A wonderful summer holiday has gone. A new semester has been started since last week. How did GTIITers spend their summer vacation?

Participating the summer course at NUS

Working as a volunteer in Nepal

Conducting experiment in GTIIT lab

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The hot weather didn't ruin Lin Yu's passion for learning. He participated in the two-week Enterprise Summer Program on Entrepreneurship at the National University of Singapore during his summer vacation. He was impressed by the enriching combination of lectures such as finance, management, marketing and investment, and he started to think about the commercial applications of Biotechnology inventions.

He also visited companies including the Google Singapore, the non-profit organization Kampung Kampus and the Changi Airport, which has been selected as the "Best Airport in the World" for seven consecutive years. "At the sharing meeting, the decision-making and strategic concepts of enterprises from different countries made me feel their strong insight and amazing innovative atmosphere. I think that's the reason why these businesses can survive and become world-renowned."

In the final session of the program, participants from different countries were required to team up and pitch startup ideas. Lin's team focused on the issue of restricted educational development on islands in the Philippine due to insufficient electricity supply. Given the considerations of government subsidy policies, the Philippine's climate conditions and the long-term effects of the program, they proposed to solve the problem through solar energy. This environmentally friendly power production method will not only promote  local infrastructure construction but also  profit by selling extra power.

Wearing a white coat with gloves and a mask, and trying different types of beverages……This was what Chen Wei experienced during the 100-day summer vacation. He chose to go out of GTIIT and did his internship at SIRIO in Shantou.

He mainly worked with liquid samples in SIRIO's liquid preparation lab. Before the internship, Chen was a little worried whether he was qualified for the job. Luckily, he met a group of experienced researchers who were willing to share their cutting-edge knowledge and answer his questions, which allowed him to learn a lot. He pointed out that in industrial production, efficiency and many other issues should be considered when conducting the experimental process. Taking beverages as an example, it's important to know what is the right order to add different materials. Also, it's important to understand the role of pH levels when adding acid for good taste to beverage.

Chen has firmly made up his mind to do scientific research after his internship. He will participate in the research of sewage treatment under the guidance of Prof. Moris Eisen this semester.

Yan Waner, together with 2 undergraduates, joined Prof. Ka Yin Leung 's research team this summer vacation.

The program Yan participated in aims to create a database of the microbiome in frog farms for further research and she assisted in collecting soil and animal samples, and also processing the samples . To collect broader and more representative data, they have visited various farms in the Chaoshan area with the guidance of Prof. Leung. She pointed out that some farms were well managed so that the environment was good. However, some places was not as nice with improper handling of waste and contaminats. "Nonetheless, all data enriches our database."

Yan expressed that she had gained a further understanding of science after the internship. "A great amount of knowledge is required to support the scientific process, from coming up with an idea, designing an experiment, operating the experiment and then analyzing the data. "Under the training of our professor and senior students, my techniques in the microbiological experiment improved greatly. Also, the internship allowed me to put what I had learned in class into practice and witness the phenomenon described in our textbooks. For example, I observed how the bacteria inoculated as they grew on the agar and how the bacteria developed. This provided me a great sense of satisfaction."

"Although you can't extend the length of your life, you can decide the width of it." With this idea in mind, Zhang Yisheng chose to do one month's voluntary work in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal this summer vacation. Although it was only a short period of time, he said "It was really meaningful."

Zhang was responsible for teaching Chinese to students ranging from kindergarten to Grade 8. He worked from Monday to Saturday, two sessions in the morning and two to three sessions in the afternoon. After learning that students were very interested in the Chinese language, he worked harder to prepare for his classes and he successfully taught his students three parts of Chinese Phonrtics: initials, finals, tones and simple language of daily life through game-based learning.

Life in Nepa was not as easy as Zhang expected. In addition to occasional power outages and water cuts, he also found insects in his bed……Zhang learned to find joy from hardship with fellow volunteers from Estonia, Japan, Vietnam, Germany, the Czech Republic, India, Spain and China. They turned on the flashlights on their mobile phones when there was no electricity. They learned to enjoy life without water for showers. They even organized international culture exchange activity. "These were new experiences for me. I will never forget them."

Before Zhang went to Nepal, he spent three weeks at Cambridge University, participating in a summer Economics course, but he said that his experience in Nepal was much more unforgettable.

Text by GTIIT News & Public Affairs, Chen Wei, Lin Yu, Yan Waner, Zhang Yisheng

Photos provided by interviewees