UM Health Sciences Summer Camp for Outstanding Mainland Students Successfully Held

The Health Sciences Summer Camp for Outstanding Mainland Students, organised by the University of Macau (UM) Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS), was successfully held between 16 and 22 July. A total of 79 undergraduate students and academics from Zhejiang University, Jinlin University, Sichuan University and Northwestern Polytechnical University joined this 7-day summer camp to strengthen their knowledge of health sciences, experience UM’s research and broaden their perspectives.

In the opening ceremony of the summer camp, FHS Dean Chuxia DENG warmly received the students. He encouraged them to preserve the passion to science, the curiosity to the unknown and the eagerness in conducting research to battle the challenges faced by the mankind. He also hoped that the students would have a fruitful and rewarding time in this summer camp. FHS Associate Dean (Teaching) Guokai CHEN and Assistant Professor Qiang CHEN introduced the development and accomplishments of FHS and the activities of the summer camp respectively. The representatives of the Graduate School also provided some information of the postgraduate programmes and the UM admission to the students.

The one-week summer camp featured thematic lectures hosted by FHS professors, covering a wide range of topics, including precision oncology, stem cell and development, neuroscience, biomedical imaging, nanomaterials, etc. The lectures were filled with warm atmosphere under strong discussion. The participants also had intensive interaction with the professors of UM through the meetings with different research teams related to their respective research interests. In addition, the summer camp students exchanged ideas with the UM postgraduate students to have deep understandings of the postgraduate studies of UM. Accompanied by the UM professors and students, the participants enjoyed a campus tour to understand the history, latest developments, academic achievements and research environment of UM, during which they visited the state key laboratories, frontiers science centre, FHS core facilities, library, college, sports complex, etc. Furthermore, the participants also joined a local tour to visit the world heritage sites in Macao, through which they experienced the profound history and culture of Macao.

During the sharing session at the closing ceremony, the participants indicated that the summer camp gave them a pleasant and fruitful experience. Xiaoxi LIU, a year 3 student at Jilin University, said that the summer camp not only deepened his understandings on Macao’s economy, culture, and education but also allowed him to have an insight into the academic development and research achievements of UM, that strengthened his determination to have postgraduate studies at UM. Shaowen ZHANG, a year 2 student at Zhejiang University, highly praised the research facilities and the academic level of UM. He said that he was inspired after having in-depth discussions on research and academic with UM professors.

Yali LIU, a year 2 student of Northwestern Polytechnical University, was fascinated by the beautiful scenery and the architectural settings of UM campus which is fully equipped, particularly the well-furnished sports complex. Chang YOU, a year 2 student at Sichuan University, was glad to experience the unique blend of Chinese and Western cultures of Macao. She mentioned that the whole campus tour was indeed an eye-opener to her particularly when she saw the nicely incorporated state-of-the-art equipment in the state key laboratories, frontiers science centre and the core facilities.

Zhejiang University Professor Ye CHEN and Jilin University Professor Yaming SHAN recongnised that the summer camp well serves as a platform for research and academic interactions to strengthen the collaboration between UM and the mainland students. In addition, they were grateful to the thoughtful arrangement of FHS staff who took a good care of all the participants rain or shine, in particular the provision of the meals on the day when typhoon no. 8 was hoisted. At the end of the closing ceremony, FHS Associate Dean (Research) Renhe XU hoped that the students and the academic of this summer camp continue sowing the seeds of friendship with UM, and cultivate more scientific cooperation and academic exchanges.