HUTB Achieves Outstanding Results in China International College Students’ Innovation Competition 2024

2024-10-23

Recently, Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, sent a letter to the student representatives of the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition, offering warm encouragement and expressing his earnest expectations for the participants.

The China International College Students' Innovation Competition is jointly organized by the Ministry of Education, relevant departments, and provincial-level people's governments. This year, the competition attracted over 20 million university students from 153 countries and regions, making it the Ministry of Education's largest competition of "hundreds of countries, thousands of colleges, and millions of participants." The final was held at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

This year, there were a total of 5.21 million entries nationwide. In this highly competitive event, where the odds of winning a gold medal were only 0.00009%, our university students overcame numerous challenges, fought tenaciously, and embodied the spirit of our university motto, "Sincerity & Credibility; Pragmatism & Innovation." They ultimately won 2 silver and 5 bronze medals. Among the awards, in the Higher Education Main Track, our students won 1 silver and 5 bronze medals, ranking third in the province, and becoming the only undergraduate institution in the province to enter the "Silver to Gold" resurrection round. In the highly competitive Industrial Proposition Track, our undergraduate team competed alongside teams from top-tier universities, including doctoral teams from Project 985 universities across the country. They demonstrated a strong sense of national pride and responsibility, securing one of the two national silver awards won by our province.

The "Breaking the Super Difficult Problem in the Field of Gas Leak Monitoring” team that won the National Silver Award in the Higher Education Main Track was composed of 15 interdisciplinary undergraduate students. The team focused on the challenging problem of gas leaks in complex environments, conducting over 300 experiments. They achieved multiple technological breakthroughs, and the gas detection device they developed, which generates images, demonstrated outstanding performance in areas such as location accuracy, detection range, and response speed. The device has shown significant effectiveness in pilot tests with several companies. Project leader Liu Jing said, "During the development process, we faced many challenges, and every step forward was the result of the team's hard work and wisdom. After reading the letter from General Secretary Xi Jinping to the representatives of students participating in the China International College Students’ Innovation Competition, I was deeply inspired and greatly encouraged. This recognition from the country's top leader made me realize that we are not just participating in a high-level competition, but in the technological innovation practices necessary for the country's development. Promoting technological progress is our mission and responsibility as university students."

The "Intelligent Acoustic Monitoring Solution for Natural Gas Pipeline Leaks" team, which won the National Silver Award in the Industrial Proposition Track, relied on the Xiangjiang Laboratory's science and technology innovation platform. After three years of technical research, the team obtained multiple patents and software copyrights, and published several high-level papers. The team's innovations in microphone array arrangement, sound source imaging algorithms, and specialized voiceprint databases effectively addressed the technical requirements set by the sponsoring company. Project leader Yang Wenhao said, "General Secretary Xi Jinping's earnest expectations for our generation of youth inspire us to maintain our love for and pursuit of science, to be grounded, and to dare to explore. We believe that having seen the peak, we are better motivated to challenge even higher peaks. Following the technological innovation leadership of Xiangjiang Laboratory, we will work even harder to contribute our youthful strength to advancing scientific progress and societal development."

The achievements in this competition could not have been realized without the high attention from the CPC HUTB Committee. The university has set the cultivation of high-quality, interdisciplinary talents with innovative spirit and practical abilities as an important goal in talent development. Professor Chen Xiaohong, Secretary of CPC HUTB Committee, Director of Xiangjiang Laboratory, and CAE Academician, has repeatedly emphasized the need to strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship education, deepen the integration of entrepreneurship and employment, and personally serves as the head of the university's employment and entrepreneurship leadership group. She has proactively planned, systematically deployed, and for many years, provided guidance and support for technical research and competition preparation. The Employment and Entrepreneurship Guidance Division has conscientiously implemented the university's decisions and plans, closely collaborating with various secondary schools, as well as the Undergraduate School, Graduate School, Scientific Research Administration Division, Student Affairs Division, the Committee of the CYLC, and other departments. Together, they have created a broad platform for university students' innovation and entrepreneurship and provided comprehensive, full-process support and guarantee for the competition. It can be said that every award reflects the collective effort and hard work of the Chief Leader, secondary schools, functional departments, and the faculty and students. These achievements are hard-earned.

The university will be guided by the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's letter, further fostering a strong atmosphere for innovation and entrepreneurship, and creating a higher-quality platform for university students' innovation and entrepreneurship. In the process of making Changsha a global R&D center city and advancing Hunan's vision of "Three Highlands, Four New Missions," the university encourages young students to actively engage in technological innovation and contribute to the great achievements of the new generation in the wave of innovation and entrepreneurship.

(Reported by the Employment and Entrepreneurship Guidance Division (School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship))