Graduates | 黄欣怡：在广以成为更好的自己
流年似水，岁月如歌。今年六月，广东以色列理工学院即将迎来首届毕业生。广以2017级本科毕业生系列采访将带大家一同聆听这四年来学生们与广以的故事，共同见证广以学子们的成长。
今天分享的是化学工程专业毕业生黄欣怡的故事。
姓名：黄欣怡
毕业高中：广州市第十六中学
本科专业：化学工程
上大学是黄欣怡第一次离开家乡，开始自己独立生活。因此，当初填报高考志愿时，离家近的学校成为她的首选。“虽然之前没来过汕头，但一直对这座海滨城市的美食美景有所耳闻，很想自己亲眼来看看。再加上汕头离我老家很近，这让我特别有安全感。”后来，黄欣怡还了解到，广以是一所全英文教学的学校，老师们科研教学经验丰富，还有许多业界大牛，学生不出国门就能使用来自世界顶尖理工科学府——以色列理工学院的教学资源。“对我来说，来广以读书是性价比很高的选择。”
黄欣怡表示，自己来到广以之后最明显的变化是变得大胆了。“在预备学期，我只是默默听课，从来没有主动举手问问题，更不会在课上回答问题，生怕犯错。但是教授们总是鼓励我们勇于提问，也跟我们反复强调‘世上没有愚蠢的问题，但如果人不提出问题、探索答案，将会一直愚蠢’。这种观念给了我很大的启发。”除了课堂上开放包容的氛围，在生活中，大家对待学业和生活的热情和积极也潜移默化地影响着黄欣怡。“同学们会在课堂上举手提问，频频获得教授赞赏的眼神；有小伙伴会就升学、就业等问题向学校表达自己的需求和想法，主动关心课业之外的事情······学校鼓励学生发现问题、提出问题的理念，还有同学之间团结互助的氛围让我发现很多恐惧和害羞其实都是没有必要的。”
在广以的四年，黄欣怡不断突破自己的舒适区，将挫折化为前进时更加坚定的步伐。“大四上学期，疫情原因导致化工专业课程安排特别紧张。我们一共有六门课、两门实验，还要做senior project。而且上学期恰逢申请季，还要准备各种申请资料。临近到期末的时候，我的senior project 还一点进展也没有，这给我了非常大的打击。”
在做Senior Project 1 时，黄欣怡选了一个自己十分感兴趣的题目——用优化后的电芬顿系统去除水中的抗生素。“实验前我满怀憧憬，可在实验过程中，我似乎每时每刻都遇到了困难——如何选择抗生素？如何测量抗生素的浓度？如何测量溶液中铁的浓度？如何酸化阴极材料？如何进行吸附实验？如何进行电芬顿实验？一个又一个的基础问题无从解决，这让我很难继续往下进行实验。整个学期，我都在试错、发现问题、解决问题、解决问题的时候又有一堆新问题的循环中度过，甚至一度怀疑自己是否具备做科研的能力。
后来做Senior Project 2 的时候，虽然我还是很想继续做之前的项目，但我更想体验一次成熟、完整、有系统的科研实验，因此换成一个有研究生师兄正在做的题目。这一次，我体会到真正有规划的实验是什么模样，也正在努力学习着。在连续失败的‘毒打’下，在经历过上很多门课的同时完成senior project 1之后，我感觉已经没有东西可以打倒我了！”
回想起在广以的经历，无论是磕绊还是收获，黄欣怡满是感激。“准备申请材料时，多亏了老师的引导才让我对自己有一个相对准确的定位，写出好的个人陈述；感谢在我的project实验反复失败的时候，即便很忙也一直花时间帮助我的学长；感谢在我被课业、科研、申请各种事情压得喘不过气的时候，一直听我倾诉的室友；还有很多给过我力量让我度过那段艰难时期的良师益友，感谢他们，也感谢GTIIT！”
在黄欣怡看来，化工是一个应用领域很广、兼容性很高的专业，会涉及到材料、生物、环境、食品、快消品、新能源、医药、物理、流体力学、编程等许多知识，是处于自然科学十字路口的中心学科。
