Students of Zhejiang University attended IAPME-ZJU Summer School in Macau

MACAU - Led by Professor Daomu Zhao, Associate Chair of Department of Physics of ZJU, and Ms. Ting Zhou, thirty undergraduate and graduate students of the Department of Physics and the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Zhejiang University (ZJU) attended the Summer School hosted by the Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering (IAPME) of the University of Macau (UM). During the six-day visit from July 7^th to July 12^th, the teachers and students took active participation in various activities including lectures, campus tour, lab session, etc.

Fig. 1: Teachers and students of ZJU at Wu Yee Sun Library, UM.

On the first day, a ceremony was held to welcome the teachers and students of Zhejiang University, where Professor Ka-Veng Yuen, Dean of the Graduate School of UM, gave an opening speech and Professor Tang Zikang, Director of IAPME, made a brief introduction of the institute. Despite the fact that the institute is young and has a small faculty, it is an ideal place for research with the benefit from the development plan for Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, according to Professor Tang.

After a quick but joyful self introduction session, teachers of both ZJU and UM gave fascinating lectures concerning their fields of research respectively on July 8^th and July 9^th.

Associate Professor Hui Pan put forward the concept of material genome and elucidated the basic model of material design. Assistant Professor Guichuan Xing introduced perovskite, a kind of photoelectric material, in detail. Professor Daomu Zhao talked about the cultivation of innovative talents of undergraduates with the participation in “Challenge Cup”. Assistant Professor Huaiyu Shaoand Assistant Professor Yuxin Tang both talked about the battery, comparing the advantages of different kinds of battery and narrating their history respectively. Professor Songnan Quintroduced the physical properties and medical applications of carbon dots. Assistant Professor Shuangpeng Wang introduced the evolution of luminescent materials and compared the characteristics between OLED and QLED in different perspectives. Finally, Assistant Professor Guoxing Sun introduced two kinds of new materials based on his interest and specialty: hydrogel and foam cement.

Fig. 2: Professors of ZJU and UM giving lectures.

On July 9^th, students had the opportunity to go inside the laboratories, learn the basic equipments and their proper operating methods, and even make a piece of material by themselves.

There were ten experiments for students to choose from, namely “Introduction to scanning electron microscope”, “Micro-Raman Spectroscopy”, “X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy”, “Perovskite LED”, “Flexible Materials and Devices”, “Quantum Matter Group”, “Material Genome”, “Quantum Dot LED”, “Polymer Hydrogels and Foam Cement”.

A campus tour was arranged on the afternoon of 8^th and a one-day tour in Macau on 10^th. Undergraduate students of UM guided all participants through the facilities such as Wu Yee Sun library and the sports complex thoroughly. The city tour began from the Ruins of St. Paul’s (Dasanba) to the Macau museum, followed by a boat tour to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. The final stop of the tour was A-Ma Temple and the Maritime Museum of Macau. A-Ma Temple has a long history of approximately five hundred years, protecting the local fishermen, as they believe, from accidents or natural disasters.

Fig. 3: A guided tour inside the laboratories of IAPME, UM. 

On the morning of 11th, doctoral students from ZJU and UM gave academic presentations on their fields of research and experiments. Undergraduate students who participated in the summer camp shared their impressions during the summer camp in the afternoon.

Fig. 4: Graduate Students of ZJU giving academic presentations.

Fig. 5: Undergraduates of ZJU sharing experience and thoughts during the summer camp.

“Through this lab session and discussion, we are able to take an inside view to the development of advanced materials,” said Sheyu Chen, one of the junior undergraduate participant of ZJU. “We learn that the requirements of research and actual mass production of a new material could be quite different,” explained Hongjing Xu and Songyi Chen, also junior students, “because researchers mainly focus on the optimization of one certain aspect of its performance while in mass production the key is to lower the cost and the barrier of production process.”

In summary, the summer camp was truly an unforgettable and enjoyable experience. Through a series of lectures, experiments and different activities, the participants were able to gain a deeper understanding of physics, materials science and their applications. At the same time, sincere gratitude must be given to the organizers of IAPME for their wonderful effort. At the end, IAPME-ZJU summer camp could serve as a solid platform for academic cooperation and communication between ZJU and UM.