Opening Day of FPISC 2014

Future Physicist International Summer Camp (FPISC) in 2014 started officially on June 30th. After the arrivals of campers one day before, who are from U.S., U.K, Czech Republic, Netherland, Bangladesh, Malaysia and many other countries, FPISC organizer kindly set opening ceremony at 9:00am at Universiy of Science and Technology of China so that campers could have enough time for rest.

In opening ceremony, Prof. JIANG Yi, vice president of USTC and Prof. LIU Wandong, executive dean of School of Physical Sciences gave their welcoming words. Prof. Jiang explained the educational goals of USTC and as one of the promoters, he claimed the aim for FPISC of cultural exchange and helping campers find potential research partners. After that, Prof. Liu gave a brief introduction of School of Physical Sciences, which recruits almost 300 undergraduate students every year, and his understanding of physics as a very fundamental science.

After the ceremony, campers presented their brief self-introduction including their name, nationality, home university and hobbies. Many of them share the same interest in sports like badminton, basketball and soccer. Some Chinese campers specially pick themselves an English name which is much easier for foreigners to remember.

Then, Prof. YUAN Junhua gave the first scientific lecture on ‘Bacterial Motile Behavior: from single motor to signaling network’. Besides backgrounds in biology, he showed campers years of work of his group on studying dynamical mechanism of bacteria like E-coli.

The second lecture was given by Prof. SUN Xuan of ’Introduction to Plasma Physics’. He talked about what is plasma, what does Plasma Physics about and fantastic natural phenomena related of Plasma Physics.
After lunch, campers paid a visit to Prof. Yuan’s biophysics lab and had academic conversation with researchers there. Some of campers manipulated the equipment themselves and observed bio-slice they made.Later in the afternoon took place a Chinese class. Foreign members of summer camp learned and practiced together Chinese greetings. They also appreciated Hui-style architecture, which is common in Anhui Province, and different types of tea.　

Although the Chinese class are the last thing on that day’s schedule, campers organized an international badminton and basketball game at night. Their friendship became deeper during sport games.
The ‘Future Physicist International Summer Camp’, organized by University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) provides such opportunities that international students can immerse themselves in a multicultural environment and gain insights into Chinese culture, and that Chinese students can have a taste of cultural exchange with international students without going abroad.