ShanghaiTech University held its 2024 Commencement and Degree Conferral Ceremony in the Athletic Center on the morning of July 7. The center was filled with an audience including the Class of 2024 graduates, parents, faculty and staff delegates, and industrial and business representatives. Honored guests seated on the stage included members of the university and schools’ leadership, as well as leaders from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) institutes collaborating with ShanghaiTech. Yin Jie, Executive Vice President & Provost of ShanghaiTech, presided over the ceremony. Among the graduates, 380 received bachelor’s degrees, 487 received master’s degrees, and 237 received Ph.D. degrees.
The first session of the celebration began with Yin Jie announcing the names of 70 students who won the Graduate Excellence Award of Shanghai, and 12 students who won the 2024 ShanghaiTech President’s Award, the highest honor for ShanghaiTech graduates. Founding President Jiang Mianheng and President Feng Donglai conferred the award certificates.
Yin Jie presided over the ceremony.
Following the award conferral session, Zhao Yanzhi from the School of Physical Science and Technology (SPST), representing the graduated seniors, expressed his appreciation for the university providing an excellent, versatile, and international learning environment for undergraduate students. He recalled his experiences of exploring the unknown with curiosity and overcoming adversity with persistence. “ShanghaiTech provided me not only with academic resources. I continued my interest in classical music by playing the violin in the university orchestra. I was also offered opportunities to apply my knowledge in industrial sectors, deepening my understanding of technology trends. Moreover, I had the chance to visit underdeveloped regions in China for social engagement, giving me a more comprehensive view of society and values.”
Zhao Yanzhi shared his story.
Graduate student representative Lin Jialing from the School of Life Science and Technology (SLST) followed Zhao Yanzhi in sharing her story. Lin received her Ph.D. degree and will continue her research career in plant science as a postdoc fellow at MIT. She said she greatly benefited from ShanghaiTech’s strong academic atmosphere. “The university offered us graduate students an excellent platform for cutting-edge research, enabling us to make significant progress. I believe that scientists should do important and practical science. In the future, I will continue my research, strive to become a leading scientist, and transform my research into practical productivity.”
Lin Jialing gave her speech.
As the faculty representative, Associate Professor Sören Schwertfeger from the School of Information Science and Technology (SIST) shared his ten-year teaching experience at ShanghaiTech. He expressed his fortune in participating in the university’s development and witnessing its growth into a university with rich resources, outstanding courses, and excellent students. He also encouraged the graduates to face challenges bravely and strive to become leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators in the era of artificial intelligence.
Sören Schwertfeger encouraged students and gave his expectation.
President Feng then delivered a speech titled “Aiming high to be a thinker with broad perspective, a leader with innovation, and a doer with resilience.” He highlighted that this class of graduates experienced a period of rapid development at ShanghaiTech, including its inclusion in China’s World-Class Universities list and the university’s tenth anniversary. President Feng emphasized the importance of aiming high. “Only by upholding high aspirations can we calmly deal with the challenges brought by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. Only then can we have the determination to face global uncertainties without being hasty for quick success and maintain our conscience.”
President Feng delivered his speech to the graduates.
Cui Tiankai, Former Chinese Ambassador to the United States, served as the distinguished speaker for this year’s commencement. He delivered a keynote speech encouraging graduates to follow their own path of self-reliance. Drawing from his experiences studying abroad and serving as the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, he urged graduates to remain self-confident and advised them to understand the world and themselves through a scientific worldview and methodology. “No matter how powerful computational power may be, it cannot replace your independent thinking.” He emphasized the importance of sticking to one’s own goal and following one’s own path. He also expressed his hope that graduates from ShanghaiTech would achieve significant milestones and emerge as the prominent figures of the future.
Cui Tiankai
The Class of 2024 prepared a special gift for ShanghaiTech as a token of gratitude for years of nurturing. The gift was a sailboat, featuring the theme “Sailing forward.” The boat was adorned with designs specially created by the School of Creativity and Art, with fiber optics illuminated in the representative colors of each school as decoration. Inside the boat, it was filled with paper cranes inscribed with the graduates’ messages, conveying their aspirations for the boundless future success of ShanghaiTech.
The sailboat gift.
In the last session of the ceremony, a video clip expressed well-wishes to the Class of 2024 from alumni worldwide, with a huge QR code displayed on the screen for students to join the global alumni network. At the end, all graduates stood up to thank their parents, professors, and university staff, signaling the conclusion of the 2024 Commencement.