The College of Intelligent Science and Engineering (formerly the College of Computer and Information Engineering), grew out of the Computer Teaching and Research Office under the Department of Basic Sciences, was established in 1997. So far, the college has three undergraduate specialties in Internet of Things Engineering, Data Science and Big Data Technology, and Facility Agriculture Science and Engineering, as well as one professional Master's degree program in Agricultural Engineering and Information Technology. The college currently has 567 undergraduate students and 88 postgraduate students. The college boasts a total of 28 full-time teachers, each with a Master’s degree or above, including four professors and 14 associate professors. The Master’s degree program employs 14 internal Master’s supervisors and 20 external Master’s supervisors. The college faculty include one standing director of the Beijing Association for Artificial Intelligence, one director of the Beijing Society for Information Technology in Agriculture, one director of the Beijing Institute of Internet of Things, one expert of the Beijing Innovation Team of the Food and Cash Crop Industry Technology System, and two finalists of the “Beijing Universities Young Talents Program”. The College of Intelligent Science and Engineering has developed a vibrant teaching, scientific research, and social service team with rich teaching experience.

The college's overall talent cultivation goal is to train high-quality composite/applied professional talents with the ability to obtain employment, a solid foundation for further education, a strong momentum of development, and an innovative spirit, who have achieved the all-round development of morality, intelligence, and physique, developed good comprehensive qualities and a general knowledge structure and systematically mastered basic theories and technologies in computer, electronic information, and network communication; who have possessed the engineering practical abilities to analyze and solve problems in the field of information technology, as well as the abilities to provide information services for local socio-economic development and “agriculture, rural areas, and farmers”; and who, based in the capital, can serve the socio-economic development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

On the basis of the overall talent cultivation goal of the college, each specialty has formulated talent cultivation objectives that reflect their distinct features. These objectives not only provide strong support for the overall talent cultivation goal, but also reflect the crossing and integration between specialties. They are also aligned with the college’s school-running philosophy of “aiming mainstream with distinguishing features” education, embodying the emphasis of agricultural and forestry universities on information science and technical teaching. The talent cultivation objectives of each specialty are as follows:

Specialty of Internet of Things Engineering: Starting to recruit students in 2018, the specialty trains undergraduate students based on school-enterprise cooperation and industry-education integration, focusing on developing agriculture and serving the capital, and highlights the cultivation of practical and applied innovation abilities. The specialty is committed to cultivating high-quality engineering application-oriented technical talents serving the needs of social development, who have achieved the all-round development of morality, intelligence, physique, and aesthetics, acquired the basic knowledge of natural sciences, and systematically mastered the basic theories and knowledge of the Internet of Things; who are familiar with metropolitan modern agriculture and have possessed the abilities to label, identify, acquire, transmit, process, and control information based on computer technology, automatic control technology, sensing information processing technology, and Internet technology; who are capable of integrating IoT systems and developing, applying, and promoting related technologies and products; and who have practical abilities in Internet of Things Engineering.

Specialty of Data Science and Big Data Technology: The specialty started to recruit students in 2021. To adapt to the positioning of Beijing’s urban functions and meet the needs of its socio-economic development, the specialty adheres to BUA’s overall goal of cultivating high-quality composite/applied professional talents and takes big data analysis technology as the main line to achieve the collection, processing, analysis, visualization, and decision-making assistance of big data, with the purpose of training composite/applied professional talents in the fields of big data science and engineering. The specialty has built several professional laboratories (such as the big data technology laboratory) and a school-enterprise teaching practice base for collaborative education, strengthened professional training functions, deepened the talent cultivation system, and constructed a school-enterprise cooperation model. Besides 12 full-time faculty members, the specialty also has 5 part-time faculty members engaged in school-enterprise collaborative education. Notably, 82% of its faculty have senior professional titles. The graduates of the specialty are expected to possess independent learning ability, innovative and entrepreneurial spirits, and good professional ethics; master the data science basics, computer theory, and big data processing technology; and be able to analyze and solve complex engineering problems in the field of big data applications with big data thinking.

Specialty of Facility Agriculture Science and Engineering: The specialty started to recruit students in 2022, aiming to meet the development needs of metropolitan modern agriculture in the capital. Adhering to BUA’s overall goal of cultivating high-quality composite/applied agricultural and forestry talents, the specialty is committed to cultivating applied talents in the field of facility agriculture science and engineering who have mastered the planning, design, and construction of modern agricultural facilities, the intelligent decision-making and regulation of agricultural facility environments, and the application of small agricultural intelligent equipment. The specialty is based on facility agriculture application technology and computer application technology, and oriented towards the latest development of industry and technology. Taking the intelligent regulation technology of agricultural facility environments as the main line, the specialty focuses on cultivating students’ practical and application innovation abilities under the industry-education integration mode by building on-campus professional laboratories and a school-enterprise teaching practice base for collaborative education. The graduates of the specialty are expected to possess independent learning ability, innovative and entrepreneurial spirits, and good professional ethics, and be able to solve complex engineering problems in the field of metropolitan modern agriculture and related fields using agricultural facility engineering technology and intelligent control technology.

The college has always attached great importance to the quality of education and teaching, focusing on improving students’ practical abilities and innovative awareness. The college has spared no effort to build on/off-campus practice bases. Currently, the college has two on-campus practice and training bases (i.e., the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Center, and the Intelligent Greenhouse) and 30 off-campus practice and training bases. The college has a complete set of teaching and experimental equipment. In addition to basic laboratories that meet the needs of public courses, it also has hardware facilities such as embedded laboratories, network laboratories, GIS laboratories, multimedia technology laboratories, and comprehensive training platforms for agricultural informatization, which can comprehensively meet teaching and research needs.

By following the spirit of the document titled Implementation Plan for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education Reform of Beijing University of Agriculture and based on the goal of cultivating excellent talents in metropolitan modern agriculture and forestry, the college has signed cooperation agreements with Ambow Education, COMBANC-UICC (Beijing) Technology, and Beijing Xuanyu Technology Co., Ltd. to jointly build a science and technology innovation and entrepreneurship training base, i.e., the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Center according to the principles of “complementary advantages, resource sharing, effective cooperation, and common development” to enhance students’ innovative spirit, entrepreneurial awareness, and innovative and entrepreneurial abilities and improve the cultivation quality of new IT industry talents. Relying on our training platforms, our students won a first prize in the Beijing Division and a third prize in the national finals of the National Software Design and Development Contest for Software Talents in 2013 and 2014. In 2017, our participants in the “Blue Bridge Cup” National Software and Information Technology Professional Talent Competition won a first prize in the Beijing Division and a second prize in the national finals.