PostTime：3/28/2022
Following the footsteps of the first cohort, the exciting news is coming from cohort 2018. Students are receiving offers from overseas prestigious universities. Up to now, 101 GTIIT students have received 286 offers of admissions to master/doctoral programs from 83 prestigious universities around the world.
Time flies and the second cohort of students are going to graduate from Guangdong Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT) this year. From this article, we will present a series of interviews with the graduates from the Class of 2022, to show their stories at GTIIT in the past four years.
Here is the story of Wu Shipei, a student of the Class of 2022 from the Materials Science and Engineering Program.
Wu Shipei
Major in: Materials Science and Engineering
High School: Shenzhen High School of Science
Awards:
2020 Vice-Chancellor's list
2020 Academic Excellence Scholarship (2nd Prize)
2019 Academic Excellence Scholarship (3rd Prize)
2019 Dean's list
2018 Chancellor's Scholarship (3rd Prize)
Received offers from: McGill University, with McGill Engineering Doctoral Award (MEDA)*
*The McGill Engineering Doctoral Awards (MEDA) program aims to recruit the best and brightest new doctoral students from all over the world. Selection for this award is based on the excellence of a student's academic and research record, including publications, presentations and his or her potential to make a major impact on the quality of research in the Faculty of Engineering at McGill University and in the field of engineering. MEDA are offered by the Faculty of Engineering, and are cost-shared with the student's Department/School or supervisor.
“I would say my success is just a matter of luck,” said Wu Shipei, a GTIIT senior student who had been admitted by McGill University and won McGill Engineering Doctoral Award (MEDA). The truth is, luck is what happens when this young guy’s preparation meets opportunity.
“GTIIT is more like a boutique, small but with strong academic atmosphere,” Wu talks about his first impression about GTIIT. The ratio of students to teachers is about 10:1, enabling each student to exchange ideas with the professors; students are encouraged to join the professors’ research team as early as possible to develop research and innovation skills while strengthening their knowledge base. GTIIT’s innovation system had sowed the seeds for Wu, leading him to pursue further study in his interested field.
Researchers are the Ones with Passion and Perseverance
Wu was fascinated by Professor Wang Nan’s research interest out of their similar interest in physics, and managed to join his research group in sophomore year, meeting with computational materials. Following the tradition in GTIIT, the professor assigned a topic to the research group, in which each student was required to independently complete his own part. This is the very first test for students who want to be researchers.
Wu encountered many unexpected problems as a freshman in the research world. Not only did he read a bunch of theses to find models that fit the research, but he also tried to “fix the short board”—spending more time to supplement his professional knowledge to meet the requirements.
At that stage, Wu’s life was occupied by papers, reports, models and data. He laughed, "Fortunately, I can stand loneliness!" High achievers are united in their passion for science, perseverance, hard work and lifelong learning, thus they make breakthroughs on the way of pursuing what they love.
Wu Shipei in the rugby team
Life Compass Consisted of Interest and Ability
Looking back at the four years in GTIIT, Wu gladly found that he had formed a particular way of thinking -- analyzing materials with mathematics and physics solutions. Also in the research experience, he gradually discovered his interest in computational materials and planned to chase further study.
With rich and deep research experience in the relevant field, Wu successfully received the offer from McGill University.” It was a big surprise! I had never expected to receive the dream offer," Wu said. He would like to thank Prof. Wang for all his guidance and training in research, and also teachers from GTIIT Career Competencies Center, for their advice in career planning.
"Try as soon as possible and don’t be afraid of mistakes" is the advice Wu would like to give to the GTIIT juniors. He believes that if you are interested in something, you should be involved in it as early as possible, to know whether you really like and fit in it. "Take science research as an example. Freshmen may have no idea what it is, thus they should seize opportunities to join the research group provided by GTIIT. In this way we can better plan for the future.”
