A workshop on mathamatics is held during the Future Forum Annual Conference in Beijing on Oct 28. [Photo provided by Future Forum]

The Future Forum Annual Conference kicked off in Beijing on Saturday, with prominent scientists, scholars and business representatives from home and abroad participating.

The two-day event was a scientific and technological feast for the participants. It featured a series of workshops on a wide range of themes, including mathematics, quantum physics and celestial physics.

In these workshops, scientists and scholars delivered speeches and made presentations on their latest research and breakthroughs. Dialogues between scientists and audience members were also held, where leading quantum physicist Pan Jianwei, mathematician Xu Chengyang and biophysicist Shi Yigong answered questions and provided thought-provoking suggestions.

Entrepreneurs and scientists also exchanged ideas on hot topics like artificial intelligence, automatic vehicle and genetic engineering, as well as discussing collaboration between research institutes and enterprises.

The Future Forum was founded in 2014 by a group of entrepreneurs and scientists, with the aim of supporting basic research, promoting scientific and technological development and encouraging innovation.

In 2016, the forum's first annual conference was held in Beijing and the council of the forum announced the winners of the Future Science Prize, also dubbed "China's Nobel Prize".

"As a non-profit organization, Future Forum hopes to spread scientific knowledge both at home and abroad and encourage the younger generation to do their bit for scientific development," said Wang Haoyi, a council member of Future Forum and a genetic scientist from the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.