Approved by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and jointly founded by Xi'an Jiaotong University and the University of Liverpool, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University is the largest Sino-foreign cooperative university in China. Since its establishment 18 years ago, XJTLU has explored and created a unique "five-star" education model and student development system, and its unique university philosophy, high-level talent training quality and strong international characteristics have been widely concerned and recognized by all sectors of society, and it is known as "the benchmark of Sino-foreign cooperative universities" and "the pathfinder of China's higher education reform".
XJTLU's high level of education and teaching quality has resulted in impressive graduate further studies. Among the 2023 XJTLU graduates, 26 were admitted to the world's top 10 universities, and 89.52% were admitted to the world's top 100 universities. (This data does not include students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and international students).
Let's take a look at the stories of two XJTLU students, which may give you some food for thought and inspiration.
Full Prize! From Luoyang to XJTLU, and then to the world's scientific research adventure!
In 2018, Yuan Hang, who loves astronomy, became the president of the Astronomy Society after entering Luoyang No. 1 Senior High School. In addition to participating in nightly observation activities, Yuan Hang also subscribes to many astronomical science magazines. In the magazine "Astronomy Lovers", he often reads articles written by an author named "Ke Wencai". Later, through his research, he found out that Ke Wencai was Professor Mattheus Kouwenhoven from the Department of Physics at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, and this was the first time he knew about XJTLU, a young international university.
In 2018, he gave a roadside astronomical night lecture in Luoyang
In the summer of 2023, Yuan Hang and his girlfriend co-authored their paper as the first authors were accepted by EMBC, the largest international conference in the field of biomedical engineering in the world. After Yuan Hang introduced his ongoing research work and expressed his willingness to pursue a doctorate, teachers from more than a dozen well-known universities extended olive branches to him and invited him to join the research group to study for a doctorate. In the 2024 graduation season, he received a full scholarship and direct doctoral offer from Michigan State University in biomedical engineering, Tufts University in chemistry, North Carolina State University in mechanical engineering, and the University of Cincinnati in electrical engineering.
At the EMBC meeting, Hang Yuan and his girlfriend took a group photo with Metin Akay, former chairman of the IEEE EMBS branch, and Paul Sajda, the current chairman
"Before the college entrance examination, I thought I was a very unlucky person, but I was lucky enough to be saved from the brink of repeating my studies at XJTLU, so I inevitably had a feeling of 'the rest of my life' after coming to XJTLU. I told myself: the four years here must not be wasted. Yuan Hang said.
In his freshman year, Yuan Hang joined the XJTLU robot team "GMaster", and in the 2022 season, he and his team members created the best results in the history of XJTLU: the top 8 in the Eastern Region and the top 32 in the country, and won the ticket to the national competition. "Although the national race could not be made due to the pandemic, it took my teammates and me two years to transform. Whether it is in the laboratory or in the operation room, whether it is crazy all-nighters, physical and mental suffering, crying from losing a game or laughing at victory, I have gained the best team and a better self. XJTLU has taught me an important lesson in the past two years: 'The first thing in a team is selflessness', which is the core spirit of the GMaster team. ”
When choosing a major in his freshman year, Yuan Hang chose the mechatronic engineering major that had just been offered by the School of Intelligent Engineering for three years. In the SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Program), he followed his teacher to do research on engineering robots, and with the help of Professor Song Pengfei and the doctoral seniors of the research group, he learned about the detection of biomarkers, the chemical synthesis of nanoparticles, the centrifugal control of fluids, and the user psychology of humanities and social sciences.
In his junior year, Yuan Hang had the idea of a straight doctor. "Zhibo attaches great importance to scientific research ability and experience, and Mr. Song provides me with professional training opportunities as much as possible, whether it is a scientific research project or a visit and exchange, I cherish every opportunity to practice and improve. XJTLU is such a platform, with a variety of resources and countless mentors and friends, all you have to do is to find the direction you really want to go through continuous exploration. ”
Throughout his university years, Yuan Hang published 9 SCI/SSCI/EI academic papers as the first/second author, conducted 4 international conference reports, participated in large and small robot competitions and innovation and entrepreneurship competitions, and successfully founded his own company...... "In a way, I did achieve the goal of 'not wasting these four years' when I first entered the university. But unlike when I was in high school, I was doing projects with a somewhat utilitarian mentality, and I really enjoyed applying what I learned in a variety of scenarios, and I was also doing new research better and faster. ”
In the end, he chose the doctoral program in biomedical engineering at Michigan State University to conduct in-depth research in the direction of wearable and implantable medical devices. "Although I have achieved some results on this platform, everything has just begun for my future life and academic career."
The unusual path of Qinghai College Entrance Examination students: Go to XJTLU with a score of 985
The results of every college entrance examination candidate have been worked hard for many years. Not many candidates have the "courage" to take the score of 985 colleges and universities but give up the choice of 985, Shan Shengze from Qinghai is one.
His college entrance examination score can get him into 985 universities such as Lanzhou University and Northwest A&F University, but he wants to study business, and graduate students have the idea of studying abroad. If he gives up school and prioritizes his major, he hopes to study business at a university in an economically developed area, but his score is not enough to guarantee that he can choose a business major in the best finance and economics universities in first-tier cities. His high school teacher learned about his idea and recommended him to Sino-foreign cooperative universities. In the end, he came to XJTLU with a score 60 points higher than XJTLU's admission line in Qinghai that year. Because it meets almost all the conditions of his ideals: an excellent business major, Suzhou, which is located in the economically developed region of the Yangtze River Delta, and a high level of international education and high-quality graduates to further their studies.
