Day 2: Lessons
On Tuesday 16th May, we had our first taste of lesson in ZJU. It was a very hectic day as we have to go for lessons from 9 am to 5 pm. Our lessons were on Origami Robots and they were divided into 3 sections, Introduction to Origami Robots and Introduction to Rhino in the morning, Kinematics in the afternoon.
Although it was a bit of a struggle to understand the lesson as a non-Chinese speaker, it was quite interesting to see how different folding and alignments of the origami paper can result in different sets of movement patterns.
Day 3: Meeting with Theme Mentor
On Wednesday 17th May, we had our first meeting with our theme mentor. It was a short meeting where we get an introduction to our project. Our project is about utilising Electromagnetic Sense Technology to improve human-machine interaction.
Different types of electrical objects around us emit different electromagnetic (EM) waves. Using this property, we will able to differentiate two electrical objects from one another (e.g. a phone from a laptop). Our aim for the project is to come up with ways to integrate the EM-sense technology to our life.
We are divided into three teams, Team 1 oversees the hardware implementation and analysis of gathered data, Team 2 oversees Raspberry Pi implementation and installations, and Team 3 is in charge of coming up with ideas for the project. We agreed to meet every week to update each other on the progress of the project.
It’s a very interesting technology and all of us were excited to implement and work with it to solve problems.
Day 6:
On Saturday 20th May, it was ZJU 120th anniversary weekend and there were a lot of activities around the campus. My friends and I went to Yuquan campus to watch an open-air concert by ZJU student musicians.
The concert was at night and it was SO packed that we only managed to get a glimpse of the concert from behind the stage.
Surprisingly there was a large variety of songs with different genres and languages. There were Western songs like ‘We are never ever getting back together’ by Taylor Swift and ‘Highway to Hell’ by ACDC, Japanese song like ‘Secret Base’ by Zone as well as the Naruto theme song. The large variety in songs might have been one of the reasons for the huge crowd as the concert has something to offer regardless of your music taste.
Some of us were disappointed that we couldn’t get a nice spot to watch the concert but overall, it was interesting to see the diverse taste in music in China and the short performance that we got to see.
Day 7:
On Sunday 21st May, it was the day of the 120th anniversary, the university was bustling with people from ZJU alumni to the parents of the students were visiting the university to be a part of the anniversary celebration. Around lunch time, there was a parade around ZJU campus which showcases different traditional costumes, everyone in the campus was in a celebratory mood and we can certainly feel the atmosphere of joy in the campus!
In the evening, some of us paid the nearby Zi Jin Gang campus a visit. It was still under development but we went to the part which was already completed. The buildings were very pretty and it gave off a very soothing atmosphere, partly due to the greeneries and the small pond inside the compound. We took a lot of pictures and enjoyed our time there.
There was also another concert/stage performance on the day, bigger than the one on the day before. It requires a ticket for entry so we only got to see the performance from the live stream. Along the way back from the Zi Jin Gang campus, while walking we saw the concert venue and lines of people watching the show from outside the fenced venue.
Overall, this week is all about the 120th Anniversary of ZJU and we are glad that our exchange happens to coincide with this memorable event. We definitely had a great time this week!
