Tianjin University has announced the launch of the nation's first brain-computer interface (BCI) undergraduate program for its fall semester, marking a critical step forward in this frontier technology globally.

BCI technology allows direct communication between the brain and an external device, such as a computer or a prosthetic limb.

The program was established through a joint effort of the School of Future Technology and the Medical School of Tianjin University, according to the university.

"In response to increasing demand in the BCI sector, Tianjin University is leveraging resources from various departments, including the medical school, electrical automation and information engineering, microelectronics, intelligent computing, mathematics, and materials science and engineering," said Xu Minpeng, assistant director of the university's BCI Laboratory and head of the Haihe BCI project.

Top talent in BCI will form a comprehensive interdisciplinary research and teaching team encompassing fundamental theories, device systems and translational applications, Xu said.

The university intends to cultivate outstanding engineers and scientists capable of designing, manufacturing and researching future bio-intelligent electronic interfaces, thereby leading advancements in BCI technology and industrial development in bio-information integration.

Among the hundreds of applicants, only 20 will ultimately make it, according to school authorities.

In May, the university's Haihe BCI Laboratory announced a group of commercial and industrial projects covering finance, technology and industrial clusters.

Ni Guangjian, deputy head of the laboratory, said: "The lab will advance leading technological innovation, relying on the Tiankai Higher Education Innovation Park and Binhai High-tech Zone. It is also mapping out a blueprint for the BCI Industrial Zone in a bid to accelerate the industrialization of high technologies."

Cheng Longlong, a data scientist at China Electronics Corp and general manager of CEC Cloud Brain Co, said, "We are focusing on upgrading independent BCI chips in a bid to support the core technologies of BCI's future development."

In July, China said it would set up a BCI standardization technical committee under its Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to guide enterprises to enhance industrial standards and boost domestic innovation.