On the afternoon of January 16, 2026, the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education for Green and Intelligent Mining of Thick Coal Seams was held at China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing (CUMTB). Leaders and experts attending the meeting included Kang Hongpu, Wang Guofa and Wu Aixiang, Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; Liu Bo, President of CUMTB; Wang Jiachen, Professor of CUMTB; Zhang Jianming, Vice Chairman of the China Coal Society; Luo Wen, Deputy General Manager of CHN Energy Shendong Coal Group; and Chen Shaojie, Vice President of Shandong University of Science and Technology. The meeting was chaired by Gao Laiju, Party Secretary of the School of Energy and Mining Engineering.

In his address, Liu Bo first extended a warm welcome to the academicians, experts and colleagues present. He noted that 2026 is the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan and a critical stage for China's energy structure transition and scientific and technological innovation. As an important pillar of national energy security, coal has made green and intelligent transformation an inevitable choice for the high-quality development of the industry. Closely aligned with the major needs of national energy security and flexible supply guarantees, the Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education for Green and Intelligent Mining of Thick Coal Seams has committed itself to breaking through key theoretical and technological bottlenecks and to promoting interdisciplinary integration and team building, achieving remarkable results. He noted in particular that during a recent visit to the university, Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng pointed out that the university should build on its distinctive strengths in energy, focus on national strategic and industrial development needs, strengthen the optimization of its disciplinary layout and international cooperation, seize the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence, and open up new fields and new directions so as to contribute to scientific and technological self-reliance and self-strengthening. He said that the university will continue to mobilize resources in full support of the center's development, promote the commercialization of scientific and technological advances including green and intelligent mining, and inject the wisdom and strength of CUMTB into the high-quality development of China's coal industry.

Subsequently, Professor Yang Shengli, Dean of the School of Energy and Mining Engineering and Director of the center, gave a systematic report on the center's annual progress and achievements across its five main research directions: theories and key technologies for thick coal seam mining; strata movement and surrounding rock control; green and loss-reducing mining; intelligent mining equipment; and intelligent coal-gangue recognition and intelligent top coal drawing in fully mechanized top-coal caving mining. He also analyzed existing problems and ideas for improvement, outlined the work plan and expected goals for the next stage, and made clear that the center will continue to address the core challenges of intelligent and green thick coal seam mining, deepen industry-university-research collaboration, and advance technological iteration and application.

During the expert discussion session, Academicians Kang Hongpu, Wang Guofa, Wu Aixiang and other attending experts spoke highly of the center's phased achievements. They noted that the center has consistently advanced theoretical innovation, technological breakthroughs and engineering practice in thick coal seam mining and has produced a series of solid results. They fully affirmed its frontier exploration in areas such as mining of deeply buried, weakly cemented thick coal seams with thin bedrock, and thickness-limited mining of extremely thick coal seams, as well as its systematic progress in image-recognition-based intelligent top coal drawing, and put forward constructive suggestions on distilling research outcomes and developing talent.

The annual meeting systematically reviewed the center's work over the past year, clarified its development direction and built consensus. Attending experts agreed that the center has achieved its expected goals in green and intelligent thick coal seam mining and has developed distinctive features and notable strengths, and that in the future it should continue to focus on national strategic needs, strengthen scientific and technological research and the commercialization of achievements, and make greater contributions to safeguarding China's energy security.

Also present at the meeting were Chen Gui, former Director of the Technology Center of Huaibei Mining Co., Ltd.; Zhang Chuanjiu, President of the CHN Energy Shendong Coal Technology Research Institute; Wang Guoyong, Executive President of the Inner Mongolia Research Institute of CUMTB; Liu Xudong, Vice President of the Xinjiang Energy Technology Research Institute of China Energy Investment Corporation; Zhao Hongliang, former Director of the Production Department of the Energy Business Division of Lu'an Chemical Group; Zhou Hongwei, Dean of the Lixing College of CUMTB; as well as relevant heads of the School of Energy and Mining Engineering, core researchers of the center, and representatives of faculty and students of the school.