Photo of Zhu Hongyu standing in front of Harbin Institute of Technology. [Photo/HIT]
Zhu Hongyu, a freshman at the College of Future Technology at Harbin Institute of Technology in northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province, has won prizes in an international engineering mechanics competition, even though he had not taken regular courses in theoretical mechanics before.
Zhou joined the school in September last year and learned about the International Engineering Mechanics Competition (Asian Region) from his teacher.
“I wanted to join the competition even though I was not taking any physics courses at the time,” Zhou said. “I applied to participate, and in the end, I found that I was the only new student eligible for the competition.”
According to him, his courage came from academician Tan Guobin who said in a seminar that students should participate in more competitions they are interested in if they want to make some progress in scientific research.
He had to face multiple challenges. Aside from knowledge of physics topics he had never learned before, the competition also required reading and answering questions in English.
Zhu took online lessons, practiced real questions, and memorized professional terminology for his preparations. To achieve the best self-study result, he scanned online courses in major universities and finally selected the course taught by Professor Ren Yanyu of HIT.
“Professor Ren’s lessons were clear and well-organized, which was very convenient for me,” he said.
Besides self-learning, Zhou also attended training courses organized by HIT and conducted by experienced seniors. Combining their instructions with his own understanding, he summarized 40 pages of notes.
An image of Zhu Hongyu's 40-page notes prepared for the competition. [Photo/HIT]
In early December 2023, just three months after entering school, Zhu traveled to Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, to participate in the competition after successfully passing the pre-selection conducted by the university.
“The competition was generally smooth,” he said. “Even when I encountered unfamiliar terms, I could guess their meanings from the context.”
“However, I also realized that my knowledge reserve is not perfect, and that my foundations are not solid through experience,” he added.
The results are announced a week after the competition. Zhou ranked 63rd among all 600-plus competitors, winning first prize.
He was surprised but still a little annoyed, realizing that he could have won the jackpot if he moved up one place.
“It is unfortunate that I failed to win another grand prize for the university. However, to my delight, my teammates and I won the first team prize,” Zhou said.
Zhu Hongyu (right) builds a robot with his classmates for his freshmen's project plan.[Photo/HIT]
Zhou also attended the National Mathematics Competition for College Students while preparing for the Engineering Mechanics Competition, and won first prize in Heilongjiang Province.
“I think participating in the competition itself is a way to learn,” Zhu explained, referring to why he joined both competitions.
According to Zhou, his daily learning consists of three modules: in-class knowledge for basic fundamentals, competitions for advanced knowledge, and freshman project plan for initial research experience.
He said he is focusing on the school year project now. “If we build a robot and it meets our expectations, we will take it to the competition.”
Chinese education authorities have approved the establishment of Future Technology Schools in 2021 to explore ways to cultivate leading talents in cutting-edge technologies.
