Recently, following the defense review organized by the Student Affairs Steering Committee of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Wang Shaobo, Associate Professor at the SJTU Paris Elite Institute of Technology, was awarded the honorary title of “Top Ten Class Advisors of Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2025.”
(Wang Shaobo, the second person from the left in the photo)
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Wang Shaobo is Associate Professor and PhD Supervisor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a national high-level young talent, and currently serves as Dean Assistant. He has long been engaged in PandaX dark matter and neutrino experiments, and has led multiple projects including National Key R&D Program topics and National Natural Science Foundation grants. Over the past five years, he has published more than 50 high-level papers in journals such as Nature, Research, and Physical Review Letters (PRL). Deeply rooted in the frontline of Sino-foreign cooperative engineering education, he integrates the spirit of scientists into educational practice and accompanies students’ growth as a class advisor. He has received numerous honors, including the Special Prize of SJTU Teaching Achievement Award, “Youth Civilization Award,” and “Outstanding Class Advisor.”
01
Ideological Guidance: Forging the Soul with the Spirit of Scientists
Wang Shaobo has long been devoted to research on deep-underground dark matter and neutrino detection, leading multiple national-level research projects and consistently working at the forefront of scientific research. In students’ eyes, he is both a “scientist chasing light deep underground” and a “class advisor guiding the way in education.” He upholds the principle of giving equal importance to education and research, and cultivating both academic competence and global vision. By deeply integrating frontier scientific research with engineering education, he listens attentively to students’ concerns and aspirations, patiently explores their potential, teaches according to individual aptitude, and encourages them to base themselves on their discipline while facing the world and shining in the Sino-French integrated environment.
In the past five years, he twice remained on duty during the Spring Festival at the Jinping Underground Laboratory, accompanying students through the holiday. His related deeds were reported by mainstream media such as People’s Daily and Xinhua News Agency. The perseverance, pursuit of truth, and spirit of innovation embedded in these scientific stories have become the most vivid teaching materials in class meetings.
Allowing undergraduates to engage with real scientific research is a principle he has always upheld. He proactively opens his research group’s resources to undergraduate students, having guided more than 30 students to participate in research practice, helping them publish five SCI papers. Many students have found their life direction and gained confidence through this process. As students put it:
“Professor Wang often brings us into his laboratory, allowing us to touch the most cutting-edge detection technologies. He is not only our class advisor, but also our guide on the path of scientific research.”
Today, the spirit of scientific research has been integrated into the class culture and has become an invisible yet powerful support for engineering education.
02
Both Teacher and Friend: Providing Precise Support for Multi-Dimensional Growth
As a class advisor in a Sino-French cooperative education institute, Wang Shaobo faces a training environment characterized by cross-culture, cross-system, and multi-path development. He understands that there is no “standard answer” for students’ growth, nor can education follow a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, support must be provided in stages and guidance tailored to different types of students.
In the first year, he focuses on adaptation. He established an academic tracking mechanism and, in response to the pressure of French language learning and preparatory courses, organized experience-sharing sessions and personalized support to help students overcome both language and disciplinary barriers.
In the second year, he guides exploration. This is a critical period of differentiation and heightened anxiety. Through conversations, analysis, and counseling, he helps top students raise their goals, assists mid-level students in stabilizing expectations and building confidence, and offers direction to students pursuing diverse pathways.
In the third year, he looks toward the future. He shares his experience in French engineering education with students and provides guidance on major selection, research direction, and communication with supervisors. Between the second semester of sophomore year and the first semester of junior year alone, he held more than 20 one-on-one conversations with students on issues such as major selection, transferring majors, and choosing supervisors, striving to ensure that every life decision students make is clearer and more secure.
This fine-grained approach to class advising enables students to truly feel “seen and understood,” while fostering strong cohesion, trust, and collective motivation within the class.
Beyond research supervision and class management, Wang Shaobo also leverages his responsibility for university–enterprise cooperation to systematically integrate corporate resources and engineering culture into class education. He successfully introduced 12 well-known French companies, including Airbus, Schneider Electric, and Valeo, providing students with high-quality internship opportunities and authentic learning environments. This allows education to extend beyond campus and take root in industrial practice, helping students gain an intuitive understanding of industry logic.
At the same time, he actively promotes enterprises to enter the institute and offer courses on engineering culture, covering modules such as workplace training, engineering ethics, and industry frontiers, laying a solid foundation for students’ future careers in international companies, research institutions, or cross-cultural work environments. One student shared:
“I used to blindly follow others when choosing my major and planning my career, becoming increasingly confused. Thanks to Professor Wang bringing us into contact with frontier industry courses, I came to recognize my own strengths. Now my choices are no longer blind, and every step feels solid.”
03
Value Guidance: Rooting Engineering Education in Patriotism and Responsibility
Wang Shaobo often says:
“Engineering education is not only about cultivating people who solve problems, but also about cultivating people who are responsible for humanity and the world.”
This educational philosophy has gradually taken root and flourished in his classes. Since becoming class advisor of Class F1926101 at the SJTU Paris Elite Institute of Technology in 2019, he has accompanied students throughout the full four-year training cycle. Under his guidance, the class developed a strong academic atmosphere, won multiple collective honors, achieved a 100% rate of further studies, and many students proactively took on roles such as Party branch secretary or committee member during postgraduate study.
Since 2023, he has served as class advisor for Class F2313. In just three years, the class has repeatedly achieved outstanding results, with many students winning national scholarships and various university-level and above scholarships, and standing out on major competition stages. More importantly, a number of students have closely aligned their career ideals as engineers with national needs: some devote themselves to fundamental research and strive to reach technological peaks; some join government ministries to practice public service; others choose international enterprises to convey China’s strength. On different paths, they embody the responsibility and commitment of engineers.
Balancing research, teaching, and student development for seven years, Wang Shaobo has answered through action the question: “What is a class advisor?” In his view, a class advisor is not only an organizer of student affairs, but also a guide of values, a partner in learning, and a companion in growth.
“Lighting a lamp and correcting a direction at critical moments in students’ growth”
is not only his educational philosophy, but also his consistent practice over the past seven years.
The focus he demonstrates in scientific exploration and the meticulousness he applies in class advising reflect and reinforce each other. With patience, he builds structures; with action, he carries out an engineering project centered on people—guiding more students to find their place in the coordinates of the world and the nation, and to let their lives shine.