Outstanding Graduates of International Students | LEE CHENG WEI: Despite being ordinary, we still forge ahead

"Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I going to? " These are the questions that are often asked but hardly get answered. Nevertheless, what makes every breath we take meaningful? It may be a dream which seems to be within reach but can never be achieved no matter how hard you stretch your arms. Everyone has dreams but to different degrees. Some people are afraid that they will be laughed at by others if they say them aloud. Some think their dreams are too unrealistic and they feel like dreams can only be dreams. People who have the courage to state their dreams aloud and have been working hard toward them deserve everyone's respect.

Li Chengwei, whose father is a businessman and whose family is near the Strait of Malacca, once thought he would inherit his father's mantle when he grew up, becoming a fishmonger, who only has two days off every month, starts working at 2 a.m. every day, and lives a life with reversed days and nights. It wasn't until he was about to graduate from high school that he realized he should seriously think about his future. So, he made up his mind and traveled 2,000 kilometers away to study at SJTU. When choosing one from various majors, he decided to choose aerospace. Cheng Wei's relatives and friends all questioned whether Malaysia could build planes and rockets. In fact, even Cheng Wei himself didn't know if it would be a broad road or a narrow bridge, or just a dead end.

However, he has a dream. He wants to make a difference in Malaysia. He hopes that some areas of  Malaysia's science and technology can reach a higher level because of his achievements. He understands that it is hard. But he knows better that this is the meaning he gives to his life.

He spent six years in SJTU to get his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. In the first three years, on the 4,000-acre campus, he lived a collective life. He was the founder of clubs, the volunteer of four years’ Shanghai Marathon competitions, the international publicity ambassador of SJTU, a frequent visitor of performance stages, and a member of the International Student council. For the next three years, he stayed in a small room with only one computer in front of a one-meter desk, dealing with CNKI, ENDNOTE, PYTHON, and EXCEL all day. Presumably many international students have the same experience as him. The loneliness and anxiety in a small room constantly make him doubt themselves and ask himself, "What on earth am I doing?" Day after day, month after month, year after year, sitting in front of the computer, typing code, and running simulations through trials and errors, recording data that he didn't know if there was any use at all. Is this scientific research? Li Chengwei’s answer is yes, and no.

The aerospace field involves structure, propulsion, control, etc., and Li Chengwei chose the direction of noise for in-depth research. This starts with an opportunity, that is, meeting his mentor, Mr. Ma Wei, who has been engaged in aerodynamic noise research. After communicating with Teacher Ma, Cheng Wei discovered a field that was very novel to him. After further exploration, it is found that the sound source positioning technology can not only be used for noise reduction and fault diagnosis but also can be applied to pipeline gas leakage, power partial discharge, etc., which has great development potential and research value.

This is undoubtedly an unpopular and new field for him. And over time Cheng Wei has felt really familiar with the authors in the references since there are not many scholars who have studied in this area. However, most of Cheng Wei's research is to refine the research results of others, so that the engineering community can have a reference when applying these technologies. For example, most of the research done in his graduation thesis and articles are to analyze the impact of various controllable and uncontrollable variables on the positioning results in the actual operation process. The innovative parts count for only a small proportion of the optimization post-processing algorithm. He cannot participate in the competitions with these researches since they are so minor, and the results were not enough to widely disseminate high-quality articles. It is because he personally carried out the relevant tests and experienced the difficulties, he knew better than others that there has to be someone to carry out these tests. Some scientific work is ordinary, but there has to be someone who gets down to the ordinary.

During the two years of his master's degree, he won no dazzling resume honors, nor ground-breaking results. Li Chengwei knew that his experience was insufficient so he had to improve himself step by step, steadily. He said that there were no shortcuts on the road of scientific research, but with great ambitions, the support of his family, the guidance of his mentors, the company of his partners, and his own efforts, he would continue to work hard without hesitation. Li Chengwei believes that for science and technology, innovation is needed to move towards the better; optimization is also needed to make up for current defects. However, speaking of "optimization", he also stressed that not all "filling in the gaps" is meaningless or invaluable. In the process of optimization, many new ideas can burst out and even help innovation. At the same time, his scientific work has always revolved around the practical application of engineering. And every step he takes is getting him closer to his dream. He believes that as long as he is willing to make effort, the future will come and his dreams will come true.

Article source: 上海交通大学留学生服务中心