Selecting 93 engineering research areas and 91 engineering development specialties in nine fields
London, U.K. and Beijing, China, December 18, 2020 – Clarivate Plc (NYSE: CCC), a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) and the Higher Education Press of China today released their joint report, “Engineering Fronts 2020” to identify the hottest areas in engineering research and development. This is the fourth annual collaborative report between the three organizations, launched at a joint forum held at CAE in Beijing today.
The 2020 report identifies 93 global engineering research fronts and 91 engineering development fronts spanning nine fields of research, aligned with the nine academic divisions under CAE. The nine fields include mechanical and vehicle engineering; information and electronic engineering; chemical, metallurgical, and materials engineering; energy and mining engineering; civil, hydraulic, and architectural engineering; environmental and light textile engineering; agriculture; medicine and health; and engineering management. The report has also highlighted 28 noteworthy key engineering research fronts and 28 noteworthy key engineering development fronts.
In the report a front is defined as a main direction which provides guidelines for the future development of engineering technology. The engineering research fronts are identified based on citation data from the Web of Science™ as well as nomination by experts in engineering research. The engineering development fronts are identified based on the global patent information found in the Derwent Innovation™ database, as well as nomination by experts or patent analysis by patent industry peers.
David Liu, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific for Clarivate said: “We are very honored to collaborate with the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the Higher Education Press of China to issue our fourth Engineering Fronts report. We will continue our strategic collaborations with global research organizations including CAE to advance global scientific research and accelerate the pace of innovation.”
Zhong Zhihua, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering said: “The Chinese Academy of Engineering will further strengthen our collaboration with organizations in China and overseas and attract a larger group of experts to join research on engineering fronts. We are committed to providing guidance for China’s innovation in engineering research and development as well as supporting the country’s economic and social development with high quality.”
28 noteworthy key engineering research fronts are:
| Key engineering research fronts | Field |
|---|---|
| Intelligent manufacturing driven by digital twin | Mechanical and vehicle engineering |
| Hybrid additive-subtractive manufacturing method | Mechanical and vehicle engineering |
| Air-breathing hypersonic vehicles | Mechanical and vehicle engineering |
| Brain-inspired intelligent chip | Information and electronic engineering |
| Multi-scale spatial-temporal super-resolution medical imaging instruments | Information and electronic engineering |
| Edge computing | Information and electronic engineering |
| Smart nanomedicine for cancer therapy | Chemical, metallurgical, and materials engineering |
| High-energy-density and fast-charging battery-capacitor hybrid energy storage systems | Chemical, metallurgical, and materials engineering |
| Metallurgy and materials processes in high magnetic fields and fabrication of functional materials | Chemical, metallurgical, and materials engineering |
| Renewable synthetic fuel | Energy and mining engineering |
| Advanced nuclear spent fuel reprocessing and nuclear fuel recycling | Energy and mining engineering |
| On-site conversion and efficient utilization of petroleum resources | Energy and mining engineering |
| Basic theory and method for intelligent drilling | Energy and mining engineering |
| Smart city and smart basin integrated sensing based on geospatiotemporal big data | Civil, hydraulic, and architectural engineering |
| Coupling response mechanisms of offshore engineering structures and seabed foundation systems under the action of wind, waves, currents, and earthquakes | Civil, hydraulic, and architectural engineering |
| Urban spatial analysis and optimization methods based on big data | Civil, hydraulic, and architectural engineering |
| Microinterface behavior of combined pollution process | Environmental and light textile engineering |
| New spatial pattern and controlling factors of marine biological nitrogen fixation | Environmental and light textile engineering |
| Precise dietary regulation technology based on intestinal flora intervention | Environmental and light textile engineering |
| Origin, evolution, and genetic variation of animal viruses | Agriculture |
| Precision animal and plant breeding by design | Agriculture |
| Soil biodiversity and ecosystem functions | Agriculture |
