From October 16th to October 19th, the 2019 Doctoral Forum: Experiencing China – IT serves our countries was successfully organized by University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). The “Experiencing China” series, initiated by the China Scholarship Council (CSC), is designed to give its scholarship students the opportunity to explore their academic potentials. As a part of the 2019 “Experiencing China” activities, the doctoral forum “IT serves our countries” attracted PhD students from C9 League Universities, giving them an excellent chance to improve and exchange their IT knowledge. Outstanding PhD international candidates from Harbin Institute of Technology, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Fudan University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University and other prestigious universities came to Hefei and shared their research experience and academic achievements, which was highly educative to every participants.
The doctoral forum - IT serves our countries started with the opening speech delivered by Mr. Jiang, the vice dean of International college of USTC. He welcomed all the candidates and encouraged them to broaden academic horizon by taking advantage of this doctoral forum. Later Professor Nikolaos Freris who joined USTC as the vice director of International College and Professor of Computer Science, shared his experience of teaching in China and responded the questions asked by the participants of conference.
After the opening ceremony, the doctoral forum was divided into two concurrent but interacting sessions. The session of Computer Science and Technology was hosted by Professor Nikolaos Freris. The session of Information Science and Technology was chaired by Professor Ye Zhongfu. PhD International candidates stood on the stage, presenting their ongoing projects of the respective lab. The interactive and networking relationship created by the organizing professors and teachers enhanced assimilation in them and aroused more interest in them to strive to become a great creative researcher. The research-oriented-career-development presentation topics excellently handled by the participating PhD candidates, no doubt, broadened their knowledge and increased their wealth of experience.
USTC International College also organized a series of educative and informative field trips on 18th October. In the morning of October 18, participants visited the Institute of Advanced Technology (IAT). They were shown around in the “national engineering laboratory for Brain-Inspired Intelligence technology and application” of IAT, where one of IT engineer briefly introduced the already completed IA projects and future projects that may change the future of human being.
After the tour to IAT, they visited IFLYTEK CO., LTD, where they were shown classical innovative examples of applications of computer and information technologies in serving our countries, for example, fast voice or text language translations, smart home technology that makes life easy, robotics aiding in surfing the web for pertinent information such as flight or train prices, and awesome fast exam grading machine.
In the afternoon of October 18, students visited School of Computer Science and Technology and School of Information Science and Technology at USTC West Campus. Professor Cheng Jingyuan gave a fabulous presentation illustrating “smart textile from lab to hospital”. Later, a PhD student from bio-engineering department showed them around lab and presented their recent lab projects in detail. Additionally, certification distribution ceremony was held at west campus, and Miss Eva distributed certificate to each participant of conference.
On the 19th of Oct morning, participants left for the field trip to the former residence of Chen-Ning Yang, which is located in Sanhe ancient town. The field trip gave them chance to know about the greatness of Chen Ning Yang and lifestyle of countryside people. Yang Chen-Ning (杨振宁) is a Chinese theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to statistical mechanics, integral able systems, gauge theory, and both particle physics and condensed matter physics. He and Tsung-Dao Lee received the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on parity non-conservation of weak interaction. The field trip to the former residence of Yang Chen-ning was highly educative.
The conference and field trips were fruitful, furnished them with opportunity to meet different research scholars who belong to different fields of study. Those scholars not only exchanged their research results during the conference trip but also promised to continue support each other in relevant field of research in the future. This event is not only the source of ideological exchanges but also a platform for them to quickly contact relevant research scholars at any time to find solutions to problem statements. The conference concluded successfully on October 19th, but what they learn will always remain.
