This summer, the Class of 2024 will graduate from Guangdong Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (GTIIT). Despite the COVID-19 Pandemic and the running difficulty of Sino-foreign university co-operation in the year they entered GTIIT, the determined students keep moving forward with the motto of "Dream it, do it". They write one and another encouraging stories upon the path of scientific dreams. Let's follow the interview series of 2024 graduates to uncover more in their pursuit of future.

Yu Xucheng

High School：

The High School Affiliated to Soochow University

Program：

Mathematics with Computer Science (MCS)

Awards：

2022-2023 GTIIT Dean's List (top 15%)

2023-2024 GTIIT Dean's List (top 15%)

Offers：

Johns Hopkins University

University of Illinois

Rice University

the University of Southern California

University of Melbourne

Looking back on his university life, Yu Xucheng made great progress in GPA, improving from 70+ to 90+. In his eyes, he is never a talented person, but he always believes that diligence can make up for clumsiness. Over the four years, he went from failing the Gaokao to receiving offers from world-renowned universities such as Johns Hopkins University, the University of Illinois, Rice University, the University of Southern California and the University of Melbourne, telling us the power of hard work. Today, let’s listen to the story of Yu Xucheng, a graduate in MCS.

Choose GTIIT only for love

Math has been Xucheng’s favorite subject since childhood. The study in high school strengthened his passion for it. In his view, math is the foundation of everything and a key to deep research. After Gaokao, with the love for math, Xucheng began to select the university he wanted. “Technion has strong science research background, producing four Nobel Prize winners.” As its Chinese campus, GTIIT attracted Xucheng by the emphasis on fundamentals and scientific research. “GTIIT even surpassed my goal university which I set before Gaokao, becoming Top1 in my heart.”

With this passion, he left Jiangsu for Guangdong, embarking on a four-year journey toward his dream. In the first year, with a brand-new environment and teaching method, Xucheng didn’t get good grades. The first challenge he met was how to manage his time. “Compared with high school, entering university suddenly gave me a lot of free time, leading me to a period of slackness and resulting in an unsatisfactory GPA in the first year.”

Xucheng（left1）with friends

“Learning how to choose and fix the weakness” is the first step for Xucheng to turn the tide. “Giving up most of the clubs and entertainment is indeed very hard, but no pains, no gains.” Xucheng admitted that he is not a talented student so only by working hard can he quickly catch up. During his sophomore year, he spent most of his time studying and found his own way of efficient learning. “Taking every class seriously is the foundation for good grades. In addition, I reviewed the class each week. At the mid-term and final exams, I usually had the review again with the help of professors during their office hours, ensuing that I understood everything I had learned.”

With hard work, Xucheng overcame the confusion and made significant improvement in his academic performance. Over the next two years, with effective study methods, Xucheng maintained outstanding grades and began to spend more time in scientific research as planned.

Focus on learning bring knowledge together

“Many people believe that compared to other GTIIT programs, MCS students have fewer opportunities to join research groups, but this is not the case.” In Xucheng’s view, GTIIT’s MCS program contains both math and computer science knowledge and covers a wide range of fields with particular emphasis on fundamentals. This gives MCS students a broader range of choices, which can be seen from his experience in the research group of Physics field.

Recommended by senior student in the same program, Xucheng joined Prof. Khadga Karki’s research group during his junior year. In this group, he was in charge of date processing and analysis. “A large amount of data will be generated during the research process. How to analysis this data efficiently is what MCS students have learned. Therefore, many research groups in other programs also welcome MCS students to join them.” With the help of the professor and group fellows, Xucheng opened the door to scientific research and was determined to engage in further study.

Later, he joined the research group of Prof. Pablo Roman in MCS program, conducting research on polynomial-related topics. “In the group, I focused on the question of math function graphs and produced outputs in code form.” This experience allowed him to improve himself in pure math, stimulating his interests in computer science. During summer holiday, he went to Technion for an exchange program and conducted a computer-related topic under the guidance of a mentor there. “GTIIT values the course arrangements for each student. Before we went to Technion, Prof. Eli Aljadeff, the head of MCS program, would arrange corresponding mentors based on our interests. After arriving there, we can directly learn knowledge and do research following the mentor. Technion has a strong learning atmosphere and I felt fulfilled every day.”

Xucheng（left1）with friends

Xucheng's outstanding academic performance and diverse research experiences brought him more opportunities when applying for graduate programs. "Math is one of the popular programs, and students from various universities tend to pursue further studies, leading to intense competition and higher application scores. At this point, research experiences and recommendation letters from professors become great bonus.” Speaking of the secrets of such satisfying results, Xucheng summarized. "I will continue to do scientific research in the future. If all goes well, I will go for PHD and explore my own territory in math."