ShanghaiTech University held its 2023 Commencement and Degree Conferral Ceremony in the university stadium on the morning of June 18th. An audience of more than 1,300 joined in the celebration including the Class of 2023 graduated students, parents, faculty and staff delegates, and industrial and business delegates. Honored guests were seated on the stage, including members of the university and schools’ leadership, and leaders of the institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in collaboration with ShanghaiTech. Li Ruxin, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Vice President of ShanghaiTech, presided over the ceremony. By the end of the day, 379 students had received bachelor’s degrees, 475 students had received master’s degrees, and 242 students were conferred Ph.D. degrees.
The first session of the celebration began with Li Ruxin announcing the name list of 65 students winning the Graduate Excellence Award of Shanghai, and the name list of 9 students winning the 2023 ShanghaiTech President’s Award, the highest honor for ShanghaiTech students. President Jiang Mianheng conferred the award certificates.
Following the award conferral session, the representative of the graduating seniors, Lu Jiaming from SPST expressed his appreciation for the university for providing an excellent, versatile and international learning experience during the past four years. He recalled the periods when he freely explored the unknown with curiosity, bravely overcame adversity with persistence, and determinatively grasped opportunities without hesitation.
Graduate student representative Wang Xinyu from SIST followed Lu Jiaming in telling his story. Wang Xinyu is one of the nine students who were admitted in the year of 2014 as the first class of undergraduates, who went on to complete their graduate study and successfully received Ph.D. degrees at ShanghaiTech. He shared his study and research stories, and expressed determination to go further. “I will keep moving forward in the fields of natural language processing, big data and big models, to facilitate our life, and contribute to the development of technology in our country, by information technology.”
Associate Professor Qi Wei in SLST delivered a speech on behalf of the faculty. She encouraged students to remain open-minded and cooperate with different people, and maintain self-discipline in the uncertainty, so as to achieve long-term accomplishments.
President Jiang then delivered a speech with the topic of “Being an innovator with responsibility, knowledge, and perseverance”. He congratulated all the graduated students not only for their excellence, but also because their graduation successfully wrapped up the first ten-year period of ShanghaiTech. “Today we have the first Class of students from Mathematics graduated. The Class of 2023 suffered the three-year-long COVID-19, nonetheless, through it all, the university provided you a non-stopped, non-reduced, and non-shrunk education!” He put forward three expectations to the graduates, and reminded them to be a responsible person, a knowledgeable doer, and a perseverant explorer. “ShanghaiTech graduates should have the nation in their minds rather than just themselves, and take the lead in top researches worldwide. You should also be proactively engaged in the things you do, do them in a low-profile manner, do well and do perfectly. Always stand up after falling down during the exploration in your life, and never complain, lay down, or give up.”
Dr. Xue Min, Chairman of United Imaging Healthcare Technology Group, served as the distinguished speaker for this year’s commencement. “Each critical choice in your life directs your future path.” Xue Min shared the story of his three important choices, especially the one that led United Imaging to become a multinational healthcare group. “Any person or company to be successful needs to stand on the shoulders of the era. United Imaging is a company taking a ride on China’s high speed development. But more importantly, United Imaging chose and adhered to its own technical innovation path that is highly paralleled with China’s development goals, so that the company succeeded.” In concluding his speech, he reminded the graduates to carefully choose their path, in line with their expertise, efforts and ambitions.
In the last session of the ceremony, a video clip was played expressing well-wishes to the Class of 2023 from alumni worldwide. A huge QR code displayed on the screen for students to join the global alumni networks, signaled the conclusion of the Commencement of 2023, the milestone year that ShanghaiTech celebrates its ten-year anniversary. All graduates stood up, thanked their parents, professors and university staff, and got ready to stride into the real world.
