Keep the Passion and Go for the Deam—the 34th Session of “Face-to-Face Exchange with Professors” Held by SCE on April 20, 2021

The activity of “Face-to-Face Exchange with Professors”, organized by Center for Student Learning and Development of the School of Civil Engineering (SCE), was held at X4250 at 7:30 pm, April 20. Professor Shao Changjiang was invited to communicate with our students face to face.

Mr. Shao, graduated from Sichuan University with a bachelor’s degree, participated in successive postgraduate and doctoral programs of study at Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) and later received his postdoctoral degree from Tongji University and was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Mr. Shao is now an associate professor and doctoral supervisor of Department of Bridge Engineering of SWJTU as well as the technical director of National Engineering Laboratory in Geohazard Prevention Technology for Land Transportation.

At the beginning of the exchange, students learned how Mr. Shao studied and his daily work through the questions of the host Wang Yitong. After that, Mr. Shao made a brief introduction of his learning experience. Actually, Mr. Shao began to work after graduation. After working for five years, he came to study in SWJTU by chance, to pursue his master’s degree and doctoral degree. During this period, Mr. Shao rediscovered his passion when he used to study in campus and thus he was determined to do scientific research. Later, Mr. Shao went to Tongji University for his postdoctoral degree. During that period, he had read all the books related to his own major in the library. Then Mr. Shao responded to the call of the country to study abroad for academic exchanges with scholars from foreign universities. After this, Mr. Shao has always maintained awe and love for the research projects, and has been working hard on that.

Later, the host asked Mr. Shao what kind of talents were suitable for civil engineering. He pointed out that the persons who knew how to learn actively, broadened their knowledge, and engaged in systematical and comprehensive study were exactly what civil engineering needed, and such talents were also needed for future scientific research. At the same time, Mr. Shao took the Spirit of the Two Bombs as an example and described how these characters influenced individuals’ scientific research.

Then came to the question time for students. In particular, two students asked Mr. Shao about their own puzzles: one was how to choose a specific major from civil engineering, and the other was about future choice between preparing for postgraduate entrance examination and seeking for a job. Mr. Shao answered these two questions in detail. When the activity was over, many students still came to Mr. Shao with questions.

So far, this activity of “Face-to-Face Exchange with Professors”came to an end successfully, and all the students gained a lot from Mr. Shao’s lecture.