2020 marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of Qian Zhiguang, a veteran proletarian revolutionary and pioneer of China's textile industry, and former Minister of the Ministry of Textile Industry of China. China Textile magazine and the Textile Light Science and Education Foundation jointly launched a special report titled "Illuminating Textiles, Passing the Torch - Commemorating the 120th Anniversary of Qian Zhiguang's Birth." Amidst the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the complex domestic and international economic and social situation, this report vigorously promotes Qian Zhiguang's entrepreneurial spirit of "independence, self-reliance, and hard work," inspiring enterprises to face difficulties bravely and forge ahead, aiming to create an atmosphere of striving for renewed entrepreneurship within the industry. For over a decade, "Textile Light" has awarded numerous research projects that have played a key role in the industry's development. Many of these award-winning projects have achieved remarkable results in subsequent applications for national science and technology awards, some even directly winning the National Science and Technology Progress First Prize. Every year, the "Textile Light" awards ceremony is a vibrant event, bringing together the industry's top scientific and technological talents and unveiling the year's most significant research achievements. This moment is the happiest moment for "Textile Light."

　　"The Textile Light Science and Education Award is a highly influential award in the textile industry's education and technological innovation, igniting the innovation enthusiasm and spirit of the industry's scientific and technological workers, inspiring generation after generation of scientific and technological workers to strive for progress. It has become a beacon for the industry's scientific and technological personnel, guiding their advancement. We hope that more scientific and technological personnel dedicated to innovation and creation for the industry's development will achieve better growth and greater achievements with the help of the Textile Light Science and Education Foundation." This is what Gu Ren, Chairman of Changzhou Hongda Electric Co., Ltd., said when discussing the role and influence of the Textile Light Science and Education Foundation in the industry's development.

　　Changzhou Hongda won the first prize of the 2017 China Textile Industry Federation Science and Technology Award with its project "Industrialization Research and Application of Intelligent Warp and Weft Preparation Technology for Textiles Based on Machine Vision." This leading technology incorporates two innovations from the Changzhou Hongda R&D team: Firstly, the full-width scanning warp preparation technology based on machine vision, which developed a special linear light source to meet the needs of wide-width warp preparation. Optimized image processing algorithms were researched for various products, enabling automatic detection and shape correction of jacquard, color-woven, printed, lace, and embroidered textiles with patterned designs. Secondly, this technology replaces the current photoelectric weft preparation technology, developing a weft preparation technology based on machine vision, improving weft preparation accuracy, expanding product adaptability, and solving the problems of weft preparation for twill, brushed, light, heavy, and chiffon textiles.

　　Recalling this experience, Gu Ren mentioned that receiving the award on the stage of the Great Hall of the People was an immense honor and glory, and also made him feel a greater sense of responsibility and mission. As a scientific and technological worker, he should work harder, continuously innovate, apply modern scientific innovation and management methods, lead his innovative team, take the revitalization of national industry as his responsibility, serve our great motherland, and contribute his strength to the sustainable and high-quality development of the industry.

　　Gu Ren believes that the role of technological innovation is particularly important in the current transformation process of high-quality development. Scientific and technological workers have achieved higher status and a better innovation environment. Compared with a few years ago, today's innovative research atmosphere is better, and both the national and local governments have provided strong support for technological innovation. The concept of technology as the primary productive force has been more fully demonstrated and implemented. It can be said that now is the true spring for scientific research workers. He said that winning the award is not the end, but a new beginning. After winning the award for the "Industrialization Research and Application of Intelligent Warp and Weft Preparation Technology for Textiles Based on Machine Vision" project, they conducted in-depth development of the product, meeting the needs of the segmented market, forming an industry demand, solving problems that could not be solved in the past, creating core value for user enterprises, and also receiving high praise from users.

　　Furthermore, they have also used the machine vision technology in this project to extend the development of a series of products such as density detection and automatic cloth inspection, providing strong support for the industry to achieve high-quality development through intelligent manufacturing.

　　When discussing the role of intelligent manufacturing in the future development of the industry, Gu Ren said: "The realization of Industry 4.0 is becoming an inevitable trend in future development. For the textile industry to truly achieve intelligent manufacturing, in addition to existing information management, such as using ERP and MES software for network management, the intelligent transformation of individual machines is becoming increasingly important. The intelligence of individual machines is aimed at achieving the process. Using new-generation artificial intelligence technology and big data to achieve autonomous decision-making and intelligent execution of the entire machine will be one of the core parts of the textile industry's realization of Industry 4.0."