History of ICID 2026 (EN)

From 23 to 25 October 2026, the 30th Annual Academic Conference of the Industrial Design Branch of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society and the 2026 7th International Conference on Intelligent Design (ICID 2026) were held in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, China. Coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society and the 40th anniversary of its Industrial Design Branch, the event was themed “Innovative Design Leading New Quality Productive Forces” and brought together nearly 400 experts, scholars and delegates from more than 110 universities, 17 research institutes and industry enterprises across the country. As a key component of the annual conference, ICID 2026, themed “A New Paradigm for Design in the Intelligent Era”, completed its full program from the afternoon of 24 October to the morning of 25 October and drew to a successful close.

ICID 2026 was guided by the Innovation Design Industry Strategic Alliance of China and supported by the Xi’an Municipal Bureau of Science and Technology and the Industrial Design Branch of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society. It was jointly hosted by the Innovation Design Alliance of Silk Road Economic Zone, the Management Committee of Xi’an Beilin University-based Innovation Industrial District, the Xi’an Beilin District Science, Technology and Industry Informationization Bureau, and the Xi’an Design Union, and co-organized by the Xi’an Design Union and the AEIC Academic Exchange Information Center.

The conference was held on the afternoon of 24 October at the Shaanxi Hotel and was co-chaired by Prof. Chunlei Chai of Zhejiang University and Ms. Fanrui Fu, Director of the Office of the Xi’an Design Union. More than 90 delegates from Chinese universities, manufacturing enterprises and design research institutes attended. Focusing on theoretical innovation, technology transfer and the reshaping of the industrial ecosystem in design disciplines amid the rapid iteration of artificial intelligence, the conference was dedicated to building a high-level academic exchange bridge connecting universities, interdisciplinary fields and industry–academia–research collaboration.

Nine keynote speeches were delivered in total: seven leading experts in design and interdisciplinary fields presented on site in Xi’an, while two internationally renowned scholars joined online by video. Drawing on academic strength from universities and research institutes at home and abroad, the programme followed the frontiers of intelligent design throughout, covering AI-empowered design innovation, the intelligent construction of Chinese aesthetics, the exploration of design boundaries in the context of digital–physical integration, human–machine fusion and human-centred intelligent therapy, LLM-driven intelligent design and human factors research, AGI agents and human–machine symbiosis, the user mechanism behind the localised appearance of humanoid robots, and emerging directions such as soft and bio-inspired robotics and the intelligent Internet of Things.

Owing to international travel and on-site arrangements, two internationally renowned scholars were unable to travel to Xi’an and delivered their speeches by video. The conference expresses its sincere gratitude to them for their support across time zones: their participation allowed ICID 2026 to retain its international perspective and academic diversity beyond the on-site programme.

On the morning of 25 October, the Young Scholars’ Intelligent Design Forum — the oral presentation session of ICID 2026 — was held alongside the “Design Trends: Industry–University Joint Release” and the “Industry–Academia Roundtable Dialogue”. Centred on the theme of intelligent ecosystems, the forum was moderated by Yao Wang and Mingxin Yang of Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Thirteen young scholars from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology (Zhuhai), Xi’an Technological University, Guizhou University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shandong Jianzhu University, Lanzhou University of Technology, Northwest A&F University and other institutions presented their latest research ideas and interim results, spanning intelligent algorithm iteration, visualization and simulation technology, multimodal perception analysis, parametric implementation, and knowledge-driven creative generation. Topics ranged from the design of campus shared-bicycle dispatching and transport equipment, the “familiarity paradox” of campus wayfinding signage, and a web-based 3D real-time visualization method for impact-resistant design of multi-storey buildings, to multimodal quantitative assessment of chronic trapezius injuries, electromagnetically assisted lubrication design for marine shafting thrust bearings, crane girder stress prediction based on hierarchical Kriging, multimodal-stimulus knowledge-driven intelligent design, and the parametric realization of integrated design and production for metal panel custom furniture.

Each presenter was allocated 15 minutes including presentation and discussion, and authors participating in oral or poster presentations received presentation certificates.

