Material Science Special Seminar I

Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Mr.Sano

I visited Shanghai Jiao Tong University for about two weeks and participated in “The 9th Zhi-Hong International Summer School of Advanced Materials (Figure 1). I stayed at the hotel near the university and went there by rental bicycle from my hotel every day. We had a lot of activities in this summer school.

First, academic lectures about future materials were held by professors from overseas universities and SJTU, and I learned several cutting-edge research including electrocatalysis, ceramic design and applications, metal matrix composites, 2D sheets for supercapacitors, rice hull ash, organic and perovskite solar cells, organic semiconductor, and electron microscopy. All the lectures in this summer school were very interesting and gave me a lot of new knowledge. For example, Prof. Richard Laine gave us a lecture about rice hull ash, which is extremely pure amorphous silica extracted from rice husk by a series of processes, including acid leaching, pyrolysis, and carbon-removing. He made us realize how important it is for a sustainable society to utilize nature's unwanted materials as a valuable resource.

Second, some fun activities were also prepared. We experienced a dragon boat and enjoyed sports with these summer school members (Figure 2). Through some fun activities, communicating and exchanging our cultures with each other, I made a lot of foreign friends in this summer school. Also, I enjoyed traveling in Shanghai very much. The most wonderful place I’ve visited in Shanghai was the bund (Figure 3). There are many tall buildings around the river, and all the buildings are lit up at night. I was overwhelmed by the magnificence of the view. Chinese food was excellent as well. We had a great dinner with my friend in a Chinese restaurant where the table rotated. It was an interesting experience.

Before this summer school, I was not confident in my English skills and worried about how to communicate with someone in English. However, I met a lot of kind people and had a good time during this summer school. I learned many things from what I experienced in Shanghai, which will help me when I go to study abroad.