These four years of time, will be incomparable beautiful year. It is like the morning prairie sun, warm and dazzling, putting an invincible armor on your journey of life; The beauty of these four years lies not only in the freedom to make your own decisions, but also in the experience of your growth and transformation, so that in the years to come, you continue to pursue your dreams and become a better version of yourself; These four years of time, will be like a beautiful dream every second, gently across your youth years, leaving your life countless pictures of memories; These four years, will be a rainbow bridge, connecting you, the youngest, and the forthcoming pillars of the country. These four years are called University; it is your youth, your most beautiful youth!
On August 29, 2024, at the freshman registration site of No.5 Jin Yuan Zhuang RD Gymnasium, there was a scene where grandparents, parents, and younger sister accompanied Yang Haizhi, a student from the School of Information, from Tongxin County, Ningxia in the northwest, to register. Grandpa saw me and immediately held my hand tightly. He didn't say much and kept saying “Thank you, thank you”, but I could see it in his eyes. What he wanted to say was, “I leave my child in your hands, and I hope you will nurture him.”. I saw the look in his eyes, but he continued to hold my hand, and I saw it again in his eyes. He wanted to say, “I trust you with the future of our family.”. I didn't utter a word, I used the eyesight to tell grandpa, in the heart telling myself: “Don't worry, I will accompany the child to his learning, accompany the child for four years, accompany the child grow up, give the child a pair of undaunted wings to raise the child into talents.”
Dear class of 2024:
Hello everyone! I'm Zhang Lifeng, your president.
I will be with you for 4 years on the campus of North China University of Technology, No. 5 Jin Yuan Zhuang RD, and accompany you to grow up step by step and spend the most beautiful youth!
Today, we welcome 5444 new students from 30 provinces, cities and autonomous regions, including 4104 undergraduate students, 1312 postgraduate students and 28 doctoral students. The youngest is Chen Tiantao from Gansu province, who will just turn 16 in the coming December.
Filled with a desire for knowledge, a yearning for university life, and a yearning for a better life, we walked into Yuxiu Garden and No. 5 Jin Yuan Zhuang RD at the foot of Xi mountain of Beijing - NCUT, starting the most fulfilling and beautiful university life.
Forever best of Xi mountain; forever best of you all!
Here, on behalf of Liu Jun, secretary of the Party Committee of NCUT, on behalf of the entire school staff and alumni at home and abroad, I would like to extend our warmest welcome and sincere congratulations to the new students of Class 2024! To the parents, friends and teachers express heartfelt thanks and high respect, for they fully support and cultivate everyone to grow up.
NCUT has the intense style, the deep foundation, and the history. In 1946, the Anti-Japanese War ended. Our School was officially established when the whole country had many things waiting to be done. The first class consisted of only 117 students. The school song at that time sang: “A happy life is unlimited. There are still bigger projects and the foundation of the country yet to be built. This is the spirit of high-tech industry! This is the national path!”
Inspired by this heroic spirit, generations of NCUTers have explored ways to save the nation from extinction in the 1950s in the ‘Industrial Rejuvenation’ wave; in the 1970s and 1980s, they also joined the flood of ‘new China's industrial development’; now, we aim to serve the building of a powerful country under the objective of ‘industry prospers the country’.
In the past 78 years, the school has trained nearly 120,000 high-quality talents, and practiced the NCUT’s glorious road of ‘industry serve the country, industry rejuvenate the country, industrial strengthen the country’.
North China University of Technology has a forward-looking, comprehensive and innovative development of the discipline, practice-oriented, cross-integration of the concept of outstanding engineer training. North China University of Technology has “celestial and earthly” scientific and technological innovation. The university has been awarded 8 National Prizes for Progress in Science and Technology, and the independently invented new materials travel with satellites such as Tiangong and Fengyun. High-quality steel and iron materials for advanced manufacturing are used in the national key construction, such as Sanxia hydroelectric power station and Jing-Xiong high-speed railway, and applied in new energy automobile. The research results of mine safety and geotechnical engineering safety serve the national security development. Urban governance and urban safety research results serve more than ten cities and regions. Fully participate in the formulation and application of energy storage standards, so as to promote the sustainable development of national energy. We have well-known experts, scholars and teachers: more than 10 national high-level talents leading the direction of scientific research, are the country and the school's precious wealth; The national team of ‘Huang Danian’ type university teachers, advanced teachers in the national education system, nearly 20 famous teachers in Beijing, and hundreds of winners of the Young Teachers' Basic Skills Competition work deeply in the classroom and impart knowledge without reservation.