今年2月，黄欣怡参加学校举办的学生科研交流开放日活动，在教授与同学的研究分享中感受到观点交流碰撞带给人的启发，也进一步认识到化学与科研的魅力。“听讲座时，我对一位研究生师兄的研究项目——用计算机模型模拟化学反应的动力学模型十分感兴趣。因为在这之前，化工系的孔博教授就向我们介绍过他用计算机模拟多相流反应的模型的研究经历。通过他的介绍，我被计算机模拟模型的魅力深深折服，它不仅在一些成熟的领域内（如单相流反应）可靠性高，还能节省大量的实验成本。但另一位老师Michail博士认为：化学实验的魅力在于你永远不知道下一秒会发生什么，各种反应中不可控的变量都会使化学反应截然不同。这就像是‘薛定谔的猫’一样，如果不在实验室里亲自动手做实验过，你永远不知道会发生什么。这种观点的碰撞让我觉得十分有趣，也启发我认真去思考我们应该以什么样的态度去对待新兴的跨专业研究。”
热爱是有感染力的。在广以四年的学习中，黄欣怡将老师们对专业领域的热忱和追求默默看在眼里，化为鞭策自己前进的动力。 “Israel Gutter教授是一个十分热爱教学的老师。他让我感受到一个真正热爱自己研究领域的人对自己事业的痴狂，也让我看到了一个十分纯粹的学者模样！他讲起课来常常沉浸其中，答疑时更是仔细全面，生怕我们听不懂。在第一节课上，他就生动地教我们如何使用MATLAB。他先用我们平时的习惯和逻辑与MATLAB对话，把它当作一个人，让它计算出需要的答案。当MATLAB听不懂英语时，他便指着电脑说‘MATLAB好笨’，让课堂氛围轻松起来，由此深入浅出地教我们学习MATLAB听得懂的语言与逻辑。通过这样的方式，原本难懂的知识变得容易理解了。”
黄欣怡（左）与朋友合影
时光如白驹过隙，一下子，在广以求学的四年过去了。即将毕业的黄欣怡收到了洛桑联邦理工学院、伦敦大学学院、爱丁堡大学和曼彻斯特大学化工相关专业的录取通知书。经过仔细思考，她最终决定到洛桑联邦理工学院化学工程与生物技术专业攻读研究学位。“来广以之前，这是我做梦都不敢想的事情！”
黄欣怡在申请洛桑联邦理工学院时深刻感受到广以重视夯实基础的专业课程设置的优势。“据我了解，欧洲对硕士申请者的其中一个要求是本科与研究生的课程匹配度要高，不太接受跨专业申请的学生。广以的化工专业虽然偏向环境工程，但课程设置中包含了许多与生物相关的内容，与欧洲高校的要求匹配度很高。”
黄欣怡认为，在申请读研院校时，选择适合自己的才是最重要的。“我希望大家不要盲目地申请学校。在做选校规划的时候，一定要反复问自己如果拿到了offer到底想不想去、这间学校有没有亮点吸引你、能否助力于你未来的发展。”黄欣怡表示，她综合考虑了自己的喜好和对未来的规划，最终做出选择洛桑联邦理工的决定。“我觉得欧洲的学制更适合我——一年的授课加一学期的实习和一学期的Master Project。广以注重基础的理念给我很深的影响，我希望自己能够真正熟练掌握了专业基础知识，再决定未来是继续深造读博还是向工业界发展。一学期的实习和一学期的Project也许可以让我在较短的时间内认清自己的内心，做出适合自己的选择。”
“在我申请学校的过程中，广以的老师给了我很大的帮助。我的第一版个人陈述是根据机构列出的提纲写的，我只是简单地罗列了我学过什么课程、参加过哪些科研项目和课外活动。直到与广以职业生涯发展中心的陈芬老师交谈后我才了解到，招生官想看的并不是我的生平介绍，而是想从我独一无二的具体事例中看出我的科研潜力与对该专业的热情。最后，我花了一个多月的时间多次修改，反复回想我这四年的经历，最终才完成了一篇虽不完美，但在申请中也助我一臂之力的个人陈述。”
认真高效地做好每件事，找到适合自己并且愿意为之付出努力的事业，做一个对社会有用的人——这个目标将鞭策着黄欣怡更加坚定地奔赴充满未知和挑战的未来。
黄欣怡参加汕头大学春晚演出
This June, the first cohort students will graduate from Guangdong Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. The series of interviews with the graduates from Class 2021 will show their stories with GTIIT in the past four years.