Six Young Scholars’ Forums were held in parallel during the annual conference, covering intelligent design, design methods and product innovation, health-and-well-being ergonomics and human–computer interaction, intelligent cockpits and engineering machinery, aviation and engineering equipment innovation, and cultural heritage and furniture innovation design. Balancing theoretical exploration with applied contexts, the forums provided a high-level platform for academic sharing, intellectual exchange and interdisciplinary innovation among early-career researchers.

At the closing session, Prof. Changde Lu, Conference Chair, Professor of Northwestern Polytechnical University and Director of the Institute of Industrial Design, presented moderator certificates to Prof. Chunlei Chai of Zhejiang University and Ms. Fanrui Fu, Director of the Office of the Xi’an Design Union, and presented certificates to all keynote speakers.

In his closing remarks, Prof. Lu noted that the development of human civilisation has always involved a contest between truth, goodness and beauty on one side and falsehood, ugliness and evil on the other, with the dominant methodology determining its direction. Artificial intelligence has now become the new arena of this contest: technology itself carries no moral attribute, and it is the control over it and the parties it serves that define its value. Only by developing intelligent technologies with a community with a shared future for mankind in mind can they truly benefit all of humanity. He observed that space exploration, lunar development and artificial intelligence are now widely recognised as the three core tracks globally, and that seizing the initiative in artificial intelligence means seizing the opportunities of the era. The fundamental mission of design in all its forms is to serve industrial modernisation and empower advanced manufacturing — a “new long march” for designers, in which intelligent innovation is the crucial tool for overcoming difficulties. Technology is the key support in competition, but long-term development ultimately rests on people, and the ultimate test of design is the recognition of the people and a precise fit with the real needs of industry.

The 30th Annual Academic Conference of the Industrial Design Branch of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society was hosted by the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society and Northwestern Polytechnical University, and organized by the Industrial Design Branch of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society, the School of Mechanical Engineering of Northwestern Polytechnical University and other units. On the morning of 24 October, the opening ceremony was held at the Shaanxi Hotel and chaired by Prof. Shouqian Sun, Vice Chair of the Industrial Design Branch of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society. Mr. Chenglin Yang, Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Shaanxi Province; Prof. Kaifu Zhang, Vice President of Northwestern Polytechnical University; and Prof. Ming Mao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Vice President of the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society, attended and delivered speeches.

The opening ceremony featured a roundtable forum commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Industrial Design Branch under the theme “Passing the Torch, Designing the Future”. Prof. Changde Lu of Northwestern Polytechnical University, Prof. Hanqing Chen of Wuhan University of Technology, Prof. Shouqian Sun of Zhejiang University, Prof. Jian Zhang of Shenyang University of Technology and Prof. Chunlei Chai of Zhejiang University took part in the discussion, which was moderated by Prof. Guoqiang Chen, Vice President of Yanshan University. The experts reviewed four decades of the Branch’s development and discussed discipline building, design education and future directions.

In the keynote session of the annual conference, Academician Ming Mao, Prof. Peihua Gu, Director Bin Tian, Prof. Tie Ji and Chief Engineer Jun Feng delivered reports on, respectively, a new paradigm for equipment manufacturing in a digital-industry society, adaptive engineering design theories and methods in the AI era, industrial design empowering new industrialisation, future terminals and service design through human–AI co-creation, and human factors ergonomics design for intelligent cockpits of aviation equipment. The conference also featured eight parallel sub-forums with 56 experts, scholars and industry representatives; three thematic workshops on innovation design and human factors engineering, artificial intelligence and brain–computer design, and brand thinking and cross-cultural design; and six Young Scholars’ Forums. A release of intelligent design trends was held concurrently. The conference closed on 25 October after completing all agenda items, with the closing ceremony chaired by Prof. Dengkai Chen, Director of the Key Laboratory of Industrial Design and Ergonomics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University.

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As one of the supporters of ICID 2026, the AEIC Academic Exchange Information Center and AiScholar provided full-process digital conference services and online submission system support for the event, ensuring smooth coordination of paper solicitation, peer review, registration and on-site logistics.

Programme, publication and indexing updates for ICID 2026 are available on the official conference website,www.ic-id.org.