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The national final of the 3^rd "Pinduoduo Cup" Science and Technology Courtyard Competition, as part of the China Postgraduate Competition for Rural Revitalization through Technology-empowered Agriculture and Innovation, recently took place in Sanya, Hainan Province. The Smart Bee E-Team, consisting of postgraduate students Leng Ying, Zhong Ziyi and Wu Shangyuan from the College of Intelligent Science and Engineering of BUA, won the National Second Prize for the innovative project "E-Hive Bees: Gathering 'Golden Honey' from Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains". Their supervisor, Professor Xu Jian, was awarded the title of "Excellent Instructor".

The judging panel spoke highly of the project for its creative idea and practical application value in the fields of green agriculture and technology-empowered farming, and affirmed the team's achievements in empowering ecological conservation and beekeeping management through intelligent and innovative means. This fully demonstrated the team's strong technical expertise and exceptional R&D capabilities in smart agriculture.

Leveraging cutting-edge hive management technology and big data analytics, the team has significantly boosted honey yield while effectively reducing the ecological footprint of beekeeping operations. The project vividly exemplifies the broad prospects and immense potential of digital agriculture in empowering rural revitalization, injecting robust technological momentum into the high-quality development of the ecological beekeeping industry, and fully showcasing the solid professional competence and remarkable practical innovation capabilities of BUA's students in smart agriculture.

Back in 2020, a BUA team, consisting of both teachers and students, established a science and technology courtyard in Puwa Township, Fangshan District, Beijing, to provide information and technology support for seven villages weak in collective economy. After years of dedicated efforts, they successfully bred a new bee species adapted to the North China region. The intelligent beehive system developed by the BUA team features built-in sensors that monitor temperature and humidity and provide swarm warnings. Thanks to the system, the number of beehives managed by per beekeeper increased from 50 to 150. Moreover, the honey produced has passed organic certifications in Europe and the US, with the unit price hitting RMB 90 per 500 g. The success story was covered by multiple media outlets.

It is learned that the competition, guided by the Department of Degree Management & Postgraduate Education of the Ministry of Education, focuses on the theme of "addressing livelihood issues through academic research". It comprises five parts, respectively about youth support for rural vitalization, and empowering agriculture through technology, etc., and adopts a four-stage progressive competition system consisting of document-based preliminary review, group competitions, national finals, and the grand final. A total of 247 teams from 87 postgraduate training institutions across 29 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) nationwide joined the competition. Academicians and experts from relevant industries were invited to form an investigation team, paying on-site visits to the science and technology courtyards to assess their operations, project effectiveness, teamwork capabilities, as well as feedback from local farmers and governments.