We have also taken practical measures to stay ahead of the frontier and innovate in reform. We have built a number of new majors like energy storage science and technology and intelligent transportation, and established the first School of Energy Storage, UAV School and Digital Industry School in Beijing's universities, focusing on resilient cities, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, integrated circuits, energy storage and so on. We will give full play to the role of a platform for industry, university, research and application collaboration to train innovative talents. The university's two doctoral disciplines, namely control science and engineering and mechanical engineering, have been publicized in the Ministry of Education, which is a historic breakthrough in the discipline construction of our university. We will establish and improve the training system of "undergraduate, master and doctoral successive studies + select the best to teach in the school". In the future, the school will have a stronger faculty, the discipline strength will be stronger, the research platform will be broader, and the academic achievements will be richer. Students present will have more opportunities to develop their professional aspirations on a higher platform with more opportunities.
Students, you are as beautiful as the green forest of Xi mountain! You are now the youngest, the most vigorous, the most energetic in NCUT. Tomorrow you will become the backbone of society and the pillars of the nation. University is a short and crucial period in one's life. You are about to begin a new chapter of your lives with extraordinary wisdom and determination. During his tenure as President of Peking University, Mr. Cai Yuanpei raised four hopes for his students: ‘Respect Yourself’, ’Turn loneliness into community’, ’Have a practical understanding of your own academic abilities’, and ’Exercise in a planned way’ and hope that modern students should have ‘lion-like physical strength, monkey-like agility and camel-like spirit’.
As the president of North China University of Technology, I encourage my talented and youthful students to embrace the challenge, acknowledge the fear, face the doubt, and savor every moment of their new journey, because they are essential parts of growing up.
I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you 25 characters:
01 Set the ambition of Mount Tai
Youth is used to aspire to, to clearly make the direction of struggle. President Xi Jinping has stressed, ‘Young people with lofty ideals and firm convictions are an invincible driving force for a country and a nation.’ People's life can have a lot of aspirations, but the most important aspiration in life, should be linked with the motherland and the people. This is the foundation of ambition, but also the backbone of life, to be determined to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
This summer, at the Paris Olympics, ‘Playing for my country has given me more strength.’ tennis player Zheng Qinwen said after a three-hour ordeal. ‘Although I am tired, I am willing to play for my country for another three hours.’ The ’patriotic sound’ of Chinese Olympians and the national anthem played repeatedly in Paris, let us feel the patriotic strength of the youth of the new era.
When you set your ambition, you must work hard for it. With ambition, even salted fish can turn over; do not insist, it will still stick to the pot even turned over. The smallest gap between people is IQ, the biggest gap is persistence. Efforts do not definitely lead to success, while do not work will 100% fail.
In the past 5 years, more than 600 graduates from NCUT have been employed in the western region, and more than 200 students have been recruited into the military. They responded to the call of the motherland. Some used science and technology to help rejuvenate the countryside, some used their expertise to serve green development, some helped ethnic integration, and some threw themselves into defending the country and guarding the border, taking the initiative to work at the grass-roots level and among the people to build a successful career. Where the motherland needs them, they write wonderful lives with quiet dedication. For example, Xu Qujun, a 2002 Class law alumnus, returned to his hometown, Caicun village, Chengmai County, Hainan province. He raised money and led his fellow villagers to build an agricultural development complex and a shared farm, and built a ’Village Disney’, more than 50 families have found jobs. I myself had been to his shared farm once to taste the delicious coffee with the scent of NCUT.
Students, you will be the experiencers, participants and creators of building a strong socialist country in an all-round way and achieving the goal of the second centenary struggle. I hope all of you will have great ambitions and participate in drawing a beautiful future for the Chinese nation.
02 Break 10,000 good books
Breaking the 10,000 good books means to study hard, read more books, absorb nutrients from the ocean of knowledge, create a brilliant future. The school library has a collection of nearly 2 million books, 90 databases, more than 30,000 kinds of electronic journals for everyone to absorb academic nutrition.
