In today’s world, with the rapid development of science and technology, Internet, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other modern information technology have profoundly changed the way of human thinking, production, life and the style of learning. The world is undergoing a profound transformation from an industrial society to an intelligent society. Science and technology has become the impetus of educational reform, and the revolutionary impact of information technology on education is becoming increasingly obvious. The construction of ICT in education has entered into a new stage. Learning environment, teaching model and the governance of educational system are facing the opportunities and challenges in the transformation from the traditional model to the intelligent model.

The international community attaches great importance, actively exploring the role of information technology in achieving the fourth goal of the SDG4-Education 2030 agenda of the United Nations, that is, “to ensure inclusive,equitable and high-quality education, and to promote the opportunity for lifelong learning for all”. As the two largest economies in the world, China and the United States are directing the development of information technology and introducing it to the education industry, bringing about a profound reform in education. China proposed education strategy of ICT in Education 2.0, which is learner-centered and under the environment of “classroom revolution” and”Internet plus”. The National Education Technology Plan puts forward “reshaping the role of technology in education”from five aspects: learning, teaching, leadership, evaluation and infrastructure.

Smart education is a kind of educational behavior (system) which is provided by schools, regions or countries with high quality learning experience, high content adaptability and high teaching efficiency. It is the advanced form of ICT ineducation, which includes three realms: smart learning environment, new teaching model and modern educational system. Developing smart education can promote the process of educational reform and development by comprehensively and deeply using the modern information technology, and also improve the teaching quality and students‘ innovation ability. In order to further explore the profound connotation of smart education, to achieve a thorough understanding of the latest achievements and the development trend in the field of smart education, to deal with the challenges in educational reform, to build up a platform for the international smart education research, communication and cooperation, The US-CHINA Smart Education Conference is on the way.

With the fourth wave of industrial revolution sweeping across the whole world in the 21^st Century, developed countries have put forward the development strategy of “Industrial 4.0”, which represents the trend of the development of manufacturing industry in the future. At the same time, China, which is experiencing the critical moment of industrial transformation and upgrading, has issued the “Made in China 2025” (national hair [2015] 28) action project, and put forward the “Three Steps” strategy for building the manufacturing power. Building a high level of vocational education is necessary for the “Industrial 4.0” and “Made in China 2025” strategic planning. The development of modern vocational education depends on the process of ICT and relies on the development of information technology. Thus, Beijing Normal University (BNU), University of North Texas (UNT) and National Engineering Laboratory for Cyberlearning Intelligent Technology (NEL4CIT) will jointly hold the “The Third US-CHINA Smart Education Conference: Vocational Education and Industrial Development” from March 18^th to March 20^th  in 2018. At the same period, 2018 NMC Technology Outlook for Chinese Vocational Education (A Horizon Project Regional Report) will be released, Smart Education Experiential Activities will be also available.