(Photo/Beijing Association of Science and Technology)

A total of 25,320 sci-tech volunteers have registered with the Beijing Science and Technology Popularization Volunteer Service Team, collectively contributing over 310,000 service hours, as revealed during a volunteer launch event on March 3.

The Beijing Science and Technology Popularization Volunteer Service Team, founded in 2012, saw its 220 sub-teams release nearly 300 science popularization projects, with over 10,000 volunteers involved in more than 100,000 service hours in 2024.

The 2025 Beijing Sci-Tech Popularization Volunteer Service Week kicked off ahead of the "Lei Feng Day," an annual event commemorated on March 5 aimed at celebrating the life and spirit of the young soldier who devoted his spare time and money to helping the needy. Science "Lei Fengs" will carry out a series of sci-tech popularization activities to make science more accessible and relatable.

The event also saw the launching of a "Smiling Beijing" volunteer service brand. The brand will feature six key application scenarios, including the professional science popularization service, science museum service, science popularization events, targeted service for key groups, and grassroots social governance supporting.

Five individual volunteers, five organizations, five projects, and three community service hubs were honored as 2024's standout contributors. One of the highlights was the award-winning team project "Touching the Sci-Tech Frontiers, Experiencing the Innovation" led by volunteer Zheng Tianlong. This young team, averaging 29 years old, leverages Beijing's key industrial plans like new energy, AI and bio-medicine to transform advanced technologies into accessible knowledge, benefiting over 300,000 people and creating a replicable model.

"Through a series of diverse and innovative science outreach initiatives, we aim to nurture a passion for science in more people and ensure the benefits of technological progress reach every household," emphasized an official from the Beijing Association of Science and Technology (BAST). He added that BAST will further leverage the roles of scientific workers and science popularization volunteers to innovate science popularization concepts, enrich the content and forms of science popularization, and strengthen public science popularization infrastructure construction throughout the city. They will play an irreplaceable role in advancing the construction of Beijing as a science and technology innovation center and achieving the goal of a strong technological nation.

(Web editor: Tian Yi, Zhong Wenxing)