Recently, a good news comes from American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) that Zhang Yu, a student of ZJUI who majors in Civil Engineering, won the first place in China Division and fourth place in the world in Competition of Engineering Ethics Papers of 2019 ASCE Mid-Pacific Student Conference. This is the first time the student of Zhejiang University joined the Competition of Engineering Ethics Papers. Under the guidance of Pro.Ryan P. Flanagan, Zhang Yu stood out from participants with fluent English expression and excellent defense skills.
ASCE Student Conference is a long-standing event founded by the American Association of Civil Engineers. The competition this year was held at San Jose State University from April 18 to April 20. There are six events in the competition, including retaining wall, concrete boat, water treatment, transportation, sustainable design and papers. Twelve American universities such as University of California, Berkeley and Davis, as well as five Chinese universities such as Zhejiang University, Tongji University, Hehai University, Southwest Jiaotong University and Dalian University of Technology participated in the competition.
The Competition of Engineering Ethics Paper aims to evaluate participants’ ability of critical thinking and oral presentation. The participants are demanded to write papers discussing the engineering ethics on the basis of their understanding about the code of ethics, then present and discuss their ideas with the judges in scene reply. Zhang Yu started from the current situation of equal rights in the United States, then explored the equality issues in civil engineering. She competed overcame the disadvantages of language and cultural background, standing out and demonstrating the demeanor of ZJUI students in the international arena.
Zhang Yu said, ”The English teaching mode of our institute contributes a lot to my success because the environment makes it easier for me to understand the American culture and to analyze and think from a more essential point of view. On the classes of Dr. Ryan P. Flanagan, I learned how to write an English paper and how to make it logical and novel. Thanks to the accumulation on the Rhetoric classes, I’m a lot more confident with myself on the world stage.”
Photo: Zhang Xiaodi, Li Yipeng
Translator: He Yanqi