Students mean the life of learning, and university means the place to learn. The core task of the university is learning, which is the original intention of the university. You may not like your major at first, but you must learn it well. Just as soldiers can love peace and oppose war, but they must be able to rush to the battlefield when our country needs them, students must also be committed to learning. I didn't like my major when I was in university, but I have a firm faith, that is, what I can grasp at present is my study. I don't like it, but I must learn it well, because it determines my future, and it is the only thing I can hold in my hand and affect my future. It wasn't until my second year of graduate that I continue publishing my academic papers. With a sense of accomplishment, I found that I liked my major. I haven't changed my major in 35 years.
Students, today is opening ceremony. All of you stand on the same starting line, and you have no difference. But after 4 years, you will find the difference between you so obvious: some have a bright future, some delay graduation or even cannot graduate. The main difference is your learning effectiveness and overall quality. Your future is determined by your learning effectiveness and overall quality! This is the only way! There is no shortcut! I say this to freshmen every year, hoping to resonate with them!
The fragrance of books elevates your personal atmosphere. An empty bottle of mineral water is worth one jiao at most, one yuan for water, three yuan for drinks and a hundred yuan for wine. The same is true of our brains. When we read more good books, our minds are filled with knowledge, and we become invaluable. When we only know how to play games and watch videos, our minds are filled with games, and we become worthless.
You can play video games, but you can't get addicted to them. I asked a few new students, who like League of Legends, King of Glory, Black Myth: Wu Kong. Don't worry, addicted to these games, you cannot become a legend, cannot become a king, cannot become the Wu Kong, cannot become a myth, cannot glorify your life!
There is a saying: the world's most powerful person is, said to get up then get up, said to do then do, said to play then play, said to concentrate then concentrate, be able to advance or retreat. Do what you have not done is called growth, do what you do not want to do is called change, and do what you dare not do is called breakthrough. The most terrible thing is to do nothing all day long and leave it for tomorrow forever. No one is easier than others, and we can only say that one is working harder than others!
03 Competing against each other
In NCUT, there is a trend of ‘No contest no NCUT , no practice no NCUT’ , which is also what your seniors adhere to for many years. Our school provides various chances for competitions and practices for every student. Each year, more than 4,000 people win prizes in national and provincial-level academic competitions, and nearly 2,000 people carry out social practices and researches. In the school's Intelligent Robotics Scenario Lab, there is a Dream Team, whose members compete annually in the Robomaster National Collegiate Robotics Competition. During the preparation period, they experimented for more than 14 hours every day. Students from many majors, such as automation, electricity, transportation, machinery, and computer, cooperated wholeheartedly, from the top 16 to the top 6. They won the first prize in the national competition and completed their “Dream Realization Journey”. These competitions can not only enhance your professional knowledge and practical skills, but also help you realize that becoming an innovative application-oriented talent is an important and systematic work.
Countless ships and sails flow together, the hard-working one rules the tide! It is an innovative learning method of China in the new era to learn by contest, experience trendy technology and practical teaching, and cultivate practical and scientific research ability. It will not delay time, but will certainly give you extra points in your life and help yourself to become a capable person. Please be sure to participate extensively!
04 Shaping the bright mind
There are bad people in this world, but there must be more good people. With sunshine and positive energy to face your life, your life will surely shine as well. Youth is used for singing, for improving the moral quality. President Xi Jinping once encouraged young people to ‘closely combine the correct moral cognition, conscious moral cultivation and positive moral practice together, to constantly cultivate morality, lay a solid moral foundation, and go correctly and further on the road of life". The motto of North China University of Technology is ‘Honesty, Diligence, Knowledge, Morality’, which means that teachers and students are required to ‘improve morality and knowledge together, and possess both talent and virtue’, which is the code of conduct observed by generations of NCUTers. I hope that everyone can get purified mind, fine conduct and gentle quality in the beautiful campus. When one drinks water, one must not forget where it comes from. You should also know how to return, be grateful to parents and relatives, to school and teachers, to society and the people, to the party and the country.
Life long happiness, Long live friendship! Poetry and remoteness, friends are the best! In July this year, I went to Guangzhou to see my college classmate Liu Heng. I haven’t seen him for 20 years, but he is still half a head shorter than me! The joy of ‘meeting my old friend in an unfamiliar land’ and seeing my best friend again made my blood rush and I felt extremely happy!