"At that time, I was the only one who applied to XJTLU in the entire senior year, and the mainstream concepts and choices of my classmates and parents were still 985 and 211 universities." Shan Shengze recalled: "It is impossible to say that I am completely unaffected by the general environment and my peers, and it is not so easy to stick to a maverick choice. "His mother is from Zhejiang and knows a thing or two about Sino-foreign cooperative universities like XJTLU." At that time, my mother supported my choice, she felt that XJTLU's relatively liberal atmosphere was more suitable for my development, and she worked with me to convince my father. ”
Faced with a major choice in the second semester of his freshman year, his father suggested that he consider the emerging big data technology major, and then enter a large company, and if he is self-motivated enough, he can work hard in the direction of a professional manager. Sheng Ze still insists on studying business, and he prefers to study supply chain management at XJTLU Entrepreneur College (Taicang). "I can understand my father's original intention, the business is unstable, and he wants me to choose a relatively easy path. But I just wanted to give it a try, and I hope what I've learned will help my family. Shan Shengze grew up in a merchant family, and since he was a child, running a business is both a familiar and unfamiliar field for him.
In his sophomore year, he began to learn more professional knowledge of business management from the perspective of supply chain, and started an entrepreneurial project - he and his friends founded a campus second-hand electric car trading and leasing company, and achieved a profit. "This experience made me realize that I am a person who likes to challenge myself and solve problems." When a new opportunity came, Shan Shengze started the second stage of entrepreneurship. However, this time, due to changes in the external environment and policies, the project was ultimately aborted. He had to terminate the business because some of the founders of the used electric car project were going to the University of Liverpool to continue their studies.
This frustration prompted him to reflect: "What kind of entrepreneurial project can allow me to incubate it like a child, and no longer a small fight that can be terminated at any time?" I have come to understand one thing, that true entrepreneurship must be necessary and that I can devote myself to it. Shan Shengze came out of the temporary frustration and decided to study hard, improve his cognition and ability, and be ready to wait for an opportunity to realize himself.
The third entrepreneurial project is quietly coming. His father recommended him a project to produce and sell fresh fruit drinks. "His friend asked him to invest in this project, and my father knew that what I learned could be used in this matter, so he asked me to do it." In this start-up, Shan Shengze is mainly responsible for the construction and operation of the company's supply chain. "Our fruit source, water source and production base are all in Qinghai, and the main sales destinations are in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, and the logistics costs in the middle are particularly high. How to reduce logistics costs is the primary problem I want to solve. ”
At that time, there was a course on food supply chain and a visit to Zespri's branch in China. Zespri is a marketing company entrusted to New Zealand kiwifruit farmers, with a 30% share of the global kiwifruit market, of which China is Zespri's largest consumer market in the world. Shan Shengze found that Zespri faced the same problem as them in theory. "Its fresh fruit has to be shipped from New Zealand, and the logistics cost in the middle must be very high. What is its solution? He walked into Zespri to find out. In addition to the company's professional explanation, he also had in-depth exchanges with the relevant person in charge of Zespri's partner, Wanwei Logistics.
Visit Zespri
Shan Shengze learned that VX provided Zespri with integrated logistics solutions, including transportation, warehousing and distribution of fresh fruits. VX is able to provide very professional services and share a distribution network with Zespri to help it effectively control logistics costs. "We're nowhere near as big as Zespri, but there are some concepts that we can borrow well." He persuaded the management to abandon the original idea of self-built logistics and warehousing, and instead to investigate some integrated logistics service providers, and finally promote a set of cost optimization solutions. As the main person in charge, he is also involved in important decisions on the production and marketing of the company. After about a year, he has helped the company build a relatively complete supply chain system, and the company's operation has entered normalization. "We learn more about some theories, and in practice, we need to adapt and innovate according to specific situations."
Throughout his junior year, Shan Shengze was still very busy, but he also won the Excellence Scholarship. "This year, I combined the knowledge I learned with the entrepreneurial experience, learned with a sense of purpose, verified it in practice, and then learned and verified it again - good academic performance and business performance became a matter of course. It's because you try enough that you can seize the opportunity when it comes. ”
Make a project presentation in an innovation and entrepreneurship class
In the next step, Shan Shengze has two directions of planning: one is how to further improve the efficiency of the supply chain system, for which he applied for a master's program in operations research, and has been admitted to the master's degree in supply chain engineering at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore; The other direction is marketing, which he tends to make up for when it comes to running a "front-end" business, and has received an offer for a master's degree in strategic marketing from Imperial College London.
"Keep exercising your ability to think independently, and don't worry about being a maverick and becoming a 'minority'. In my experience, when faced with a choice between college, major, entrepreneurship, and a series of other choices, I would have some maverick ideas and stick to them. I know that this kind of perseverance is not easy, but it is precisely because of this that I have encountered some 'luck'. Shan Shengze said.
Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Gu Qiuping
Proofread by Li Haihui