From the classroom to the industry: What enables students to become co-builders of OpenHarmony?

The breakthrough of domestic operating systems is never just about technological victory or defeat; it is also a competition in terms of talent and ecosystem.

Five years ago, the OpenHarmony open - source project, incubated and operated by the OpenAtom Foundation, carried the strategic mission of building a domestic and independent operating system ecosystem. Today, OpenHarmony has grown from 7 million lines of code to over 130 million lines. More than 1,300 software and hardware products have passed compatibility tests, and it has attracted over 9,300 code contributors and more than 400 co - building partners. In just five years, OpenHarmony has achieved what it took decades for European and American operating systems to accomplish.

On this challenging path, there is a seemingly ordinary but increasingly significant force - universities. Now, the OpenHarmony Technology Club (hereinafter referred to as the "Club"), led by the OpenHarmony Technical Steering Committee (TSC) and jointly established with universities, is becoming an important driving force in the OpenHarmony ecosystem.

As of now, 38 universities across the country have established OpenHarmony Technology Clubs, with thousands of teachers and students actively involved. They not only write code and conduct experiments on campus to explore more possibilities in life but also, as indispensable "ecosystem co - builders", promote the transformation of domestic underlying system capabilities from laboratory research to industrial implementation.

On the eve of the 2025 OpenHarmony Technology Conference, three technology club teams from Hunan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Beihang University (Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) were deeply interviewed. This was an "informal conversation" without a teleprompter. These seemingly young and innocent students are injecting continuous growth momentum into domestic systems with real projects, solid technologies, and passionate beliefs.

Hunan University: Turning the Unreachable into the Tangible

At the OpenHarmony Club of Hunan University, student Qiao Miao showed us a robot developed by the team based on OpenHarmony. The humanoid robot can perform actions such as rolling and doing push - ups. The robotic dog and the robotic arm, relying on the distributed capabilities of OpenHarmony, can interact with the AI experiment box to achieve AI vision and intelligent voice control.

Qiao Miao, a core member of the project team, recalled that the most significant feature of OpenHarmony is that it is "future - oriented", capable of supporting the interconnection of multiple types of devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and PCs simultaneously. This is an ability that traditional systems can hardly achieve, or even an "unprecedented" one.

For Qiao Miao, this experience also brought about a change in his learning method. He said, "Although I had good grades in my sophomore year, I always felt that the theoretical knowledge was 'invisible and intangible', and I didn't know why I was learning." It was out of such confusion that he chose to join the OpenHarmony Technology Club. Here, he found the answer to applying theory to practice and gradually mastered the entire process from code migration, hardware debugging, problem troubleshooting to final integration. He completed the transformation from a "code - writer" to a "product - oriented engineer".

This practical experience also played a significant role in his academic pursuit. Qiao Miao said that when applying for postgraduate recommendation in his junior year, his project experience became a highlight in his resume. Many tutors highly recognized this project, not only because of its complexity and technical content but also because it met the real needs of enterprises and had the possibility of direct implementation. His teamwork and coordination abilities demonstrated in the project also received positive feedback. Currently, the project has been recognized by enterprises, which is equivalent to opening a channel to the industry in advance.

Fang Lu, the instructor of the OpenHarmony Technology Club, introduced that all projects in the club originate from the real needs of enterprises. Enterprises can quickly complete prototype development and iteration here, which not only reduces R & D costs and cycles but also greatly improves students' practical abilities. Universities and enterprises achieve a win - win situation, and the bridge and link between them is OpenHarmony.

Now, the club is still expanding. It is open to all students at Hunan University, encouraging students from different backgrounds to engage in interdisciplinary cooperation and free exploration. Fang Lu said, "We provide a place for you to realize your dreams." There are various devices and multi - disciplinary teachers to guide students, supporting them to quickly turn their ideas into reality. Students majoring in electrical engineering can learn mechanical design, and those majoring in software can try hardware debugging. Here, they can truly "turn the unreachable into the tangible".

In this model of "using practice to support teaching and using demand to drive innovation", students have gone beyond the traditional role of learners and become executors in the complete product development process. For university education, the OpenHarmony Technology Club has also brought about changes in talent cultivation methods - the in - depth integration of theory and practice and the seamless connection between campus and industry, enabling education to resonate with industry development.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University: From Learners to Contributors

Different universities have their own strengths in the OpenHarmony ecosystem. If Hunan University has tasted the sweetness of turning ideas into products, then students at Shanghai Jiao Tong University have personally experienced the sense of value brought by technological breakthroughs in "core technologies".

Since 2020, Shanghai Jiao Tong University has been continuously involved in the construction of the OpenHarmony community. Among them, the most challenging task is the technical research in the field of the security kernel. In this process, the SJTU team was responsible for the entire chain of work from underlying hardware adaptation to upper - layer application support and assisted China Southern Power Grid in implementing the "Dianhong" system based on OpenHarmony. Finally, it passed the CCRC EAL5+ security certification, making OpenHarmony the first to be applied in the power industry.

Gu Jinyu, an associate professor and doctoral supervisor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, introduced that China Southern Power Grid was one of the first enterprises to explore the application of OpenHarmony in the power industry. This system needs to adapt to various small - scale devices one by one while meeting key requirements such as high - performance operation and strong isolation. In this process, the SJTU team not only participated in the development of core code but also assisted the enterprise in writing interface documents and even went to the enterprise to conduct employee training.

