On March 25-26, the Grand Final of the 12^th“Huagang Cup” Guangdong College Students Materials Innovation Competition, sponsored by Guangdong Materials Research Society, co-sponsored by Guangdong Undergraduate Materials Teaching Steering Committee, and co-organized byCollege of Chemistry and Materials Science,Jinan University, and Dongguan Huagang International Trading Co., Ltd., was held in Jinan University, Guangzhou. SZPT ACS Team, comprising graduate students of combined training, including Yu Liang (team leader), Miao Jiafeng, Mao Shanshan, Li Xingyu, and Ji Yaxiong, and instructed by Wang Hao, Associate Research Fellow of Hoffmann Institute of Advanced Materials,as the only team from higher vocational colleges participating in the competition, won the first prize in the final of the inorganic non-metallic materials segment and the grand final of the competition, and Wang Hao won the honorary title of “Excellent Instructor”.

This competition attracted 417 teams from 9 provinces, including South China University of Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Beijing Institute of Technology, Xiamen University, Sun Yat-sen University, etc. This competition had three segments: organic and polymer materials, inorganic non-metallic materials, and metallic materials. According to the preliminary experts’ comments, 246 works (accounting for 59% of the total registered teams) stood out in the preliminary and entered the final of the segments. On March 25, after fierce competition, SZPT’s team won the first prize in the final of the inorganic non-metallic materials segment as the first place in the graduate group and successfully advanced to the grand final. On March 26, facing the competitive teams that entered the final, SZPT’s team took a serious attitude in preparation, performed wonderfully, and finally won the first prize of the graduate group in the grand final.

This competition highlighted the outstanding achievements of SZPT in joint graduate education, and enhanced our scientific research influence in Guangdong and even the whole country. Hoffmann Institute of Advanced Materials has made remarkable results in joint graduate training. At present, the institute has 13 doctoral students and 15 master students from South China University of Technology, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Wuhan University of Technology, University of Science and Technology Liaoning and other universities. Under the guidance of the tutors from the institute, a number of graduate students have published academic papers on top international journals, such as J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., etc., with Shenzhen Polytechnic as the first unit, making great contributions to SZPT’s ranking of natural science index and scientific research influence.

Guangdong College Students Materials Innovation Competition aims to promote the process of quality-oriented education for college students, cultivate students’ innovative thinking and scientific research ability, stimulate students’ interest in scientific research and passion for practical achievement, and encourage students to produce innovative scientific achievements with certain practical value through observation and analysis on the current development situation of the materials major and combining with the knowledge they have learned, and to grow into innovative talents with scientific research consciousness and good at exploring scientific research value. Since its inception in 2010, the competition has been held for 12 sessions. The scale and influence of the competition have been increasing year by year, and it has become a representative and exemplary national innovation and entrepreneurship competition for college students.

(Lu Lu, Hoffmann Institute of Advanced Materials)