Hundreds of global thought leaders, technology experts, industry leaders and educators from all learning levels participated in the international U.S.-China Smart Education Conference March 18-20 at the UNT campus in Denton.

This was the fourth year of the conference and the first time it was hosted in the United States. UNT co-hosted the conference in conjunction with Beijing Normal University. The title sponsor was Edmodo, owned by NetDragon, which funded UNT's NetDragon Digital Research Centre.

The conference tackled a number of trends facing educators, who engaged in discussions and tutorials with national and international experts who are transforming education through intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence and augmented realities.

The conference also featured a pitch competition inspired by the hit show Shark Tank™ to encourage creative individuals and teams from the educational technology industry to "sell" their product vision to judges, companies and potential investors.