Here is the story about Huang Xinyi, a student of Class 2021 from Chemical Engineering Program.
Name: Huang Xinyi
High school: No.16 Middle School, Guangzhou
Program: Chemical Engineering
When choosing a university after the college entrance examination, those located near Huang Xinyi’s hometown became her main consideration because it was the first time that she lived in a new city independently. "Although I have never been to Shantou before, I have heard about the delicious food and beautiful scenery of this coastal city and I want to have a look by myself. What’s more, Shantou is close to my hometown, which brings me great sense of security."
Later, Huang Xinyi also learned that students at GTIIT would be in an English teaching environment and learn from teachers with rich research experience. Most important, GTIIT students can receive world-class teaching from Israel Institute of Technology, the world-renowned science and technology institution without going abroad. "For me, studying at GTIIT is a cost-effective choice."
Grow quickly outside the comfort zone
Huang Xinyi said that she became brave after studying at GTIIT and that was the most obvious change on her. "In the preparatory semester, I never raised my hand to ask questions, let alone answered questions in class. I was afraid of making mistakes. However, our professors encouraged us to ask questions and said that 'there is no such thing as a stupid question, but if one does not ask questions and seek answers, one will remain stupid'. That inspired me a lot." The open and active atmosphere in class, as well as students’ enthusiasm and positive attitude towards study and life have influenced Huang Xinyi imperceptibly. "My peers raise their hands in class actively and they are praised by professors. They also express their needs and opinions on issues such as studying abroad and career development. Students are encouraged to find and ask questions at GTIIT. This environment makes me realize that fear and shyness are unnecessary."
During her four years at GTIIT, Huang Xinyi has been breaking through her comfort zone and turning setbacks into more determined steps forward. "In the first semester of my senior year, the Chemical Engineering Program had a very busy course arrangement due to the pandemic situation. We have six courses, two experiments and a senior project. Moreover, I had to prepare all kinds of application documents for postgraduate study at the same time. I still made no progress in the senior project towards the end of the term, which frustrated me a lot."
In the Senior Project 1, Huang Xinyi chose a topic that she was very interested in -- the removal of antibiotics in water by using the optimized electro Fenton system. “I was full of expectations before the project, but during the experiment, I encountered a lot of difficulties - How to choose an antibiotic? How to measure the concentration of antibiotics? How to measure the iron concentration in a solution? How to acidify cathode material? How to conduct adsorption experiments? How to conduct the electro Fenton experiment? One problem after another could not be solved, which made it difficult for me to continue the experiment. I spent the whole semester in finding problems and solving problems. I even doubted whether I had the ability to do scientific research at that time.
Later, on my Senior Project 2, although I still wanted to continue the previous project, I preferred to learn from a mature, complete and systematic scientific research experiment. Therefore, I changed my research topic to the one that was doing by my senior. This time, I realized what a truly planned experiment was like and I really learn a lot from that. After suffering a series of failures, and after completing the Senior Project 1 while taking many courses, I felt that nothing could beat me!"
When it comes to the experiences at GTIIT, Huang Xinyi is full of gratitude. "Thanks to the guidance of my teacher, I could have a relatively accurate positioning of myself and wrote a good personal statement when preparing documents for applying universities. I would like to express my gratitude to my seniors who always helped me when my project experiment failed repeatedly even though they were very busy. I also want to thank my roommates who always listened to me when I was overwhelmed with schoolwork, research and applications. Thanks to all the people who encouraged me to get through the difficult time. Thank you and thank GTIIT!"
Enjoy the charm of chemistry
In Huang Xinyi's view, chemical engineering is a program with a wide range of applications and high compatibility, involving materials, biology, environment, food, new energy, medicine, physics, fluid mechanics, programming and many other knowledge. It is seen as the central discipline at the crossroads of natural science.