| Improving public health and epidemic prevention systems and emergency mechanisms | Medicine and health |
| Global research on COVID-19 and emerging highly pathogenic viruses | Medicine and health |
| Gut microbiota imbalances and diseases | Medicine and health |
| Medical material supply and allocation under magnitude outburst public health incident | Engineering management |
| Supply chain resilience | Engineering management |
| Research on social responsibility for major projects | Engineering management |
28 noteworthy key engineering development fronts are:
| Key engineering research fronts | Field |
|---|---|
| Driverless system based on 5G technology | Mechanical and vehicle engineering |
| Underwater unmanned vehicles and their warship-load technology | Mechanical and vehicle engineering |
| Flexible electronic manufacturing technology | Mechanical and vehicle engineering |
| Development of EUV light sources for IC chip nanolithography | Information and electronic engineering |
| Integrated wireless communications and sensing technology | Information and electronic engineering |
| Design and implementation of intelligent robot cluster cooperation systems | Information and electronic engineering |
| Degradation and recycling of waste plastics | Chemical, metallurgical, and materials engineering |
| All-climate electrochemical energy storage systems based on solid-state lithium battery and lithium capacitor technology | Chemical, metallurgical, and materials engineering |
| Manufacturing technology for new-generation shipbuilding steel | Chemical, metallurgical, and materials engineering |
| Key technologies for coupling electric vehicles and the smart grid | Energy and mining engineering |
| Key technologies for controlled nuclear fusion engineering testing reactor | Energy and mining engineering |
| Development of a three-dimensional imaging system for Earth observation | Energy and mining engineering |
| Intelligent monitoring and early-warning information collection system for coal mine disasters | Energy and mining engineering |
| Planning and design technologies for public health emergency responses | Civil, hydraulic, and architectural engineering |
| Intelligent construction technology and equipment for underground projects under extreme conditions | Civil, hydraulic, and architectural engineering |
| Deep-water detection of latent defects and treatment technologies for water conservancy projects | Civil, hydraulic, and architectural engineering |
| Airborne pathogen detector system and method | Environmental and light textile engineering |
| Natural disaster prevention, early warning, and restoration decision-making project | Environmental and light textile engineering |
| Carbon-fiber-based electronic devices | Environmental and light textile engineering |
| Intelligent equipment for unmanned farm | Agriculture |
| Artificial-intelligence-assisted breeding | Agriculture |
| Intelligent identification of plant diseases and pests, and precise targeted application of agrochemicals by plant protection UAVs | Agriculture |
| Development of vaccines and drugs for major infectious diseases | Medicine and health |
| Development of diagnostic reagents and equipment for major emerging and re-emerging emergency infectious diseases | Medicine and health |
| Human organoids-on-a-chip technology | Medicine and health |
| Supply chain management system and method based on blockchain technology | Engineering management |
| Remote diagnosis and treatment system and method based on high-speed mobile network | Engineering management |
| Comprehensive emergency technology for urban safety | Engineering management |
# # #
About Clarivate
Clarivate™ is a global leader in providing solutions to accelerate the lifecycle of innovation. Our bold mission is to help customers solve some of the world’s most complex problems by providing actionable information and insights that reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing inventions in the areas of science and intellectual property. We help customers discover, protect and commercialize their inventions using our trusted subscription and technology-based solutions coupled with deep domain expertise. For more information, please visit clarivate.com.
About the Chinese Academy of Engineering
The Chinese Academy of Engineering is a national and independent organization composed of elected members with the highest honor in the community of engineering and technological sciences of China. Its missions are to initiate and conduct strategic studies, provide consultancy services for decision-making of nation’s key issues in engineering and technological sciences and promote the development of the undertaking of engineering and technological sciences in China and devote itself to the benefit and welfare of the society.
For more information, please visit http://en.cae.cn/en/
Media Contact
Jack Wan, Director of External Communications, Asia Pacific
Zhihong.Wan@clarivate.com
