On the 26th of February, the launching ceremony of the first phase of GIFT Future Scholar Program of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) was successfully held in Room B418 of the Administration Building. Xi Lifeng, Member of the Standing Committee of SJTU Party Committee and Vice President of SJTU; Wu Jingyi, Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs; Fang Xi, Secretary General of the Student Guidance Committee; Han Haibo, Deputy Director of Academic Development and Achievement of the Academy of Scientific Research; Tong Yuerong, Deputy Director of Academic Affairs; Tang Haoming, Deputy Secretary of SJTU Youth League Committee; Ni Jun, Dean of Global Institute of Future Technology (GIFT); Yang Ming, Secretary of Party Committee; Ma Chengbin, Li Mian and Wang Chong, Assistants to the Dean, as well as all the faculty members and students who are involved in the GIFT Future Scholar Program attended the event. The launching ceremony was hosted by Yang Ming.
Xi Lifeng delivered a speech on behalf of the university. He said, the GIFT Future Scholar Program was born in the soil of breakthroughs and innovations, built a good platform for students to practice scientific research, and formed a systematic program to cultivate students' traits such as global competence, cutting-edge innovativeness, cross-disciplinary background, and excellent leadership to lead the development of the society and industrial changes. It is hoped that students will make good use of this opportunity to establish academic beliefs, cultivate scientific literacy, and firmly serve their country, and strive to become strategic international science and technology leaders.
Wang Chong introduced the organization of the GIFT Future Scholar Program from the perspectives of guiding principles, program design, preparatory progress and resource support.
Wu Jingyi announced the list of students. Xi Lifeng, Wu Jingyi, Fang Xi, Han Haibo, Tong Yuerong, and Tang Haoming presented the project certificates to the students.
Professor Li Weidong fromGIFT spoke on behalf of the instructors of The GIFT Future Scholar Program. He used “trust”, “challenge” and “transcendence” as the key words and put forward expectations and suggestions to the GIFT future scholars.
He Xu, a junior majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering at UM-SJTU Joint Institute, and Xia Yiwei, a freshman at UM-SJTU Joint Institute, as student representatives, talked about their initial intention of participating in the program and what they expected to gain from it.
Finally, Ni Jun gave closing remarks. Based on his own study experience, he emphasized the importance of cross-disciplinary integration for talent cultivation. He hopes that teachers and students can break through the limitations of their own original disciplines, make full use of GIFT as a teaching and research platform of large span and multidisciplinary intersection, make progress together in teaching and learning, and become the pillars leading the field of science and technology in the future. He further stated that under the leadership of high-level faculty and with theadvantages of industry-education integration, every student involved in the GIFT Future Scholar Program can find his or her own scientific research interests and aspirations, activate unlimited energy, and grow up to be international strategic scientific and technological leaders in the future.
