ZHANG Rong

Zhang Rong is one of the first cohort of GIX students and the president of the Students Union. She is very interested in AI technology, and has many experiences in developing smart devices and intelligent systems.

Q: Why did you choose GIX?
I majored in Mechanical Engineering and Automation at the Department of Mechanical Engineering (formerly Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanics) of Tsinghua University, and also a double degree in Business Administration from the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University.
I am attracted by the vision and training methods of GIX: 1. Different from the regular domestic and international postgraduate projects, close contact with the academic circles and the industry, to learn by hands-on solving practical problems, and at the same time can bring practical value and benefits to the society; 2. Interdisciplinary learning. Students can learn computer hardware and software, design and business-related courses, and students come from different academic backgrounds and can learn from each other; 3. The vision is to cultivate future scientific and technological innovation leaders. The most needed people in China are talents with international vision, hard skills and innovation, management and commercial ability, and the original intention to work in this direction; 4. At the same time, you can study in China and the United States, gain two degrees, have an international student background; attach importance to international exchanges, learn the scientific and technological innovation ideas of different countries, and thus promote innovation.

Q: How did you feel when you first arrived at GIX? What is the feeling now?
When I first arrived, everything was unknown and brand new. There is a definition of the person who has the freedom to choose courses and choose the direction of interest. At the same time, he has a strong sense of ownership and a great ambition. He feels that he must use it. Good project resources to explore, not to cultivate expectations. In terms of academics, I learn by different projects, learn a lot of computer hardware and software, design thinking and other related knowledge through competitions, corporate projects, internships, etc., and come into contact with cutting-edge technology, such as one of the unmanned fires last year. In the year, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to do the internship in the development of science and technology. It was the first time I started to develop pure software algorithms and engineering projects. I started to learn computer vision, laser radar, and sensor fusion from a zero basis. Big, even at that time, I didn’t even use the Ubuntu system. I was even less familiar with its operation commands. I needed a lot of help from the internship tutor. I also had to spend extra time to find online learning materials and learn the most advanced paper methods at that time. However, in the end, not only did the initial effect, but also applied for the invention patent, it was very fulfilling. It is through such a challenging exercise that you will be able to learn quickly and lay the foundation for the future.
Now, I have been studying in the project for two years, one year in Tsinghua, and one year in Seattle. In addition to the advancement in academic skills, I have come into contact with different cultures and scientific concepts. In the past two years, because of the opportunity to have frequent contact with teachers, enterprises and other social resources, I have gained a deeper understanding of the way the society operates. I think this is something that many other graduate programs cannot understand. GIX made me feel that I must constantly force myself to think about my pursuit, social value and ways to realize my dreams. In the face of the goals you want to achieve, you must first be very active in your efforts, learn to mobilize your team's abilities and emotions, understand the vision and value of your project or product, understand the needs and cultural backgrounds of different people, and know how to be brave and direct. Express your thoughts and accept suggestions and criticism. It is no longer a passively accepted education, but it has its own initiative to get guidance and support, even if it is facing adversity. The premise of these efforts is that they must continue to explore: no matter in a certain field, or extensively involved in different fields, because the wave of the technology world changes too fast, not only the iteration of technology power, but also the market and capital, policy and strategy. Together, we must keep up with the trend of the society, and persist in self-improvement, in order to take advantage of the trend and lead the trend.

Q: What did GIX bring you?
During my time in the United States, I exercised my ability to live independently and arrange my time. Compared with domestic life, foreign life requires more accommodation, living and transportation, as well as a unique social culture that needs to be adapted. But the most valuable thing to learn is how to maintain smooth cooperation and even lead the way in an international team. For example, just coming here, many foreign students still have some prejudice against Chinese students. In addition, some of our students are already familiar with their classmates for a year, and the language and culture have their own geographical factors. It is difficult to maintain sufficient communication to eliminate groups. gap. And I still need to let everyone agree with the student union, so I let myself learn their democratic culture, and each of the more than 40 students at that time communicated separately, listened to their opinions, and felt the different discussion styles at home and abroad. Can learn from each other's strengths, for example, foreign students are good at actively expressing their ideas and discussing some conceptual issues, but the efficiency of meetings is often low, while Chinese students focus on hard work, solve problems themselves and accept clear assignments, but are not good at explaining reasons and impacts. It is harder to convince others.

