the "International Forum on Metaverse and Smart Education" hosted by the Metaverse Professional Committee of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology and China Mobile Communications Association, and organized by the School of Artificial Intelligence (School of Future Technology) of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology and the Metaverse Professional Committee of Hangzhou Digital Economy Association, will be held both online and offline. The forum will be chaired by Professor Pan Zhigeng, Dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence (School of Future Technology) of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology.

At the opening ceremony, Dai Yuewei, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Vice President of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, delivered a speech. He introduced that Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology is a national "Double First-Class" construction university and a second-tier construction university under the Jiangsu Province's high-level university construction peak plan. Over the past 60-plus years since its establishment, the university has adhered to the discipline development concept of characteristic development, collaborative development, and integrated development, with atmospheric science as the main body and environmental ecology and information engineering as the two wings, building a three-dimensional coordinated development discipline ecosystem with an integrated core and two wings. He pointed out that the "International Forum on Metaverse and Smart Education" hosted by Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology aims to carry out in-depth exchanges and discussions on new applications, new theories, new services, and new technologies, study key challenges faced by the development of virtual reality and metaverse technology, and conduct in-depth discussions on topics such as virtual reality and virtual data image analysis and processing, computer vision image processing, virtual and augmented reality, metaverse technology and application electronics, and interactive systems. He believed that the holding of this conference would expand the research ideas of our university's scientific research team and strengthen in-depth exchanges and cooperation between internal and external scientific research teams in the fields of metaverse and virtual reality.

This forum invited more than ten well-known experts and scholars from both domestic and international industries to engage in in-depth discussions around the topics. Academician Tan Jianrong, a CAE Member and the chief scientist of the National 973 Project, pointed out that the metaverse is a virtualization and digitization process of the real world, utilizing technological means for linking and creation, and mapping to the real world. It requires significant transformation in content production, economic systems, user experience, and physical world content. Academician Tan divided the industrial development of the metaverse into five aspects: (1) the source and expansion of metaverse resources; (2) the introduction of metaverse talents; (3) the construction and maintenance of metaverse hardware; (4) the research on metaverse software and algorithms; (5) the creation of metaverse cloud service platforms. Professor Pan Zhigeng, the chief scientist of the National Key R&D Program and the deputy director of the National Virtual Simulation Experimental Center, believed that the metaverse is the largest interdisciplinary subject, involving computer science, artificial intelligence, cyberspace security, automation and robotics, law, public administration, economics, industrial design, and geography. Professor Pan proposed to divide the cognition of the metaverse into nine realms to enhance the audience's full understanding of the metaverse, and displayed the excellent scientific research achievements of his research team related to virtual reality and the metaverse, including the network virtual marathon system, the dynamic picture display system of "Qingming Shanghe Tu", and virtual simulation experiments covering courses such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology. Professor Shen Yang, a professor at the School of Journalism at Tsinghua University and a doctoral supervisor, believed that compared to the metaverse, the mobile internet is quite "old", with a solidified pattern and prevalent monopolies, making it almost impossible for startups to make breakthroughs. If we do not develop the next generation of internet technology, humanity will be locked in two-dimensional information, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the arrival of things that should have been produced in the future. In February 2022, we spent about 8 hours online every day, and the online time in the virtual world of humanity increased significantly, which laid the background for the birth of the metaverse. Professor Marc Baaden proposed to guide researchers to effectively analyze the physical properties of molecular objects through the use of interactive molecular simulation methods, in order to establish, operate, and explore their molecular composition. He also introduced several membrane-bound systems such as ion channels and viral components through integrated modeling and drug design research. Professor Marc Baaden believed that with the simplification of metaverse systems and the maturity of technology, molecular design based on digital twins is expected to be more widely applied. Professor Nadia, the director of the Institute of Media Innovation (IMI) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the founder of the interdisciplinary research group MIRALab at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, introduced the first humanoid social robot "Nadine" that has emotions and can remember others' behaviors. This work led the social robot revolution and was regularly exhibited in museums, galleries, and fashion shows. Professor Chen Enhong, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the University of Science and Technology of China, and a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, introduced the exploration and prospects of artificial intelligence technology in the metaverse teaching system. Professor Chen believes that future education will shift from being oriented towards the real world to the virtual world (i.e., the educational metaverse). Professor Song Aiguo, a recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, the China Youth Science and Technology Award, and a national candidate for the New Century Hundred, Thousand, and Ten Thousand Talent Project, introduced the force-touch interaction technology for the metaverse from several aspects, including the role of force-touch interaction technology in the metaverse, important content of force interaction in the metaverse, visual modeling technology, visual online technology, and devices. Professor Song pointed out that the metaverse is still in its infancy, and multi-modal force-touch interaction is an important support for the continuous improvement and maturity of the metaverse. Professor Guo Yanwen from the State Key Laboratory of New Technology of Computer Software at Nanjing University pointed out that the metaverse is an important aspect of digitalization during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. Its development involves technological innovation and industrial development, which are key to taking the lead and gaining advantages in future competition. The metaverse is also an important way to achieve a perfect life.

This conference conducted a lively discussion on major theoretical and practical issues in the development of metaverse and smart education in China and the world in the information age. Through exchanges and cooperation, participants aimed to achieve win-win results, leverage new concepts, and expand new spaces, accumulating strength for the prosperous development of the metaverse and smart education industry. It was a grand event that focused on showcasing the research progress of the metaverse in new applications, new theories, new services, and new technologies. It will surely promote the further optimization and output of scientific research achievements in virtualization, digitization, and metaverse smart education at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology.