To establish deep cooperation and win-win outcomes between higher education institutions and enterprises in the fields of production, learning, and research, and to collaboratively promote the innovative development of big data and artificial intelligence technologies in the industry, serving the industry and society, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics has reached a long-term strategic cooperation agreement in the field of "NLP and Knowledge Graph" with Ipsos China (hereinafter referred to as Ipsos), TigerGraph (hereinafter referred to as TigerGraph), and DIA (hereinafter referred to as DIA). On April 4, 2023, the four parties held a long-term strategic cooperation signing ceremony at the National University Science Park of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
Professor Feng Xindong, Dean of the School of Statistics and Management at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Associate Professor Liu Xin, Mr. Zhao Wenpeng, Managing Director of Ipsos China, Mr. Li Xiaozhou, Chief Growth Officer of Ipsos China, Mr. Li Ming, Chief Engineer of Ipsos China and DIA Technology, Ms. Zhao Lina, Manager of TigerGraph China, and Ms. Wu Qinqin, Director of DIA Solutions, attended the signing ceremony. The parties jointly established the framework for long-term strategic cooperation agreements, including organizational structure, division of responsibilities, working mechanisms, and research directions, exchanging opinions fully, and planning to jointly establish the “NLP and Knowledge Graph Joint Laboratory” based on this agreement. The parties agreed to conduct research on core technologies and applications related to natural language processing, knowledge graphs, graph data modeling, and storage through strategic cooperation, and to productize and industrialize these core technologies according to market and industry development needs. Under this agreement, the division of labor among the parties is clear, fully integrating the advantageous resources and specialties in their respective fields, and carrying out industry-academia research on common key technologies related to multimodal data such as text and knowledge graphs, as well as planning to regularly hold industrial and technical seminars, technical lectures, talent training, and major project cooperation exchange activities to achieve deep integration of industry, academia, and research.
Dean Feng Xingdong stated that this cooperation will not only effectively promote the practical application of statistical tools such as machine learning and knowledge graphs in industry-university-research collaboration, but also facilitate talent development and student practice. General Manager Zhao Wenpeng expressed that this cooperation will rely on universities, make full use of corporate resources and the market, and actively attract students from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics to achieve a win-win situation for long-term collaboration between both parties. At the meeting, Mr. Gary West, General Manager of the Euro-Asia region and Global Vice President of TigerGraph, specifically sent a congratulatory video from London on behalf of TigerGraph globally.
Ipsos was founded in 1975 in Paris, France, and is the only independent global publicly listed company managed by professional research consultants in the market research consulting industry. After more than forty years of development, Ipsos has grown into a leading global market research group and was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange in July 1999, becoming a pioneer in the digital transformation of the market research industry. Ipsos entered China in 2000 and has become the largest market research company in China, focusing on strategic consulting, business consulting, qualitative research, market strategy and consumer understanding, social media information analysis, innovation research, brand health tracking, customer experience management, corporate and opinion leader reputation, user experience, creative assessment, quality management, mystery shopping, data collection, new car diagnosis, healthcare, and many other fields. Its service scope covers numerous industries, including fast-moving consumer goods, maternal and infant products, finance, automotive, telecommunications, healthcare, real estate, entertainment, internet and new technology, education, and tourism.
TG was established in 2015 and is the only enterprise-level scalable graph database provider, dedicated to the research, design, and production of graph database-related technologies, while also providing relevant technical consulting and services, which can ensure enterprises achieve larger-scale and more in-depth operational analysis. TG holds nearly 30 international patents and has currently obtained $105 million in Series C financing.
DIA was established in 2016 and is committed to building a "customer-centric" one-stop experience operation solution for enterprises, linking customers' "experience data" with enterprises' "operational data" to guide business operations in real-time, enhance transaction conversion rates, and help enterprises achieve longer-lasting brand assets while increasing revenue. The company has over 300 employees, with 40% in the R&D team, and its core team consists of big data scientists in market research and business fields, enterprise-level software product development experts, and experienced delivery teams. It has currently secured nearly 100 million RMB in Series B financing.
In the presence of all participants, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Ipsos China, TigerGraph, and DIA signed a multi-party long-term cooperation agreement in the afternoon. The achievement of this long-term strategic cooperation is the result of the joint efforts of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Ipsos, TG, and DIA. SUFE will fully utilize its disciplinary advantages, while the various parties, including Ipsos, will further integrate company resources and market advantages, making significant progress in the practical application in the market, with the expectation of breakthroughs and contributions in major frontier technology fields at the national and provincial levels.
