The scientific research in the laboratory is proceeding in an orderly manner, and the brilliant online scientific lectures and scientific seminars are in progress. On peaceful and safe campus, teachers and students work together as usual.

Pan Qianfeng, a 2019 graduate student majoring in chemical engineering of the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, has just made a breakthrough in scientific research, and his thesis experiment is also in progress. His supervisor, Wang Yang, associate professor of the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, has always been with his students in the laboratory, which gives Pan Qianfeng strong support.

Associate Prof. Wang moved to an apartment on campus so that he could pay more attention to the research process of his students in the research group and give students instructions on their scientific research in a timely manner. Besides, as he has a strong passion for volunteer service, he is eager to take an active part in various volunteer activities on campus.

Associate Professor Wang and his student are in the lab.

Associate Prof. Wang’s two graduate students and one international student will graduate soon. He is also the class tutor of the 2018 undergraduate class. “As graduation is approaching, the students are taking more pressure, especially brought by the postgraduate entrance examination and the PhD interview.” Prof. Wang said.

The family of Prof. Hu Shi from the School of Science are not in Tianjin, and he lives on campus with his students. Prof. Hu has over ten students, three of whom are graduate students facing graduation. Even under such circumstances, he and his students can balance their scientific research and life well. “For example, I arrive at 8 am and leave at 10 pm, but I don't require my students to do so. They can arrange their own time.” Prof. Hu said with a smile, refusing to bring students more stress caused by the restricted schedule.

Professor Hu Shi and his students.

Prof. Hu discovered that in the School of Science more than 30 teachers and leaders kept students’ company like him, of whom some were professional teachers, some were counselors and others were college leaders. Prof. Zhang Libing is also one of them. He lives in an apartment on campus and spends almost every day in the lab with students, only taking one day off on weekends occasionally.

Professor Zhang Libing and his student.

In the School of Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Ren Chengzu is working with students and engineers to carry out national key R&D projects these days. “Many engineering problems must be handled face to face, so it is difficult for students to complete the work independently without the teacher’s help.” He knew that many teachers chose to stay on campus like him, such as Prof. Song Yimin and teacher Yang Shaoqiong.

In the research group of Prof. Yu Jianxing from the School of Civil Engineering, Prof. Yu led the graduate students to cut and process the full-size deep-sea thick-walled steel pipe specimens for experiments, and carried out a series of deep-water and deep-sea structural experiments in response to the difficulty in processing pipe fittings for experiments, which provided the basis for the design of the equipment used in the South China Sea. In addition to leading students in scientific research, he also delivers online lectures to undergraduates.

Professor Yu Jianxing and his student.

In the large-scale instrument testing platform of the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, teacher Zou Shaolan stay on campus occasionally to handle daily affairs and some temporary and emergent issues, such as network failure, chemical supplies purchasing and receiving registration, and equipment troubleshooting etc. on the entire platform. This large-scale instrument testing platform, open for appointments around the clock, serves the needs of not only the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, but also the whole school and the public. Jin Fengmin, deputy director of the center, introduced that in the past few years many students need conduct testing tasks with insufficient personnel on the platform. Therefore, the platform has established a 7×24-hour daily operation system which combines online and offline training and supports postgraduates to conduct self-testing on the computer. The training plan is regularly published on the website of the school every year and graduate students can sign up to participate at their own option. After obtaining the operating qualification of the corresponding equipment, they can reserve it on the platform interface. The students can conduct test experiments independently after getting access to the laboratory. Furthermore, the school also hired qualified and experienced doctoral students as assistant testers. Teachers who are not on campus also keep close contact with students by diagnosing and guiding students to debug through remote login on the computer and supervision of the working interface of the test instrument, to solve the software and hardware problems in the test as much as possible. "Look, from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm, it's almost been fully booked." Zou called up the appointment record for a week and said.

Dean Ma Xinbin of the School of Chemical Engineering and Technology with other teachers and students.

Testing platforms.

Students of the School of Materials Science and Engineering.

“I hope the COVID-19 pandemic will pass soon. After graduation, I want to take the train to Lhasa, enjoying the picturesque landscape of China along the way, and then go all the way south to Hainan.” Sitting in the sunset by the lake of the Datong Student Activity Center on the Peiyangyuan Campus of Tianjin University, Pan Qianfeng was looking forward to a romantic graduation trip without pandemic.

By Chen Nannan

Editor: Sun Xiaofang