Q: What was the most memorable experience?
In the past year, I founded the GIX Student Union to unite the strength of Chinese and foreign students and create an international collective with cohesiveness, belonging and mutual learning and growth. From scratch, from strategic planning to actual activities, our student unions have been organized in an orderly manner to promote cultural exchanges, stimulate innovation, help colleges and expand their influence, and divide them into academic development, career development, outreach, and publicity. And the Department of Culture and Sports, launched a series of activities: through the Innovative Talk to invite different students to share their skills and learning methods; help establish a college library; regularly collect course feedback, and organize exchanges with teachers, brainstorm; organization Visiting companies, such as Tianjin Yike, Nintendo US headquarters, UW Labs, co-organizing career development activities; receiving outside organizations to visit and cooperate; managing their own WeChat public account, Facebook and network disk, recording and publishing each event, setting up a calendar Wall sharing event information, weekly newsletter release; monthly regular birthday party and cultural festival celebrations, such as the first time to come to the United States to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Spring Festival activities, everyone will show their talents, cooking, winning gifts and learning dumplings, Write couplets, end beach barbecue, table tennis league, Co-organize the activities of Tsinghua Alumni Association, such as the celebration, Tsinghua Spring Festival Evening, etc., and also carry forward the Tsinghua culture, make 129 chorus MV, celebrate the boys and girls festival. It is possible to lead students from different countries to work together to contribute to the collective development. It is a matter of accomplishment and satisfaction in the course of the course.

Q: Can you talk about your project or research?
I did a three-year robot-related mechanical design and control research project during my undergraduate degree. Therefore, I would like to learn more about software and artificial intelligence during my graduate studies. I can complement this technology, so I have done some science and technology projects:
1. KUN, through the depth camera to identify the child sitting posture, and through the design of a small robot similar to the tumbler to simulate the child sitting posture, through the interaction to promote the child's good sitting habits. Apply for two patents.
2. FoodGo, the unmanned take-away car, the use of large and small cars, reduce the labor of the take-away personnel, and transfer the unmanned technology to the car to achieve outdoor independent traffic. Won the first prize of the GIX Innovation Competition.
3. Wisdom Apparel Project, the project currently underway, and Guangzhou Regent Software Co., Ltd., aiming to use IoT, big data and machine learning to achieve fine-grained clothing store sales forecasts, thus automatically adjusting production schedules and transfers. Complement the flow of goods. The background is that the production of Chinese garments is now seriously wasteful. The existing production mode is based on experience or simple forecasting. Therefore, sales are often slow-moving (and some are often out of stock). Simply speaking, production does not match demand, and a large amount of manpower Time, money and money are wasted on the ineffective production. If you can use the existing large amount of data, string together the production side, the logistics link and the sales side, and produce, distribute and sell on demand, which can improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase potential sales. Precise prediction of clothing is a hot spot in the industry. Everyone hopes to know what to sell in the future as soon as possible (to category, color, size, etc.), and can arrange and stock up in advance. We are using machine learning algorithms to provide such data analysis technical support. In addition, related hardware solutions are also made, such as automatic piece counting on the production side and item location tracking in the store.

Q: Is there any plan for the future?
I am interested in technology and finance, and have relevant backgrounds. Therefore, I hope to train and learn in large American companies after graduation, not only to learn hardcore skills, but also to learn their business management; then come out to start a business (0-1 in the US, 1-∞ in China), I hope to help more people live better and bring real happiness to the human life of society. I hope that I have a variety of careers in the future, and I can cross the field.