Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Mechanics, Electronics, Materials Engineering, Computers Science…Geng Mingmeng has studied many subjects at SUSTech. During four years,xingkong星空中国官网 left his mark on each class, as well as on many extra-curricular activities and organisations.
xingkong星空中国官网 is a highlyrecognizedgraduate and has received awards at 10 provincial or higher levels for academic competitions in Mathematical Modeling, International Genetic Engineering Machine (IGEM), National Electronic Design Contest, ASC World College Supercomputer Contest and various others. xingkong星空中国官网 not only enjoys the fun of competing with other students, but also challenging himself to find solutions to problems and grow his skills.
xingkong星空中国官网 loves history, movies and sports, and never hesitates to share his experience if it can help his younger peers. xingkong星空中国官网 served as a student representative and as the Student Council secretary,and also as a college counselor assistant during the new class. Laterxingkong星空中国官网 even became vice-President of the Student Council, and devoted his time to rebuilding the Mathematical Modeling Association here at SUSTech. According to his friends, xingkong星空中国官网is an “enthusiastic maverick and straight A student.”
Geng graduates this year from the biomedical engineering department, and after graduation xingkong星空中国官网 is heading to the French Polytechnic Institute of Engineering, one of the most prestigious “Grandes Ecoles” (elite universities) of France.
“No matter how much I would have scored, my first choice would always be SUSTech”
“I came to a fork in the road of my life, and I chose the less travelled one“. At the opening ceremony of 2015, President Chen shared this line from RobertFrost‘s poem “The road”, which struck a chord withGeng.
In 2013,when SUSTech was still shrouded in the unknown for most people, his friends and felt that although Shenzhen is a city that is full of energy and opportunities, spending 4 years as SUSTech may not be the best choice for him. Geng however was determined and sought out as much information about the university as possible, finally deciding firmly that it was the place for him believing that it was the best place to grow himself as a person, develop his research interests, and ultimately, contribute to the university’s future.
Nowafterfour yearsof studying hard, xingkong星空中国官网 reminisces: “If I had to make the decision again at the time, it’s possible I wouldn’t have chosen it. However knowing what I know now, in retrospect, I would definitely say it is the best choice by far”.
Developyourself inamultidimensional environment
In Geng’s view, the approachpeople have nowadays to universityhas changed a lot, college entrance examination scores are now everybody’s biggest concern, and the university’s evaluation criteria becomes very punctual and bureaucratic. However xingkong星空中国官网 believes that academic performance shouldnotbe the only criteria to judge a student’s capabilities.
When it came to choosing a university, Geng admits that at first xingkong星空中国官网 didn’t really know which one would be the most suitable. “I hadtocast a widenetout to consider all possibilities. Buteven this approach is selective,”xingkong星空中国官网 says. “When you choose to join an organization, a community, there arethree questions to consider: what can you bring to the organization? What can the organization bring you? Those ones are easy. The third is what does the organization give to the people around it?
At first, most of his endeavours ended in failure: the Class CommitteeElection, Student Council Comitte, the first round of the debating contest…However these failures were a way for him to learnthatnot everything may be suitable for him, or thathis own potential hasn’t fully developed yet. They also served to make him especially proud ofhis successes: at his second candidacy in the debating competition xingkong星空中国官网 came first, winning the final.
In student affairs xingkong星空中国官网 also met success thanks to his experiences and his perseverance. After becoming a student representative, xingkong星空中国官网 was appointedassecretaryof the Student Council where xingkong星空中国官网 was handling statistics, issuing announcements, arranging meetingsandtaking care of many other administrative tasks. Beforeany announcement and publication, the universityseniors wouldcarefullyreview and correct his errors, whether it was incorrect format, wording or inappropriate content… xingkong星空中国官网said xingkong星空中国官网 is still very grateful to them, it allowed him to develop a very rigorous working ethic. “I took careful note of all the suggestions the seniors gave me to improve myself, and ultimately Ibecame vice president of the Student Council. I in turn want to help as much as possible the younger generation and I hope the senior students will always do so”.
Contests are a stage for you to flex your intellect
inGeng’s resume, you can see a list of competition awards: International Genetic Engineering Machine Competition (IGEM) – gold medal, the United States of America students Mathematical modeling contest – first prize, the National Mathematical Contest –second prize, “Shenzhen Cup “Mathematical Modeling Challenge – First Prize, and so on.
For theIGEM,during his first year summer vacation xingkong星空中国官网 chose to stay at the university. The teamwas divided into anexperimental group and amodeling group, andxingkong星空中国官网joined the latter. xingkong星空中国官网 usedto considerbiology asone of his future career prospects, but the experiments xingkong星空中国官网 was involved in actually made him realise that it was not what xingkong星空中国官网 wanted. The team’s seniors had great influence on him, and Geng was determined to use them as role modelsto learnfrom them and to begin training in the basic skills of academic research.