In February 2021, Huang Xinyi participated in GTIIT Students Open Day-Research Opportunities, where she felt the charm of ideas exchange from the research sharing between professors and students.
"I was very interested in a graduate student's research project, which used computer to simulate the kinetic models of chemical reactions. Prof. Kong Bo has introduced his research experience of computer simulation of multiphase flow reaction model to us. Through his introduction, I was deeply impressed by the charm of computer simulation model, which not only has high reliability in some mature fields, such as single-phase flow reaction, but also can save a lot of experimental costs. In contrast, Dr. Michail said that the beauty of chemistry was that you would never know what was going to happen. Uncontrollable variables in each reaction can make a big difference. It's like Schrodinger's cat. You never know what's going to happen unless you've done it yourself in the lab. "The discussion is very interesting and makes me think seriously about how we should think about the emerging interdisciplinary research."
During the four years' study at GTIIT, Huang Xinyi has witnessed the teachers’ enthusiasm and pursuit of their academic fields and turned them into a driving force to push herself forward. "Prof. Israel Gutter loves teaching very much. He shows me that people are crazy when it comes to what they really love, and also lets me know what a scholar is like. He often immerses himself in his lectures and answers our questions carefully and comprehensively, to make sure that we understand what he said. In the first class about Matlab, he adopted our usual habits and logic to interact with Matlab, treating it as a person and asking it to calculate the required answers. When Matlab could not understand English, he pointed to the computer and said "Matlab is so stupid", which made us laugh and relaxed. Then he taught us to learn the language and logic that Matlab could understand in a simple way to make the deep knowledge become easy to understand."
Huang Xinyi (left) with her friend
Realize my dream at GTIIT
After receiving offers from EPFL, University College London, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Manchester, Huang Xinyi decided to accept EPFL’s offer of a research program in chemical engineering and biotechnology. "This is something I never dreamed of before I came to GTIIT!"
The experience of applying for EPFL made Huang Xinyi deeply understand the advantage of the curriculum of GTIIT, which emphasizes the solid foundation on science and engineering. "As far as I know, one of the requirements in Europe universities for master degree’s applicants is that there is a high degree of match between undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and there is less acceptance of students who apply across disciplines. Although the Chemical Engineering Program at GTIIT incline to environment engineering, its curriculum contains biology-related contents, which can match the requirements of European universities."
According to Huang Xinyi, the most important thing in applying for graduate school is to choose the one that suits you. "When you are selecting a university, ask yourself whether you want to study there if you get the offer. You need to know whether the university can attract you, and whether it is helpful for your future development.”
Huang Xinyi said she chose EPFL because of her plan for the future. "I think the European educational system is more suitable for me -- one year for teaching, one semester for internship and one semester for Master Project. I have been deeply influenced by GTIIT’s concept of focusing on the knowledge foundations. I hope that I can fully acquire the whole body of knowledge foundations, and then decide whether to pursue further study for a doctorate degree or to start my career in engineering industry in the future. A semester for internship and a semester for project may enable me to figure out what I want in a relatively short time and make a correct choice."
"Teachers at GTIIT helped me a lot in my application for postgraduate studies. The first version of my personal statement was based on an outline provided by the education agency. I simply listed the courses I had taken, the research projects and extracurricular activities I had participated in. It was not until I talked with Dr. Chen Fen from GTIIT Career Development Center that I realized that what the admissions officers wanted to see was not my biography, but my unique and specific case to show my research potential and passion for the program. "I spent more than a month thinking about my experiences over the past four years and revising my personal statement several times before I finally came up with a personal statement, which helped me a lot in my application."
To do everything seriously and efficiently, to find a career that suits me and deserve my hard work, and to be a good person to the society- the goal will encourage Huang Xinyi to pursue her challenging and prosperous future.
Huang Xinyi participated in the STU Spring Festival gala show
文：GTIIT传媒与公共事务部
图：黄欣怡、GTIIT传媒与公共事务部
Text: GTIIT News & Public Affairs
Photos: Huang Xinyi, GTIIT News & Public Affairs