For Wang Xunjie, a student participating in the project, this was an impressive transformation of identity. In the process of promoting the security kernel, he was not only a student but also gradually took on the responsibility of explaining and training for the enterprise. When the code he wrote was officially running in the system of China Southern Power Grid, the sense of achievement was hard to obtain from any previous classroom experiment or competition.

He said that the special feature of the OpenHarmony community is that it enables university students to develop engineering thinking and participate in high - difficulty technical practices at the campus stage. They are no longer just learners but also technical contributors in key industry scenarios.

"Whether you are aiming for top - notch employment competitiveness or engaging in cutting - edge academic research, the OpenHarmony Technology Club can provide you with a real battlefield and make your code generate real value." Wang Xunjie said.

This kind of experience is not common in the traditional education system. The outside world generally believes that there are problems such as long cycles and difficulties in implementation in the transformation of university scientific research achievements. However, in Gu Jinyu's view, in the face of the new ecosystem represented by OpenHarmony, universities should not just play the role of followers but should take the initiative to become "leaders". Compared with the large - scale promotion of enterprises, universities have the advantage of exploration and sufficient patience to tackle complex problems, providing source innovation for the ecosystem.

In this context, the boundaries of traditional education are being broken. Students are moving from the classroom to the engineering site, undergoing technical training in the real industry, and gradually growing into participants and builders of the country's core underlying technologies. The industry also gains input of cutting - edge technologies and continuous innovation momentum from the early participation of these young talents with high - level engineering capabilities. This is a "two - way journey" for the new ecosystem.

Beihang University: Building a "Moat" for Talent

Although technological breakthroughs are important, the continuous prosperity of an ecosystem ultimately depends on a solid talent base. The practice of Beihang University provides a systematic answer to how to build a talent foundation in the open - source ecosystem.

As one of the most active university communities, the Beihang OpenHarmony Technology Club has attracted more than 200 teachers and students. Beihang professor Li Li believes that the key lies in the school's construction of a complete talent cultivation system, covering scientific research projects, competitions, teaching integration, and incentive mechanisms, truly achieving "learning with a purpose and achieving results in research".

In terms of scientific research, the Beihang OpenHarmony Technology Club undertakes 7 to 8 real - world problems from the OpenHarmony community every year. Each project is jointly promoted by instructors and student teams. Through participating in these projects, students not only gain a deep understanding of the system architecture but also produce academic achievements such as papers and patents. By participating in relevant competitions, students' technical abilities are further refined, providing strong support for their subsequent postgraduate recommendation and job hunting.

The combination of scientific research and competitions enables more students to see the broad prospects of OpenHarmony. At the same time, the club integrates Harmony - related knowledge into course teaching, further integrating the theory and skills of OpenHarmony into the cultivation system and promoting the practicality of teaching content to a greater extent. The school also includes open - source contributions in graduation requirements and sets up awards such as the "Open - Source Star" to encourage students to continuously participate in the construction of the open - source ecosystem, gradually forming a positive cycle.

Chen Haonan, a doctoral student at Beihang, shared his growth experience in the club. He said that this experience helped him master more systematic development capabilities, tool - chain usage, and architecture design thinking. It also allowed him to establish an industry perspective earlier and have a clearer judgment on his future career direction.

In Li Li's view, universities should be the "living water pumps" of talent in the open - source ecosystem and the "soil improvers" of the ecological environment. Compared with single - point technological breakthroughs, continuously building a talent engine is of more long - term significance. Because the real foundation of the OpenHarmony ecosystem will ultimately lie in the hands of young people, and young people determine the future direction.

For any system that hopes to build an independent ecosystem, relying solely on external "technological blood transfusion" cannot last long. What Beihang University is exploring is a path of "self - blood - making" - not only cultivating a group of middle - level forces with key technical abilities for the ecosystem but also, more importantly, through institutionalized and systematic construction, continuously promoting the emergence of a new generation of developers who identify with the open - source concept and have a systematic perspective, truly achieving self - circulation and endogenous growth of the ecosystem.

A Group of Young People, Co - building an Operating System

The stories of the three university clubs are also three vivid microcosms of the OpenHarmony system ecosystem: Hunan University demonstrates the industrial implementation path from ideas to products, Shanghai Jiao Tong University achieves technological breakthroughs crucial to the system base, and Beihang University builds a complete education closed - loop from theory to practice. The 38 university clubs across the country are gradually coming together.

In this creative process, universities are no longer just users of technology but co - builders. Every code submission and every project result of students is not only a highlight in their personal resumes but also a cornerstone in building the edifice of the domestic operating system.

The OpenHarmony Technology Club is no longer just an organizational form of school - enterprise cooperation but a simultaneous leap in talent concepts, education methods, and ecological thinking. In this ecosystem, "co - building" is no longer an idealized slogan but a reality being practiced and fulfilled in university classrooms, laboratories, and cafes.

This soil is still waiting for fresh blood. As the program's ending says, "Participating in OpenHarmony is not an unreachable thing. As long as you take a brave step, we will meet."