Xin Gongming, a professor in Shandong University's School of Energy and Power Engineering, has devoted himself to teaching and researching thermophysics for 11 years, and worked on teaching undergraduates Engineering Thermophysics (a bilingual course), which amounts to around 180 hours per year. Recently, Professor Xin has been voted one of this year's "Favorite Teachers" at SDU. The reporter from SDU News Center conducted an interview with him about his opinions on imparting knowledge and cultivating students as people, as well as their understanding of thermodynamics.

Adhere to Three Nos in the Classroom when Associating with Students

When the reporter saw Prof. Xin, he was comfortably talking with his students in the classroom of Engineering Thermophysics (bilingual course), a course offered by the School of Energy and Power Engineering. He said he was fond of communicating with students. "Why do people communicate with others? Because everyone has their own strengths, and they can learn a lot from each other by communicating." In addition, if teachers often communicate with students and learn more about them, students will be apt to receive the teachers' information in return, which is beneficial to teaching.

The routine of Prof. Xin's first class is introducing the course and then letting students introduce themselves with a few words. Students can talk about anything, including things they like or dislike. Before every class, Prof. Xin invites some students to review what they have learned last time in front of the class; before the second session, he even arranges for students to introduce the local flavors of their hometown or tell some jokes. With this kind of communication, students can become interested in the class while also acquiring additional knowledge. Finally, Prof. Xin gets to business and imparts knowledge to his students.

Prof. Xin hopes he could implement three Nos in his class: no wrong contents, no boredom and no over-teaching. There is no doubt that a teacher who likes to interact with students is capable of creating a dramatic classroom environment. In the students' view, not only does his class help them with book learning, but also to absorb a wide range of other information. Prof. Xin treats his students with an attitude of pursuing justice, dialogue, communication, and mutual learning.

Enjoy Researches of Thermodynamics and Discover Its Unknown World

Prof. Xin had been studying thermodynamics since he was an undergraduate. He said that he felt interested when asked about his feeling towards the research of this field.

In July, 2004, Prof. Xin went to Geneva, Switzerland to study in the European Organization for Nuclear Research, mainly participating in research on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which was lead by Prof. Samuel Chao Chung Ting. Though studying and doing research abroad gave Prof. Xin a number of opportunities, he chose to return to his original school to teach.

After teaching at SDU, Prof. Xin has gained a broader sense of achievement in his experience of teaching. When he practically devoted himself to the field of thermodynamics, he found that there were so many things that require knowledge of the field. "In the process of using energy, over 85% of energy comes out as thermo energy, so we can see how important thermodynamics is", said Prof. Xin. Thermodynamics is widely used in our life, he pointed out with some daily examples, including phone cooling, thermal control of aerospace devices and the fast measuring thermometer.

Prof. Xin believes that thermodynamics has a promising future. "It is mainly about basic research. With an increasing emphasis on practical application, it will continue to become more and more important."

Xin Gongming's research is deeply influenced by his instructor Professor Cheng Lin. "With rigorous scholarship, Professor Cheng constantly strove for perfection so that he made magnificent achievements at a young age. He once encouraged us that individual growth needed no pattern but a role model. He hoped every teacher could be his or her students' role model, which would encourage both sides to make progress together." Xin has learned a lot from his instructor, finishing by acknowledging "He is still a role model for me, inspiring me to always do a better job in research and teaching."

Source:view.sdu.edu.cn

Translated by: Peng Wanran

Edited by: Kyle Muntz, Shi Yajie