Colleges and universities across China are welcoming the graduation season in June. However, due to the outbreak of coronavirus this year, “cloud graduation,” including “cloud thesis defense” and “cloud graduation photo,” has become a new trend among many colleges and universities. ‘Cloud thesis defense,’ a contingency strategy during the special period Recently, many universities including Tsinghua University, Jinan University and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics issued notice that they adjusted the graduation evaluation mode and adopted online thesis defense. One month ago, Yi Ci, a master graduate of School of Journalism and Communication, Jinan University, received the notice that his graduation thesis defense this year would be carried out online. “I think online thesis defense is a contingency strategy during the special period, which at the same time reflects the advances of modern science and technology.” To make sure of a smooth process of the thesis defense, Jinan University divided the students of different majors into different groups and set up a defense secretary for each group. Additionally, every student can share his or her PPT for their thesis defense, and can record and take screenshots of the whole process. ‘Cloud graduation photo’ with AI technology To avoid the risk of impact from the coronavirus due to crowd gathering and at the same time to make up for the regrets of no graduation photos, Jiangxi Agricultural University launched its “AI cloud graduation photo” concept, which allows students across the country to take photos with the school. The “cloud graduation photo” platform consists of two modes, namely the individual mode and the class picture mode. Graduates not only can take photos with different landmark buildings of the university, but also can select different types of baccalaureate gowns based on their major for their photos. In addition, students from different universities including Central South University, Guangxi University for Nationalities, Nanyang Normal University and City College of Science and Technology, and Chongqing University used freehand sketching and photoshop to design a set of “cloud graduation photos.” ‘Cloud exhibition’ of graduation works brings convenience for audience Graduation season in previous years usually highlighted exhibitions of graduation works. This year, due to the pandemic, universities such as Tsinghua University and Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute launched online exhibitions of graduation works. The 2020 graduation works exhibition for the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University was designed and developed by the academy and supported by the joint lab on natural human-computer interaction research of Tsinghua University and Alibaba Group and Alibaba Cloud. All the graduation works of the students of the academy were presented on this platform. “Though we have to exhibit students’ works in this special manner online during this special period, we can see the solid professional foundation and innovation of our students,” said Zhang Lei, head of the department of industrial design of the academy. (Chen Xiaochun) | 