College of Informatics of Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU) was established in April 2014. The college was formerly the computer teaching and research office set up in the original basic course department in the mid-1980s.In the September of 1996, three-year-term students for computer science and technology specialist started to be recruited. In September 2000, the college began to recruit undergraduates majoring in computer science and technology. Later in April 2011, Bioinformatics Center was founded and new undergraduates started to enroll in September. Postgraduates were recruited in 2012 as well as PhD in the next year. In April 2014, in order to further optimize the structure of academic disciplines layout and promote the development of information science, our school adjusted Bioinformatics Teaching and Research Office , Bioinformatics Research Center, Computer Science and Technology Department (overall),Department of Mathematics (part), Department of Chemistry (part), and Computing Center to form the Information College.


The college presently consists of four departments:  Department of Computer Science,Department of Bioinformatics ,Department of Data Science and Big Data Technology and Computer Public Teaching Department. The college has built the Computer and Information Technology Experimental Teaching Center and the Key Laboratory of Agriculture Biological Information of Hubei province.The college possesses not only second-level doctoral program and master’s degree in agricultural information engineering and bioinformatics, computer science and technology first-level master degree,but also Computer Science and Technology, Bioinformatics, Data Science and Big Data Technology, among which the bioinformatics major has been approved as the strategic emerging pillar industry talent training undergraduate program in Hubei province, ranking the first in the country for four times. Besides, the college owns one Innovative Group of Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province, two undergraduate programs: the Computer Science and Technology and the Bioinformatics and one excellent young and young science and technology innovation team of Hubei's university of higher learning. The college has 84 faculty members now and staff members including 9  professors, 35 associate professors, 23 lecturers, 10 administrators and 7laboratory technicians. There are 893 full-time undergraduate students, 93 master students and 32 doctoral students.

The college adheres to the vision of running a school:"college as a college ,teacher as a teacher" ; holds on the idea of education:"there are students in the teachers' heart ,there is a world in students' heart";follows the path of strengthening  the college: "integrate into the industrial system, join the international cycle";during the 13th five-year plan period,strives to build the college into the place where there is the characteristic of subject. The teaching work is rigorous and standardized, and the scientific research has the advantage of local innovation as well as the integration of various parties.The college proves to be an important force in the school talent training and basic teaching;turns into a important main body of the students' practical abilities and innovative spirit,becomes an important support for school discipline development ,scientific and technological innovation;becomes a new luminescent spot of school emerging interdisciplinary and important growth point;using modern information technology to promote advantageous disciplines;striving to build into a new growth point of school development.

1.Construction of Discipline Specialty
Biological information major is always in the national forefront. According to the "Chinese universities and professional disciplines evaluation report" launched by the Chinese science evaluation research center (RCCSE), China's education quality evaluation research center,China's science and education evaluation website in Wuhan University, biological information major ranked first in the similar colleges and universities for four times. In October 2014, the college was granted the authority to set up a doctoral program and master's degree program in agricultural information engineering second-level discipline under the first-level discipline of agricultural engineering, and was approved in 2015. In July and November 2015, the college invited both internal and external experts to hold a seminar to further clarify the development path of "creating characteristics" and "entering the mainstream". In May, computer specialty was approved to be a national "pilot program for the training of computer professional systems". On June 27, 2015, Hubei provincial computer professional evaluation was completed. In May 2017, a seminar on "data science and big data technology" was held. In march, 2018, the college was granted a first class course master's degree authorization point for computer science, and the undergraduate major of data science and big data technology was approved.

2.Talent Cultivation
From 2014, there are students selected as national college student models and post-graduates selected as academic hoping star for 4 years. In November 2015, as the salary ranking of college graduates in 2015, the bioinformatics was the unique one to be chosen in the top 100 in the whole school. And there are two classes of college managed to be the first ones whose employment rates reach 100 percent all over the school. In November 2016, in the first phase of Happy Hour activity held by our college, the technical executive of Inspur Inc made a conversation of our teachers and students about information third generation sequencing. Meanwhile, our teams won 2 bronze medals in the 41st ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in Asia (Qingdao). Later in December, the application of Hubei Provincial Information Technology Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center ended successfully. In March 2017, our students won the second prize in ASC17 Student Supercomputer Challenge ,and the college officially signed Undergraduate Master Co-cultivation 3+2 Project Cooperation Agreement. With the ending of ACM-ICPC(shanxi) in June of the same year, 2 bronze medals were captured. Later in July, The 3rd China Internet+ College Student Innovation Contest Hubei Division was held and our school captured 4 gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze medals ,among which the project instructed by professors of our college won the gold one. Then in August, the “Three Combinations” Mode Exploration of Talent Cultivation in Bio-information got provincial second prize, and in November, the IGEM team instructed by Professor Ma Bingguang captured the gold award for the fourth time in International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition and received a single Best nomination. Besides, a practice team in summer vacation was selected in National Influential Project in 2017 and a professor was chosen in National Excellent Innovative Entrepreneur Mentor. In addition, the University Computer Foundation(3rd Edition) led by teachers of our college was entitled the 2017 National Excellent Agricultural University Teaching Material. In December 2017, the students of our college was rewarded with the first prize in The Application Challenge Contest of The 4th China Mobile Application Innovation Tournament. In March 2018, our students won the first prize in the ASC18 World University Supercomputer Contest.

