Like many students, Peng Boyang entered SJTU with aspirations for the future and a deep thirst for knowledge. If there is something distinctive about his growth path, it may stem from an overseas experience that began early—and from the seeds it planted in his academic life, whose influence only gradually became apparent later on.

In the second semester of his junior year, while many classmates were focusing on deepening their professional studies or preparing for domestic postgraduate paths, Peng Boyang was selected for the dual-degree program with the university’s French partner, École Polytechnique. This marked the early arrival of a two-and-a-half-year immersive cross-cultural academic journey.

▲ 彭泊洋于巴黎综合理工学院授剑仪式后

In Paris, he encountered an environment with markedly different teaching philosophies and learning models. Classroom discussions often had no standard answers. Professors preferred students who raised well-grounded questions—or even redefined the problems themselves. At first, this unfamiliarity brought profound discomfort. The learning approach he had known—efficiently absorbing knowledge and solving problems—seemed to meet its limits. During that period, he moved from confidence to confusion, and eventually to calm observation and reflection.

▲ 彭泊洋于巴黎综合理工学院课堂中

Within the relatively self-directed academic rhythm in France, Peng found ample time at his disposal. He gradually realized that beyond technical mastery lay a broader academic vision and the joy of probing the essence of things. He began to appreciate a state that did not rush toward quick success, that allowed space for wandering and deep thought. After two and a half years abroad, he returned with a rare sense of composure—especially precious in a fast-paced era. Though his technical progress in a specific direction may have temporarily lagged behind some peers in China, this seemingly “delayed” period quietly forged his mindset: more independent, more reflective, and more at ease with uncertainty in the exploratory process.

▲ 彭泊洋在实验室中制作样品研究空气动力学问题

Upon returning to the familiar yet subtly changed campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Peng Boyang joined the State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Systems and Vibration. In terms of timing, his deep involvement in research as a postgraduate did not start the earliest. Some lab mates had accumulated longer research experience in related areas. Yet he showed no anxiety about catching up.

Thanks to the period of reflection in Paris, he approached research like an explorer with a map in mind. Instead of plunging immediately into technical details, he spent considerable time systematically understanding the lab’s overall structure, the focus of each research group, and engaging in deep dialogue with his own interests. What he sought was not merely a promising topic, but one that resonated with his reshaped academic values.

In this proactive search, the field of chip thermal management entered his view and quickly captured his full attention. The topic has a clear and urgent engineering background—addressing the thermal bottleneck faced by future high-power chips—giving it solid practical significance. At the same time, the underlying fundamental questions in microscale fluid dynamics and piezoelectric material-structure coupling involve complex mechanisms and unknown challenges. These precisely echoed his deeper desire to understand not just “how to do,” but “why.” Choosing this direction was not passively accepting a task, but actively claiming a field worth cultivating—a deliberate intellectual commitment.

Once the direction was set, the steady accumulation from his time abroad quickly transformed into momentum. The strong self-learning ability he developed in France, his habit of critically reading literature, and his methodological approach to analyzing complex systems enabled him to penetrate vast background information and grasp the core thread of the problem efficiently. The calmness and patience he cultivated abroad became invaluable when facing inevitable repetitions and setbacks in early-stage research. He analyzed each unsatisfactory experimental result carefully, extracting meaningful clues. With inner steadiness and focus, he achieved systematic progress despite a seemingly later start, yielding fruitful outcomes in both academic papers and patent applications.

Looking back on Peng Boyang’s journey from undergraduate to master’s studies, a clear thread emerges. An early immersive overseas academic experience may have slowed his research rhythm compared to domestic peers, but it provided profound intellectual initiation. This cross-cultural perspective and the composure forged abroad enabled him to avoid blind conformity and anxiety during postgraduate study, make firm directional choices, and ultimately demonstrate steady yet resilient momentum in research practice. Upon completing his master’s degree, he chose to pursue a Ph.D. at SJTU. Having found a field that sustains his long-term passion, he now seeks deeper and more systematic exploration.