AI innovation

These College Students Are Teaching OPPO How to Build AI Products

Honghao Wang

— 4 min read
These College Students Are Teaching OPPO How to Build AI Products

The Child Who Talks to Paper

No one truly understands the child who speaks to sketches.

The little cousin often mutters to himself while drawing, as though conversing with a friend from another world.

"He’s not drawing a picture — he’s creating a whole world."

This vivid image, viewed by most as innocent childhood play, stayed with members of Shandong University’s Dream Garden of Drawing team — and became the inspiration for their entry into the 4th China Collegiate Computing Competition – Intelligent Interaction Innovation Contest.

Their mission was simple yet ambitious: bring every child’s doodle to life.

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Turning Doodles into Living Worlds

They developed software where:

  • Draw a fish casually → it will swim across your screen.
  • Sketch Doraemon → click it, and it will chat with you.

The AI:

  • Generates personalized dialogue that matches the character’s personality.
  • Recognizes real photos you take, transforming them into dynamic 2.5D characters.
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> "If it looks ugly, it’s actually more fun."

Not a professional design tool, but a creative playground for children and adults alike. The AI stylizes doodles and integrates them into lively scenes — turning clumsy lines into vivid characters.

Achievements:

  • First Prize in the contest
  • Best Commercial Potential Award

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OPPO’s Role in the Innovation Contest

This idea resonated with OPPO, which has sponsored this national-level competition for four consecutive years.

How OPPO Supports Contestants

  • Product managers and technical experts mentor teams.
  • Corporate titles are set aside — focusing only on challenges and solutions.
  • Over 470 universities, 3,600+ teams, and 2,000+ projects participated this year.
  • Central challenge: Identify real-life scenarios where AI can create tangible value.
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4 Years of “Intelligent Interaction”

The contest’s theme has evolved into: AI Agent Innovation for Mobile Devices.

While many tech companies scale back, OPPO keeps investing in the industry–academia–research model to:

Short-term

  • Solve technical problems internal teams can’t handle.

Mid-term

  • Explore and layout technologies for products 3–5 years ahead.

Long-term

  • Identify potentially disruptive technologies without profit bias.

Talent Development

  • Collaborate with universities to attract top technical & management talent.
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Lowering Barriers for Innovation

To help young creators:

  • OPPO opened its AI agent development platform.
  • Provided latest flagship devices.
  • Offered phased technical guidance through the competition.
  • Ensured ideas don’t stall due to tech hurdles.
  • Extended fast-track internships or priority recruitment for standout projects.

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Case Study — Zhejiang University’s “LightDraw AI”

Challenge:

Traditional AI drawing tools rely on complex text prompts — not friendly to everyday users.

Solution:

  • AI asks follow-up questions.
  • Generates dynamic config interfaces (sliders, options).
  • Adapts options differently for posters vs. portraits.
  • Multi-layer canvas allows element-level edits without breaking composition.

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Beyond Competitions — Long-Term Collaboration

Since 2018, OPPO has set up joint labs with universities like Zhejiang University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Tsinghua University.

Examples:

  • Full-link Android color management system for true-to-life colors.
  • AI model predicting visual fatigue with 85%+ accuracy.
  • Storage optimization predicting fragmentation before it happens.

These features work quietly in the background — enhancing user experience without fanfare.

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The “Bell Plan”

In 2018, OPPO launched the Bell Plan:

  • 200M RMB innovation fund (no upper limit).
  • Global support for pioneering young scholars.
  • Now partners with 100+ universities across AI, imaging, health, etc.

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Young Minds, Long-Term Vision

At the competition, it’s not just about winning projects, but the way students think:

  • Finding how AI should serve people.
  • OPPO aligning products with that vision.
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30 Years of OPPO — Entering AI Smartphone Era

Principle: Technology should serve people, not the other way around.

AI Features:

  • AI Erase — over 3 billion uses.
  • One-Touch Flash Note — organizes notes/invoices automatically.
  • AI Ask Screen — answers about any on-screen content instantly.

This philosophy keeps AI usable without complexity — delivering results without parameter overload.

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Respecting Youth Creativity

  • Xiaobu Assistant → 170M monthly active users (China’s most active smartphone AI assistant).
  • Many innovations trace back to young creators solving genuine pain points.

> “The AI era belongs to young people.” — Qin Zheng, OPPO

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Real-World Adoption — “Healing Companion Elf”

2024 Award-Winner deployed in Shandong Mental Health Center for youth mental health support.

Core of OPPO’s AI strategy: New Computing, New Perception, New Ecosystem with:

  • On-Device Compute edge intelligence
  • PersonaX Memory Symbiosis Engine
  • Agent Matrix intelligent agent ecosystem
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Goal: Make technology invisible, effortless, and truly human-centered.

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Open Ecosystem & AiToEarn Platform

AiToEarn官网 (aitoearn.ai) provides:

  • AI content generation tools
  • Cross-platform publishing (Douyin, Bilibili, YouTube, Instagram, FB, etc.)
  • Analytics & model rankings
  • Open-source monetization framework

Helps creators efficiently turn AI creativity into sustainable impact.

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Key Takeaway:

OPPO’s sustained investment in industry–academia–research nurtures talent, validates future directions, and builds tech that genuinely helps people. Open platforms like AiToEarn can amplify this vision — ensuring AI works for humanity, driven by human creativity.

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