School of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data was established in August, 2019 by merging ·the former Department of Computer Science and Technology, Department of Mathematics and Physics, and 2 programs of Department of Management: Information Management and Information System. Now it consists of 3 departments: Department of Intelligent Science and Engineering, Big Data and Information Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics, 1 public teaching unit for College Mathematics, and 1 Experimental and Practical Training Center.

The School offers 9 undergraduate programs, including Computer Science and Technology, Software Engineering, Intelligent Science and Technology, Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (for Normal students), Applied Statistics, etc. Computer Science and Technology has been listed as one of Chinese National-level Programs with Distinctive Features and National-level First-class Undergraduate Programs. Software Engineering is chosen into the first batch of National Excellence Programs as well as National-level First-class Undergraduate Program. Mathematics and Applied Mathematics is a National-level First-class Undergraduate Program and is chosen into Anhui Excellent Teacher Training Projects. Network Engineering is a Provincial-level First-class Undergraduate Program. The school has 1 first-level discipline Master program of Mathematics and 1 professional Master’s degree program of Electronic Information. Currently, the School is home to over 2,000 students, including nearly 250 graduate students.

The School boasts 134 teachers, including 27 professors (1 full-time German professor), 57 of whom have got PhD (6 from Germany, Ireland, and South Korea respectively). Various honors have been awarded to the faculty members: 2 have been entitled “Provincial Outstanding Teacher”, 5 “Anhui Provincial Outstanding Young Teacher”, 1 “Excellent Young Teacher”, 6 “Provincial Teaching Teams” have been recognized, 2 have been enjoying special subsidies awarded by Anhui Provincial Government as well as Hefei Government, and 1 awarded Hefei Friendship Award (for foreign experts). In recent years, the School has undertaken scientific research projects at various levels, including 12 funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 6 national teaching and research projects, and more than 200 provincial teaching and research projects. The faculty members have published more than 300 academic papers in core journals with over 100 included in SCI and EI, and nearly 20 textbooks and academic works. All these fruits have led to 1 First Prize, 4 Second and Third prizes for Science and Technology Award of Anhui Province, 2 First Prizes for National Teaching Achievement Award, 2 Grand Prizes and 20 Second Prizes for Anhui Teaching Achievement Award, 1 course approved as national-level first-class undergraduate course and 11 as provincial excellent courses and online open courses.

In the light of HFU’s guideline of “Locality, Application and Internationalization” and the principle of industry-education-research-training integration, the School has carried out in-depth cooperation with local key scientific research institutes (such as Hefei Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, No. 38 Research Institute of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation), leading enterprises (such as iFLYTEK, USTC Sinovate Software Corporation) and well-known German universities and research institutes (such as University of Stuttgart and Fraunhofer Institute)  in the hope of collaborative scientific and technological innovation, joint talent cultivation and promotion of achievements transformation, which now bears fruit of the establishment of 6 high-level research platforms. The engineering training bases jointly built by the School and enterprises offer strong support for practical teaching activities and engineering ability cultivation, which effectively promote the comprehensive improvement of students’ practical ability and overall quality. In 2019, “Hefei University-iFLYTEK School-Enterprise Cooperation Practical Education Base” was rated as a typical case of the national “Double Hundred Plans for School-Enterprise Cooperation”, the only one selected in Anhui Province.

In the past 5 years, the School has won over 20 international awards, over 160 national awards, and over 600 provincial awards, among which are the Third Prize in RoboCup2D Simulation Robot Football World Cup, the Silver Award in ACM-ICPC (Asia), the Silver Award in the final of the CCPC Chinese College Student Programming Competition, the Second Prize in China Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling, and the Gold Award in “Challenge Cup” National College Student Extracurricular Academic Works Competition World Expo Special Competition.