From 10th to 24th, June, a total of eight sessions were held virtually by Suzhou Institute for Advanced Research (SIAR), the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) introducing the development of its disciplines, supervisors and talents as the institute worked to attract more outstanding undergraduates to further their studies here. The sessions, carried out under three disciplines of biomedical engineering, data intelligence and advanced materials, invited more than 20 experts from various disciplines including an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), a chair professor and member of Yangtze River Scholar Program, and distinguished young scholars. Over 3,000 students participated.

The enrollment campaign for SIAR summer camp was kicked off on 10th June, when Prof. Zhou Shaohua, Executive Dean of School of Biomedical Engineering of SIAR, conducted the first session about the school’s development and about research on AI-enabled medical imaging, which was joined by an overall introduction to SIAR’s development delivered by NI Rui, Vice Director of SIAR. Prof. Pan Tingrui and Prof. Xu Xiaorong both spoke in the next session on intelligent sensing and instrumentation. The third session was presented by Prof. Wang Yucai and Prof. Qin Jianhua from the perspective of biological medicine.

21st June saw the event at its peak when Prof. E Weinan, Academician of CAS, Chair Prof. Xiong Hui, IEEE Fellow and Yangtze River Scholar, Prof. Yang Zhouwang, Vice Dean of School of Data Science of USTC, Prof. Zhang Yanyong, Vice Dean of School of Computer Science and Technology of USTC, Prof. Chen Jingrui of SIAR and other guests were invited to speak at the data intelligence session. The response from students was overwhelming with 953 signups and over 12,000 likes on livestreaming. The professors were jokingly called “Hottest Team of Supervisors”.

On 22nd June, Vice Director Yang Qing and Prof. Wei Kaiju of Nano Science and Technology Institute spoke at the session of materials and chemical engineering, Prof. Li Wenwei, Prof. Liu Dong, Researcher Peng Yitao and Researcher Su Yude of SIAR at that of environmental and green energy materials, and Researcher Zhang Zhen and Researcher Li Chuxin at that of biomimetic materials. The last session was held on 24th June when Vice Dean Wang Yang and Prof. Wang Chao of School of Software Engineering of USTC spoke about software engineering and had Q&A interactions with students at the sub-venue.

With the effort of a volunteer team of over 40 students established by SIAR, the campaign has attracted students from prestigious universities like Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing University and Beihang University.So far over 2,000 people have joined the chat group for SIAR summer camp that is scheduled to start in mid-to-late July. The volunteers are also planning a series of short videos featuring “SIAR Tour” and “Lab Tour” as they seek to reach out to more talents.