The 13th National Conference on Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, hosted by the Ministry of Education, came to a close in Chongqing on November 1 with more than 600 representatives including universities, teachers and students, entrepreneurs and investors from all over the country.

After reviews by experts, the report paper Realization of Three-dimensional Non-paraxial Self-Accelerating Light Experiments by undergraduate Li Longxing's team from the School of Physics of Nankai, and that of undergraduate Xiang Zihao's team of College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering Cross-Layer Analysis of Backscatter Communication Network in Full Duplex Environment were both awarded the Excellent Academic Paper  of the annual meeting (20 papers in total); Hu Yi from the School of Physics, Han Shiying from the College of Electronic Information and Optical Engineering, and Wang Xin from the College of Environmental Science and Engineering were awarded the Outstanding Instructor award with their total numbers of winning projects, all ranked first in the country.

The paper Realization of Three-dimensional Non-paraxial Self-Accelerating Light Experiments proposes a method for regulating three-dimensional non-paraxial self-accelerating light in free space. It was published in June 2020 in Optical Express, the top journal of physics. Taking the strong coupling between the physical layer and the media access layer of the environmental backscatter network as the starting point, another award-winning paper innovatively proposed the characterization and quantification method of the cross-layer performance of the environmental backscatter communication network. In August 2020, it was published in IEEE Wireless Communications Letters, the second district journal of SCI. In addition, the award-winning innovative display project New Bioelectricity to Promote Fertilization System and Its Mechanism Exploration proposes a precise, efficient and green nitrogen fertilization method for a traditional method. Members of the project team have published a paper in Environmental Science & Technology of SCI journals in the field of environmental science.

Since the launch of the National Innovation Plan by the Ministry of Education in 2007, more than 1.23 million college students from 1,000 colleges have participated, and more than 300,000 student innovation projects have been funded. This plan has become a training project for all college students to develop the foundation of innovative and entrepreneurial talents. Complying with the national training program for college students’ innovation and entrepreneurship, the National Conference on Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship, as an important annual event, has been carried out for thirteen consecutive years. At Nankai University, more than one hundred national college students’ innovation and entrepreneurship projects are selected every year, and projects from undergraduates of Nankai University have been shortlisted in previous conferences.

It is reported that Nankai University has always attached great importance to the cultivation of undergraduates’ innovative abilities, therefore they established an innovative education system of one center, two systems, three levels, four platforms, and multiple modules. In the past two decades, nearly 8,000 training programs for undergraduates’ innovation and entrepreneurship have been implemented, covering more than 30,000 students. Also, students have made a lot of achievements in innovative practice. For example, some have published articles in top international professional academic journals, and some have won awards in various competitions at all levels. With the innovative scientific research plan of undergraduate as a platform, tens of thousands of students have achieved their self-improvement in practice. This has also prompted our university to cultivate a group of innovative talents.

(Reported by Zhihui Hu, Translated by Yan Cao, Edited by Davide Francolino and JianjingYun)