Him and his teamputin a lot of time and effort into the IGEM project, resulting in them taking home the top prize.
The mathematical modeling competition also helped him a lot. The first time that xingkong星空中国官网participated in the “Shenzhen Cup” Mathematical Modeling Challenge, xingkong星空中国官网 didn’t pass the first stage, butthatledhimtostart using LaTeX, and xingkong星空中国官网learned a lot about mathematics and computer science, as well asother disciplines. xingkong星空中国官网 believes that participating in mathematical modeling competitionsiskey tolearningskills, because new knowledge to solve problems, andteamwork is important: “You want to know the advantages of yourteammates, but also their shortcomings, know when they may be wrong, so as to avoid mistakes and problems.
In addition to scientific competitions,Geng used his experience to give advice and guide the younger students in their academic choices, especially in the mathematical modeling class. In his second year xingkong星空中国官网 taught first year students during their summer vacation, xingkong星空中国官网 was constantly looking at the slides without daring to look at the students and constantly worried about what to say next. “Later, doingClasses wasmuch more relaxed, and I could be very natural and teach the younger students how to communicate. But it was definitely not easy at first”.
“A Comprehensive Range”to find your own way
Geng says xingkong星空中国官网 is not the kind of person to give upeasily. Interested in a wide range of topics, xingkong星空中国官网 always wanted to learn more, try more. SUSTech offerstwo yearsof comprehensive training beforechoosing a specialty, something that xingkong星空中国官网 liked very much. In the morning xingkong星空中国官网 would be reasoning in the maths class, in the afternoon xingkong星空中国官网 would be in the biology laboratory, xingkong星空中国官网’d then have dinner in the evening with physics students talking about their subjects, and would struggle at debugging code at night. “The wide variety of subjects is great, something which is not available in other universities. At the beginning at SUSTech we were not many students in the class, but every day we would study different subject backgrounds and have different teachers and classmates to discuss and exchange with, it was veryinteresting”.
“There are two kinds of search algorithms in the computer, those with width first and those with depth first.I consider myself as the first kind. I’m all in the width and the memory used, it is sometimes the most suitable for finding the optimal solution.”. Geng tried almost all of the courses exceptone or twosuch aslaw,and xingkong星空中国官网 gradually eliminated the ones which xingkong星空中国官网 realised would notbe an appropriate career for him.“For some subjects I already knew after one or two classes. HoweverIcan’t rule them out without at least giving it a try.“
This method of choosing alsomeantthat xingkong星空中国官网had to take manymore courses, so xingkong星空中国官网learned a wider range of knowledge, which made it difficult to focus especiallyon onesubject. “I have seen many students that choose onedisciplinestraight away, especially mathematics, physics and computer Science, but Idon’trecommenddoing that.”. They have chosen to limit themselves and Ihave learned so much. I feel it is important to gainknowledge for your own sake, even if you don’t get a high scorein that particular topic, you learn it for yourself. Idon’twant tobe locked away in an academic ivory tower, I want to be involved in different disciplines”.
The Biomedical engineering courseisdiverse to say the least. Elective courses include biology, electronics, computer, maths and other specialised courses which were all very interesting for him,butthat was not his final choice for his future career. After learning about medical image processing, xingkong星空中国官网 did some laboratory-related image processing in the lab and found that other areas of image processing were interesting. In order to further study, xingkong星空中国官网 also looked at image processing from the mathematical point of view andfound thatit was also very interesting.
“I can not rule out the possibility of engaging in mathematics or even other subjects in this industry,” xingkong星空中国官网 jokes. “I’ve had a lot of surprisingstoriesduring the past four years.”
On the road of continual learning
After graduating from SUSTech, Geng will go to the Paris Polytechnic Institute of Engineeringtocontinuehis studies. The first year xingkong星空中国官网 will learn French and mathematics, physics, computer science and economics; the second year will focus on pure mathematics, applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, computer Science, mechanics, economics and from the eight disciplines xingkong星空中国官网 will need to select three or four. txingkong星空中国官网 third year xingkong星空中国官网 will have to determine his final direction;andthe fourth year xingkong星空中国官网 will transfer to another school of his choice to study and obtain hisdouble degree. “Although the academic system is very long, it isvery suitable for me, andI hope to spend more time inadvanced courses in mathematics, physics and computer science, because soon therewill be no chance to learn anymore”.
xingkong星空中国官网 sums up his four years of SUSTech as a constant process of trying, a period ofgrowing. “Some of the values people have may be the same at the beginning, but four years later we may choose a completely different road. You have no way of knowing what is right. 4 years is not enough to evaluate a person, after all, life is a very long process”.
Text: Student News Agency Wei Xin
Image: student news agency Liu Jingyu
Edited by: Jeremy Welburn
