Engineering frontier is an emerging direction that has a significant impact on and plays a key leading role in the progress of engineering science and technology; it is forward-looking, pioneering, and exploratory. Since 2017, the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) organizes and conducts the “Global Engineering Frontiers” consulting research project every year, aiming at analyzing global engineering research frontiers and engineering development frontiers on an annual basis. The research frontiers focus on the theoretical research of engineering technology, while development frontiers focus on the application and development of engineering technology. The CAE also judges the evolution trend of global engineering technology. The project is based on data analysis and centered on expert judgment; it follows the principles of combining quantitative analysis with qualitative research, data mining and expert argumentation, with equal emphasis on the frontiers of engineering research and engineering development. About 90 frontiers are selected each year, among which about 27 are chosen as the key frontiers for engineering research; the same goes for engineering development. Reports in both Chinese and English are released annually, illustrating these frontiers from different perspectives.

Under the leadership of the General Project Team and with the support of the Information and Electronic Engineering Department of the CAE, the editorial office of FITEE is responsible for organizing the selection and interpretation of the annual 10 fronts and 3 key fronts in the field of information and electronic engineering for engineering research; the same goes for engineering development.