In this issue, let's go to Thomas XIONG (Xiong Yuanke), one of the outstanding graduates of SJTU in the class of 2024, and take a look at his growth story of 6.5 years.
Thomas XIONG
SPEIT, 2024 Master's Degree in Energy and Power Engineering
Graduated from: Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China
Honors and Awards
◾2024th Outstanding Graduate of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (International Students)
◾Third Prize of the Third DuoDuo Bright Homeport Agricultural Research Competition
◾Second Prize of Sino-French Engineering Exchange Society
◾2022 School Games Volleyball Champion
◾2023 Dean's Prize (Collective Prize) of the Paris School of Excellence for Engineers
Growth Story
Born in 1999 in Paris, France, Xiong Yuanke was raised in a Chinese family, and his parents' relaxed and liberal upbringing has cultivated his independent, uninhibited and willing to try new things.
In 2017, Xiong Yuanke passed the French college entrance examination with a "Mention Très Bien" rating after layers of written tests and interviews, and entered the Institut d'Ingénieurs d'Excellence in Paris.
Xiong Yuanke's family has been studying in France since the early 1900s and has gradually settled there. His family members include Xiong Qinglai, a famous mathematician, and Xiong Youde, a materials scientist and recipient of the French National Order of Merit. Being inspired by his family's scientific research atmosphere, he has always wanted to "do something" in scientific research since he entered the university.
Step by step, diversifying practices in the energy sector
Yuanke Xiong has a strong interest in energy and has been involved in diverse research practices in conjunction with the college's arrangements during his 6.5 years of study at the college.
In his junior year, Xiong Yuanke did a cognitive internship at the Shanghai Research Center of Air Liquide, a French supplier of industrial and medical gases, an experience that enriched his knowledge of energy and energy consumption. In his senior year, he chose Prof. Zhai Xiaoqiang from the School of Mechanical and Power Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University as his research advisor and completed his thesis on energy demand in different seasons.
In his first year of master's degree, under the guidance of Prof. Zhai Xiaoqiang, Xiong Yuanke joined a research project between SJTU and Midea Group's Building Technology Division. He developed an effective solution for machine localization and identification to address energy saving in building air conditioning energy systems, and successfully applied for two invention patents. These practical experiences laid a solid foundation for his subsequent work in science and innovation.
Smart gardening, a crossover attempt by engineering students
In the second year of his master's degree, Xiong Yuanke became interested in vertical agriculture. Introduced by his teacher, he joined the "Unending Life" team led by Prof. Bao Hua of Shanghai Jiaotong University's Prynne College of Future Technology, and participated in the third DuoDuo Agricultural Research and Technology Competition with PhDs and post-doctoral students from SJTU's College of Agriculture and Biology, and the College of Mechanical Engineering and Dynamics.
In a container on Chongming Island, Xiong Yuanke and his teammates planted three crops of "Cuitian" lettuce and competed with several other "agricultural brigades" from universities and research institutes in Beijing and Shanghai in the "Spring Farming" competition. The competition.
Vertical agriculture to break the "eat by the sky" tradition, to explore a "do not rely on the sky to eat" mode of production, agricultural crops transplanted to the container, the artificial control of light, heat, water, gas, fertilizer and other environmental factors, the test growers on the container hardware and software control, this This involves knowledge in many fields such as engineering and computer science.
One of the original purposes of the DuoDuo Agricultural Research Competition is to concentrate the strongest brains to overcome the problem of energy consumption. Energy consumption happens to be Xiong Yuanke's area of specialization, and hardware and software is an area that Yuanke is very interested in and has been exploring.
Under the guidance of Prof. Bao Hua, Xiong Yuanke and his teammates viewed the shipping container as a building and projected their past experience in energy control in buildings onto the container vertical farm, trying to reinvent the concept of agronomy from the perspective of architectural design. Xiong Yuanke is responsible for optimizing energy consumption, and through the construction of a cloud data platform and algorithmic analysis, he ensures that the lettuce grows as much as possible while reducing energy consumption.
Through three rounds of planting, Xiong Yuanke and his teammates developed a data management platform and verified the loop control algorithm for lettuce growing. With the support of big data, Xiong Yuanke and his teammates planted better than one round, and realized a yield of +135%, energy consumption of -29.01%, and heartburn rate from 43% to 3% in the final trial.
Xiong Yuanke's team eventually won the third place, and they were interviewed by a number of media, including CCTV and Southern Weekend. Many judges and experts lamented, "If we had planted a few more crops, the championship might have to be awarded to the engineering family."
Cross-border integration with unlimited visions for the future
Xiong Yuanke has infinite imagination for "energy+agriculture+computer", for example, going to space to make space energy system and grow space vegetables ......
Next, Xiong Yuanke will continue his doctoral studies at Shanghai Jiaotong University and research on plant factories. After much agricultural research competition, Xiong Yuanke exclaimed: "Originally thought that the plant is also a standardized research object, set the parameters, run through the model, those green seedlings will become a pile of data. Waiting for the practice, only to find that the combination of engineering and agronomy is not as simple as imagined."
He hopes that in the coming time, he can continue to utilize the scientific research resources of the school, further expand the skill tree, and try the technology from 0 to 1 with the "excellent brains" of the school, and run the products from 1 to 100, so as to contribute to China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality, as well as to the global climate problem.
