Wang Chengwei: Breathing the air of information Computer scientist

Originally published in 2008

"Make science a part of ordinary life."

-Wang Chengwei

Editor's Note: Wang Chengwei is a computer scientist born in Shanghai in 1933. He graduated from the Physics Department of Beijing Normal University. In 1994 he was elected a member of Chinese Academy of Engineering. He is the deputy director of consultancy for the National High-Tech Program, and consultant to the National Basic Research Program of China and the High-tech Research and Development Program.

Wang's description of the structure of an information society is as follows: The integrate circuit is the cells, the computer is the brain, the network is the neurons, artificial intelligence is nutrition, information security is the immune system and information resources construction is the blood.

Wang is an enthusiastic collector of art. His world is a museum of artistic works from both China and abroad, ancient and modern, including his own paintings. Besides painting, he enjoys Peking opera, music and volleyball.

Wang was a first-generation computer science researcher in the 1950s, when he was still in the army.

Wang Chengwei gets up at 4 am every day, and works until 7 am, before plunging into the day's program. Many of his most important thoughts are formulated in this pre-dawn "golden time," he said.

He said the biggest problem he faces now is how to determine the strategy to develop intelligent computer systems in China. He stressed that China should not follow the Japanese road but develop its own high-performance intelligent computers, such as the highly successful "Dawning" series.