Zhenghan Li, a student of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), once successful sent a plush bear on a flying adventure to an altitude of 28,000 metres. Recently, he released a video showcasing his graduation project, a semi-automatic Kao Leng Mian (grilled cold noodles) machine. The video has garnered over 12 million views and numerous comments praising the creator’s strong and solid mechanical expertise.
Alongside his technological achievements, Zhenghan’s academic journey has also been extraordinarily successful. He received offers from multiple top 100 universities worldwide, including Imperial College London, the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), and Brown University. Ultimately, he chose the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley, one of the top three engineering colleges in the world.
Zhenghan demonstrated his hands-on talent from a young age, which was further nurtured by the mature teaching system at UNNC. Mechanical engineering requires a comprehensive application of diverse knowledge systems. The modules of the Mechanical Engineering programme at UNNC cover multiple areas, complementing each other and helping students bridge the gap between theory and practice, thus facilitating knowledge transformation.
The most impressive module for Zhenghan was Design, Manufacture, and Project, which was recognised as a National Level First-Class undergraduate module. It's taught jointly by Chinese and foreign scholars, closely integrating knowledge with practical operation. During this module, Zhenghan worked together with team members Zechen Wang, Baoxuan Xu, and Zhiru Liu to complete a highly challenging steamboat project.
Initially, Zhenghan could only work on small projects in a corner of the Sir Peter Mansfield Building. Upon learning about this, the Faculty of Science and Engineering allocated a dedicated area in the 3D printing laboratory as Zhenghan’s experimental base and provided the necessary tools. It was at this base that the UNNC Astrobear project was born.
In his extracurricular time, Zhenghan trained with national-level coaches as part of the UNNC rowing team, which developed his resilient character and strengthened his teamwork abilities. In the Rowing Masters competition held in Beijing recently, Zhenghan and his teammates Yongxin Cheng, Bohan Wei, and Hao Gong won second place nationally in the University Men's Quadruple Sculls, after only one week of preparation.
Zhenghan attributed his admission to top universities to the open and diverse development environment provided by UNNC. The University had always held the value of student-centred, supported students' various creative ideas and actively created opportunities to help transfer the ideas into reality.
Published on 28 June 2024