Friends in university are reliable; you will become the friends for life. ‘It takes hundred years of cultivation to get on the same boat’. Living in one dormitory for four years is your precious luck. Be tolerant of each other. A person's self-cultivation are from magnanimity and tolerance of others. Know how to be tolerant, know how to respect with people, so that there can be a way to go, can bear love in the heart, can have something to achieve.
So how to choose a friend? There are two principles: as long as this person is patriotic, and love his parents, he (she) is probably good.
There is a saying that goes like this: there is an umbrella held for a long time, the rain has stopped but still refused to fold. There was a bouquet of flowers that had been smelled for a long time and even withered was refused to be thrown away. There is a kind of friendship, even if the black hair goes grey, is still in the heart to retain!
People in this life shall go through rain and wind, to meet a better self. Whether downstream or against the wind, we all need to live with our heart, go upward, smile forward, which are the best feedback on life. Root down, blossom up, live up to life, live up to your age!
05 Steel-like body
The prerequisite for action is to be in good health. One must have many qualities to do one thing, but all of them must depend on one precondition-one must be in good health. North China University of Technology has a gymnasium, indoor and outdoor sports grounds, as well as 58 student clubs. It has a variety of campus cultural activities, including cultural festivals, science festivals, arts festivals and sports festivals. We have to find like-minded friends, cultivate a healthy hobby and habit, early to bed and early to get rise, exercise more, so as to benefit life-long.
Zou Lin, a postgraduate student at the School of Architecture and Art, completed more than 2,500 hours of volunteer work during her undergraduate years. She participated in volunteer work for the Beijing Winter Olympics, the trade association and the marathon. She was named ‘the most beautiful volunteer in the capital’. In her opinion, the ‘two-way journey’ of volunteering is not only helping others, but also helping oneself, precipitating oneself, and improving oneself.
Exercise builds your body, beautifies your face, changes your brain and remakes your life. Let's go get some exercise, while the time is right, and live up to every moment. With a steel-like body, one would have a strong will. As the principal, I hope the campus is full of handsome tall posture, full of dazzling smile, full of optimism!
Students, if you can set up goals grand like Mount Tai, break 10,000 volumes of good books, compete thousands of competitions, shape the bright thinking and forge steel-like body, then you will become ambitious, knowledgeable, capable, friendly, and healthy college students!
You will be horses, galloping across the vast wilderness!
You will be eagles, flying in the open sky!
You will become a Loong, rambling in the endless ocean!
You will be the masters of your own steady progress, dominating your own life!
You will become the promoter of healthy social progress, and become a carrier of positive energy!
You will become strivers and achievers of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese Dream!
You'll Be yourself! You'll be different!
Students, if you decide to be brilliant, then the mountains and oceans shall not get in your way. Bear the courage to rush, to fight, then the future belongs to you! The NCUT will be the cradle where you dare to dream, pursue your dreams, and make your dreams come true! We hope that everyone will carry forward the value pursuit of ‘promoting the industry and serving the country’, carrying out the school motto of ‘Dun Pin Li Xue, Cai De Bing Mao’, and the school ethos of ‘being serious, strict and rigorous’. Using a serious spirit of scholarship, strict self-restraint, rigorous attitude of learning to reach the pursuit of a higher level, higher realm, higher taste of life. Bloom the brilliance of youth in the achievement of our own, achievement of other people's youth, in the unremitting struggle for the motherland, for the nation, for the people, for humanity, and in the great practice of the construction of a strong country.
Students, four years of the most beautiful youth has just begun. I am with you together, come on! Fight!
Finally, on this memorable day, I would like to name the following nine students, and please reply "Here" loudly. Xiao Han, Chen Wenjie from School of Information; Ai Mingyang, Ding Guanke from School of Electrical and Control Engineering; Li Sitong, Liu Yalin from School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering; Zhao Hang from School of Civil Engineering; Li Xinpeng from School of Economics and Management; Kong Xianglu from School of Humanity and Law.
Today is your birthday. I wish you a happy birthday!
Students, Xi Mountain rises on the shades, you ride on the tides!
I love you guys!
