Big World, Big Dream—Studying Abroad Experience Exchange Held Successfully

With the approach of graduation season, many students had observed the graduation defenses of their seniors. Therefore, many students might also have expectations for their own future. In recent years, many students have chosen to continue their studies abroad after graduation. So what benefits studying abroad can bring to students? What are the requirements for studying abroad? How to obtain an offer, and how to live in a foreign country?

Big World, Big Dream, the studying abroad experience exchange was hosted by both Class 1 of Grade 20 of Department of Road & Railway Engineering and Graduate Student Union of the School of Civil Engineering (SCE) at 14:30 on May 25. And the above questions were covered at the exchange.

Mr. Zhang Aonan (Allen Zhang), with the background of studying abroad, was invited to this activity and to give some advice for students.

Mr. Zhang completed his PhD and post-doctorate degree in Oklahoma State University, USA. His research mainly focused on 3D intelligent detection on road based on a new generation of artificial intelligence. Mr. Zhang had great passion in deep learning and computer programming. Besides, he has long been engaged in road disease intelligent recognition algorithm research and software system development. His research findings had been widely applied to road inspection practices in China, the United States, Japan, India, South Africa, Brazil and so on. Moreover, Mr. Zhang’s cumulative inspection service mileage exceeded 50,000 kilometers, and he has published more than 20 SCI academic papers, 7 of which were published in the leading journals.

Mr. Zhang introduced his experience of studying abroad from seven aspects and each aspect was exactly summarized by a line of Chinese poem.

1. Application: Reading makes me unaware of the passing time, and time is so precious.

2. Setting off: No pain, no gain.

3. Embracing the new life: When autumn’s Golden Wind embraces Dew of Jade, all the love scenes on earth, however many, fade.

4. Absorbed in studying: Reading is very enjoyable, just like enjoying the bright moon in autumn.

5. Academic research: The shadow of the bamboo outside the window is still swaying on the desk, and the spring water in the distance flows into the inkstone pond.

6. Enjoying Life: To remain indifferent to personal gains and losses, look idly in front of the courtyard the flower blossoms falls. The remove or retain has no intention, to inundate the cloud volume cloud extends along with the day outside.

7. Graduation: Honing gives a sharp edge to a sword, and bitter cold adds keen fragrance to plum blossom.

Mr. Zhang shared his eight-year studying experience in the USA with the audience through the seven lines. He introduced his experience in detail, coupled with the humorous expressions. His lecture was interesting and informative which helped students benefit a lot. Mr. Zhang started his sharing with the following words: “What I convey to you today is not from the perspective of a teacher. I am not going to teach everyone of you here what you should do, but to share my experience just as a senior student. And I will try my best to share more information with you.”

During his eight-year studying away, Mr. Zhang tasted the joys and sorrows of life. The students present all felt Mr. Zhang’s kindness as his sharing was so meticulous, from how to apply to a dreaming university, what issues students should pay attention to in the visa interview, what to bring in the suitcase on the plane, how to contact others when getting off the plane, to how to adapt to the life abroad, which courses students should choose, how to learn and how to conduct research. With detailed information, Mr. Zhang helped the students understand the true life of studying abroad as well as the harvest the experience could bring.

However, the most impressive part of this lecture is about academic research. In this part, Mr. Zhang emphasized that, students should get out of their comfort zone, find their passion and their interests. Then Mr. Zhang share a story about one special course: there were 40 students at the very beginning. But at the end of the semester, only three students did not drop, and he was one of them. He said, “That course was very demanding, but very rewarding.” “Actually, I didn’t follow the course at the beginning; I just recorded it with a recording pen and after I went back to the dormitory, I listened to it again and again even when I was quite sleepy.” It was the persistence that enabled Mr. Zhang to become one of the academic research elites in his supervisor’s team very early, and helped himself figure out his real research interest. Mr. Zhang took his papers very seriously, and was dedicated to publishing papers in those top journals with highest impact factor in his research field. Just as harvest comes from the persistence, one of his papers published in 2017 ranked third among the top ten most-cited papers inCACAIEevery year.

At the end of the exchange meeting, Mr. Zhang expressed his wishes towards the students, “I hope all of you can harvest something and have a bright future! Besides, I also hope that more and more students can study abroad and learn some knowledge frontier to serve the motherland as soon as possible.” Thanks to Mr. Zhang, for his lecture rendering deeper understanding of the life of studying abroad for students.