[Introduction to Professor Chen Yifan] Professor Chen was admitted to Tsinghua University in 1997, and won the scholarship of Singapore government in the same year to study in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore, and was awarded the first-class honour bachelor’s degree in the department of electrical and electronic engineering, as well as the doctor’s degree of electrical and electronic engineering science. He held the post of lecturer and senior lecturer at the University of Greenwich and the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2012. In 2012 he joined in the South University of Science and Technology of China (SUSTC). Now he is the youngest post-80s department Chair in SUSTC, and the gainer of national youth project-The Recruitment Program of Global Experts. Over the past five years, Professor Chen chaired dozens of research projects funded by the EU, UK and China as project leader, and published over 100 academic papers. With world leading edge research of ultra wideband microwave breast imaging, he innovatively introduced a platform of microwave treatment based on biological nano robot and nano communication technology, integrated with early cancer detection, diagnosis, targeted therapy and individualized intervention.

Growing with SUSTC to explore an unusual way

Question: Why did you join in the SUSTC?

Answer: Although the world is so big, I prefer to work for SUSTC. In fact, SUSTC had a great reputation in foreign countries at that time, and it can be regarded as a kind of banner in the reform of higher education in China. At the beginning of establishment of SUSTC, its condition was not so good. What attract me is its philosophy of education, that is, it expects to explore a distinctive way for the cultivation of innovative talents. I could choose to work for Tsinghua University or Peking University. Why did I choose the SUSTC? Because I want to do something that others never did and I never did. I stayed in Tsinghua University only two months and then went abroad. 15 years passed till 2012, I returned to work for SUSTC with a kind of homesickness. In addition, from the viewpoint of academic research, the culture of Shenzhen is very outgoing, therefore, many of my technologies are likely to serve the industry and the public, which is more difficult to achieve and will last for a long time in foreign countries.

Question: What is your overall impression for SUSTC over the past few years?

Answer: We are growing together with SUSTC. I think that it walked a hard way in the recent three years, experienced a lot of things, but its future is getting better. Actually, this is just like a child. He is easy to be ill and weak when he is born, but he will be more healthy when growing up. So at the beginning when child is in the age of one or two, parents will be very hard till he is four or five years old. SUSTC experienced a lot of same things, and all of us strove for its growing and experienced many changes. Next, SUSTC is going into a period of rapid development just like a child of eight or nine years old is growing up quickly and unknowingly. This is my overall impression for SUSTC.

Future of Electronics Department – the world leading edge teaching and R&D center

Question: Do you have any idea for the Electronics Department of SUSTC in the short and long term development?

Answer: In the long run, I hope that the Electronics Department of SUSTC can become an excellent group recognized in the world and kept pace with the world class universities in scientific research and teaching. It will develop into a talent group because I hope a group of leading edge professors and students emerge in every research direction. In the near future, I hope that we can reach the level of electronics departments in domestic first-class universities as Tsinghua University and Shanghai Jiaotong University within three to five years. I hope when it comes to the electronic and electrical engineering department in China, SUSTC can become one of the names being mentioned.

Question: What is your plan on the development of Electronics Department?

Answer: The department of electronics and electrical engineering should be a department with wide range of majors, involving many interdisciplinary areas. So the objective of our department is to promote interdisciplinary research. At present there are only three majors in our undergraduate course, and another two majors-Computer Science & Technology, and Information Engineering have been reported. Biomedical engineering also has many aspects related to our department, so many teachers in our department take part in it. We may develop the majors of automation and electrical engineering in the future. For the graduate students, we plan to report two first-level disciplines including the Information & Communication Engineering, and the Electronics Science & Technology.

Question: What is your plan on the construction of teaching staff in the Electronics Department?

Answer: We currently have more than 20 teachers, and will have at least 50 teachers till 2020, that is to say, 5 to 6 teachers will be added each year. At present we have several majors such as Optical Engineering, Electronic Science & Technology, Information & Communication Engineering, and Computer Science & Technology. What we are pursuing is small and excellent. For example, the California Institute of Technology (CIT) and Stanford University have not many teachers, but they are the top level in the world.

