October 18, the 4th Conference on China Environmental Percetion and Protection Automation was held via video link. The Conference was sponsored by the Chinese Association of Automation, Environmental Perception and Protection Automation Professional Committee, and Professional Committee of Science Popularization of Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence. It was hosted by the College of Artificial Intelligence and Automation of Faculty of Information Technology of BJUT, Beijing Artificial Intelligence Institute, Beijing Lab of Smart Environmental Protection, MOE Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Perception and Independent Control, MOE Engineering Research Center Digital Community, and Beijing Key Laboratory of Computational Intelligence and Intelligent System. More than 150 experts and scholars from over 50 universities, research institutions, and enterprises attended the meeting, including those from Central South University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, and Northeastern University.

NIE Xiaoqin, Director of the Solid Waste and Soil Environment Research Center of China Urban Construction Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., gave a report of "Analysis of the current urban waste sorting and sustainable garbage sorting modein pilot cities in china" pertaining to garbage sorting methods and its efficiency as well as public involvement in typical cities of Beijing Tianjin Hebei area and Yangtze River Delta. Professor YANG Chunhua from Central South University delivered a report entitled "Development of on-line spectral detection technology and instrument for heavy metal in waste water" around the problems of huge differention concentration of heavy metal in waste water from different processes and challenges of accurate detection. HAN Chunmei, senior engineer of Beijing Environmental Remediation Co., Ltd., reported on information collection and big data constructionon the site with the speech of "Aharing of national key R&D plan project Site Pollution Environment Digitization and Spatial Information Management System".

The four panel sessions, namely, "General Methods and Technologies of Environmental Protection Automation", "Methods and Technologies of Sewage Treatment Automation", "Methods and Technologies of Solid Waste Treatment Automation" and "Methods and Technologies of Exhaust Gas Treatment Automation" were about the key technological challenges facing environmental perception and protection automation. Thirty-five experts, including Professor ZHANG Jinhui of BIT, Professor LI Yonggang of Central South University, Professor LI Jinhui of Tsinghua University, and LIU Baoxian, senior engineer of Beijing Municipal Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center, shared their research experience and latest research results and had thought-provoking discussions with the attendees.