3.Scientific and Technical Innovation
From 2014, the college having been hosting International Symposium on 3D Genomics for 5 times. In November 2015, 3 million yuan was raised to build the campus high-performance computing platform. In December of the same year, our college signed cooperation contrast with Biomaker Inc to build school-enterprise joint laboratories and received a 500-thousand-yuan scholarship donation. In July 2016, the college founded High-performance Computing and Big Data Processing Joint Laboratories with Inspur Inc. And in August, the 2016 Science Development Report written by Chinese Academy of Sciences came out, among which the 3D Genomics Research was entitled one of the China’s scientific research representative achievements in 2015 and Professor Ruan Yijun and Li Guoliang of the research team wrote a report whose title was The Research Progress in Human 3D Genomics and its Significance in Precision Medicine. Additionally in May, our school undersigned with Wuhan BaiYao Association Science and Technology Co.,Ltd who will invest 10 million yuan in 5 years to cooperate with the team led by Professor Zhang Hongyu of our college on Medicine Discovery to build Precision Drug Discovery Joint Laboratory. Until now, our college has successively signed Undergraduate Innovative Talents Co-Cultivation Agreement or School-Enterprise Joint Laboratory cooperation with Shanghai Personal Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Huawei Wuhan Institute, BIG, CP Group, Inspur Inc and so on. The national Phosphorus chemistry annual meeting hosted by our college was held in campus with more than 130 experts present the seminar. Academician Zhao Yufen delivered the discipline development strategy research advisory report about Phosphorus chemistry and conducted a round table discussion. The organizer launched the large-scale science exhibition “Ask the sky - the solar system and the 8 planets” with China University of Geosciences(Wuhan). In 2017, the Information College was called in to build Hubei Institute of Bioinformatics and in December, the work of applying for the institute ended with passing the name approval of Hubei provincial Social Organization Authority.

4.Group Construction
In March 2016, Xie Weibo was chosen in the first batch of China Association for Science and Technology’s “Young talents lifting project”, and a team was entitled Hubei Provincial Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Science and Technology Innovation Team. In May 2016, our college cooperated with Kindstar Global and Chinaun to build Postdoctoral Innovation Practice Base. Annoroad Gene Technology, whose CTO Professor Chen zhongjian was Recruited as adjunct professor of our school, donated 200 thousand yuan to establish a corporate scholarship in September 2016. Professor Chen Lingling was chosen in not only 2016 Ministry of Science and Technology Youth Leaders in Science and Technology Innovation but also The 3rd Batch of National "National Special Support Program for High-level Talents" Leaders in Science and Technology Innovation. Besides, a teacher was entitled the Campus Media Concerned person of the year in 2017 and a party teacher’s deeds was chosen in “Good Story of Party Members” typical examples. In 2013, the team of Group-based new drug discovery technology was selected in Hubei Natural Science Fund Innovation Group and in 2017, the 3D Genomics team was Selected as Outstanding Middle-aged and Young Scientists and Innovation Teams of Colleges and Universities in Hubei Province.

5.Management Innovation
In the whole year of 2015, the construction area more than 6000 square meters was basically finish the task of college’s decoration and initially realize the target to make the college it is ought to be. In April 2016, the first meeting of Faulty Congress was held, the representative of staff discussed and passed 3 files such as Information College Development “13th Five-Year Plan”, Information Institute's annual performance allowance payment program,Information College basic  review requirements of vice professor’s level 7 post. In May 2017, as is discussed and decided by the school party committee, Professor Li Guoliang, specialist expert of "Young overseas high-level talents introduction plan" was elected associate dean of our college . Then the Second Session of the First Congress and Trade Union Member Congress was held. In September of the same year, adjustments of faculty was made to withdraw Department of Biostatistics, establish both Data Science and Big Data Department and Computer Public Teaching Department. At the Third Session of the First Congress and Trade Union Member Congress held in April 2018, college system compilations including Talent Preferential Treatment Plan and International Academical Visit Allowance Method were deliberated and passed.（Data statistics up to April 2018）
Translator:YuXi,Liu Wenli.