It’s been more than a year since I started my journey in Class of Engineering at Shanghai High School, where, for the first time in my life, I tried to truly think like an innovator and got my hands on my first project. It’s really a great fortune for me to participate in this academic interchange activity with professors from the University of Tsukuba during the final term of my project. This activity never meant only to improve our projects and receive advice from the professors. In my view, the role it plays is more like a sophisticated mentor—broadening our horizons, giving us brand new insights, and leading all of us to an unfamiliar world hidden inside our daily encounters.

The day started off with addresses from the leaders of the two schools. As an academic exchange program, the activity represents far more than the mere friendship between the two schools. A university in Japan and a high school in China, connected by their common pursuit for the advanced innovation in the field of science, perfectly demonstrate one of the pure benefits of globalization. This generation is meant to be different from the earlier ones in that information exchange appears to be at the peak of the recent generations. Only through such conversation between the youth and the elders, the successors and the predecessors, can we construct a more open and pluralistic science community.

The addresses were followed by seven lectures given by the professors, covering the fields of environmental science, biochemistry, medical science, computer science, linguistics, etc. The huge flow of new information stunned me a little, at the very beginning. But as the lectures went on and on I found myself greatly attracted and inspired by the essence of modern science that can be extracted out from the lectures. I don’t think I have fully understood all of the theories and mechanisms that each of the professors presented, due to the lack of contextual knowledge. However, I figured for myself that the core value of modern science may be categorized into three main ideas: the discovery of basic scientific nature, the breakthrough in human limit and the pursuit for balance of power between the nature and human civilization. These three idea don’t vary in significance, and thus should be laid equal emphasis on. The pathology of Staphylococcus aureus, the application of biochemistry in photocatalyst, the fundamental mechanism of big data, and the severity of water crisis, all of these hot issues covered by the lectures unfolded an incomplete and yet astonishing picture in front of me, and led me to believe that the power of modern science is immeasurable.

It is said by some that sciences are  for the material world while liberal arts are for the spiritual world. Part of it makes sense, as the foundation of science lies on matters and that of liberal arts lies on human spirit. But I won’t agree if one says that spiritual matters don’t play a part in science. From these lectures I can see the passion and devotion of these professors in their own field. I can see that it’s literally their deep love for science that drives them towards this one-direction journey. It is human curiosity that we can’t afford to lose in this modernized and mechanized world.

In the afternoon I was honored to have a chance to present my own project to the distinguished professors. The project that I’ve been working on is the construction of an “Intelligent Fire Evacuation System Based on the Internet of Things”. During my presentation I demonstrated the overall design, and general mechanism and research purpose of my project. As a member of the telecommunication research group, I tried to make full use of the power of telecommunication, in this case the Zigbee technology, to allow communication among numerous devices to achieve information exchange. The exchange of information between the devices can go on to further achieve more communication between the devices and humans. As in the case of fire, the system can help to mitigate the information asymmetry between the fire emergency devices and the trapped visitors. I was glad to receive positive evaluation from the professors, along with suggestions for the further optimization of the evacuation system. For instance, though the Zigbee technology is currently rarely used in the field of fire emergence, but problems do emerge in its use in other fields, and it would be better for me to look up these problems and try to overcome them in my project. Also, the professors suggested that I develop different additional functions for the systems adaptation to different groups of people that it might be dealing with, for example the youths and the elders. I am truly grateful for the advice that I received and is now enthusiastic about improving my project for the better.

All in all I would consider it a truly wonderful experience to participate in the insightful exchange activity with the honorable professors. I hope that the same interchange activity can go on to benefit and inspire more students.

作者：陈湘蘅
责任编辑：吴启凡