Innovations′Leading Urban Rail Transit Development and Personnel Training——Enlightenment of China′s First Urban Rail Transit Science and Technology Innovation and Business Startups Competition

Under the background of boosting mass entrepreneurship and innovation initiative in the whole country，“The First Chinese Urban Rail Transit Science and Technology Innovation and Business Startups Competition”with“Innovating Rail Transit and Opening the City′s Dream” as its theme has come to an end.This competition was co-hosted by Beijing Urban Construction and Design Development Group Co.，Ltd.with Beijing Jiaotong University,Tsinghua University,Tongji University，and Southwest Jiaotong University.After the selection of three months′preliminary and semi-final rounds in four competition areas in the country，the finals were held in Beijing at the end of 2017.In accordance with three categories of the basic theory′s creating new meanings，scientific research′s pilot-scale experiment and spreading the application,the big competition went on through the ways of on-site explanation,visual demonstration,pleas and etc.Simultaneously，a jury was formed by the industry experts，assessing the entries grade by grade until the final evaluation.As China′s first innovation and business startups competition in the urban rail transit field,the following features are impressing：

Firstly，the projects′coverage domain is“wide”.The participant projects not only cover the various stages of urban rail transit′s planning，designs，constructions and operations and involve the various specialties of civil engineering，vehicles,operation control，mechanic and electric，operation and etc,but also the participating teams are the entrepreneurship and innovation teams that come from universities,research agencies,owners′units，and product manufacturers.

Secondly,the project outcomes are “new”.The participating projects show a series of new ideas，new methods and new technologies.Many projects involve the application of the new technologies of big data，cloud computing，Internet，artificial intelligence，and etc.to the rail transit field.

Thirdly，the selected topics of projects are “accurate”.Many projects focus on how to ensure the safety of rail transit operations and improve the efficiency.The data cited are accurate and reliable.

Fourthly,the research on projects is “real”.The selected topics of projects closely combine with the engineering practice，and pay great attention to solving practical problems of urban rail transit constructions and operations.

By the end of 2017，there had been 139 fast rail traffic operation lines in 31 cities in the mainland of China.Their total length had reached 4 400 km.More and more cities have entered the new stage of rail traffic networking operations,and the backbone role of rail transit in urban public transport systems is becoming more and more obvious day by day.The urban rail transit not only has greatly improved the people′s travel environment,but also has fundamentally improved the city-life quality,promoting the economic increase and the business prosperity.Moreover,it has become another beautiful business card representing China′s real power following the high-speed rail.At the same time，the constructions and operations of urban rail transit are facing an all-new challenge of high-efficiency operations and safe and smooth running.

The urban rail transit industry possesses the characteristics of high technical content，long life cycle,broad specialty coverage,long chains of upstream and downstream industries and etc.This determines that the scientific and technological innovations are important for the efficient operations，and safe and unblocked circulations of urban rail transit，and also determines the broad entrepreneurship prospects based on the scientific and technological innovations.Looking back on this competition，the following points should be focused on in the process of innovation and entrepreneurship of urban rail transit:

1）The selected topics of projects need to be more realistic.It is needed to effectively solve the difficult problems in the urban rail transit development by starting off from the practical problems and through on-the-spot investigation,problem orientation and doing more research of“filling the short board”.

2）The innovation strength degree needs to be further strengthened.Daring to imagine is the first step of innovation.In the project solutions,it is needed to give full play to the imagination and not to be bound by traditional methods.

3）The application of new technologies needs more attention.New technologies with artificial intelligence,large data and cloud computing as their representatives can be all used in urban rail transit.Keep a close eye on the application of these new technologies in the areas where traditional technologies are difficult to resolve or are not well addressed.

4）Completing the transformation of project outcomes needs to be coordinated by many parties.As for the innovative ideas and programs that have emerged in the competition，the projects that have entered the scientific research pilot-scale and the outcomes whose part has been applied，henceforth we need to set up the application and transformation mechanism of innovation outcomes and to create conditions to promote the practical application of the outcomes,so as to attract the whole society to pay attention to and participate in the innovation and business startups in the urban rail transit field.

We have learned from the organizing committee of this competition that the urban rail transit science and technology innovation and business startups competition will continue to be held in the future.Here,we wish the urban rail transit science and technology innovation and business startups competition to be held better and better，also look forward to more innovative outcomes′emerging and hear more good news of business startups′success!