Question: What do you think of the teaching and research in the Electronics Department of SUSTC?

Answer: I had previously made a speech in a strategic seminar with speech title-Tao of Scientific Research with Teaching and Creation of Scientific Research with Industry. What is Tao? Yin and Yang comprise the Tao. This is said in the Book of Tao and Teh by Laozi. What are Yin and Yang? Here we can take them as scientific research and teaching. We all know the Eight Diagram, and it can be used to express the relationship of scientific research and teaching vividly: one side is black and the other side is white, but there is black part embedded in the white and there is white part embedded in the black. The two parts are integrated together into the Tao. If we refer to scientific research as white and teaching as black, they are opposite in a sense but inseparable in many occasions, so our teaching and research should be closely integrated. What is the creation of industry? Tao gave birth to the one, the one gave birth successively to two things, three things, up to ten thousand. When the scientific research and teaching are closely integrated, we may create more and more industries. This philosophy is consistent with the concept of our headmaster Chen Shiyi-Innovation, Creation, and Entrepreneurship.

Question: What is your objective for our Electronics Department?

Answer: It is for Innovation, Creation, and Entrepreneurship. I interpret it in detail as follows: Innovation-We are expected to change the industrial landscape and become the industry leader. As an innovative base, Shenzhen is the same as Silicon Valley. The scientific research technology from SUSTC should be able to lead the trend of industrial development in China for the next 20 years, 30 years, even 50 years. We have to be leader instead of follower. Creation – We are expected to solve great challenges and crises of human society, such as energy crisis, issues of disease and aging, etc. Entrepreneurship- We have global vision and local wisdom. Here borrows from the slogan of HSBC: “Global finance, local wisdom”. This is to say that we should not only have the global vision, but also the local thinking. Our vision cannot be limited to Shenzhen, and our enterprise objective is to develop international corporation, but our products should comply with characteristics of Pearl River Delta and be capable of solving problems and challenges emerged in China. In the future we will become a world class teaching and research center recognized by the peers.

Advice to college students-Knowing yourself and controlling your time

Question: Do you have any suggestions for the freshman and sophomore interested in Electronics Department?

Answer: If you are interested in electronics, you can find the professors of our department, for example, you can come to me, for serving as a handyman in the laboratory – all scientific research activities are getting started from odd jobs. In this way, you can learn some laws of scientific research, ways of thinking, and scientific method, and you can cultivate your feeling about electronics. On the other hand, you should pay attention to some disciplines, of course, they may be not the same for different major, for example, if your major is communication, you should have solid foundation of mathematics and be able to use some mathematical tools. As for the microelectronics and optoelectronics, you should know more about the physical characteristics of material and have strong operational ability. This is to be determined by the direction you choose to read in the Electronics Department.

Question: Could you tell us about your college experience? What do you want to say to the students in our university?

Answer: I wanted to study medicine in senior high school, but later I chose to be an engineer. I stayed two months at Tsinghua University, and after military training I went to Nanyang Technological University. The Nanyang Technological University was just established at that time, so my admission into this university was not a smart choice in the eyes of others, but I wanted to go abroad to have a look, and I did so. My undergraduate and doctoral studies are electronic and electrical engineering, but my studying direction at present is a cross discipline between the electronic & electrical engineering and the biological engineering, many of which are about medical things. The things you learn may not be the same as that you do in the future, but it does not mean you cannot do it well.

University is actually a process that makes you know yourself. I told this to every one of my students that you should do only two things well in your university: the first is to find out what is suitable for you to do, and what is not; and the second is to learn to control your own time. It is enough to do the two points well, but actually they are very difficult. For any questions you can ask me for exchange. Maybe some of my views and experiences can help you for less detours. I am very glad to communicate with every one of you.

(by Student News Agency, text: Zhang Shanshan)