xi's moments
Home | Education

Graduating with a degree of difficulty

Students have come up with innovative ways to mark the end of their studies

By Zou Shuo | China Daily | Updated: 2020-06-26 07:37

Donning academic gowns, students from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, pose for a graduation photo in front of a landmark building on campus this month. JI DONG/CHINA NEWS SERVICE

At an unconventional graduation ceremony in Jiangsu province last month, the whir of motors could be heard as the "students" moved across the stage to receive their diplomas.

Ye Meilan, the president of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, smiled as she greeted the graduates, dressed in academic gowns, and turned the tassels on their mortar boards.

However, the students were humanoid robots with tablets placed where their heads should be to allow the real students to interact with the president via video-conferencing.

The futuristic ceremony was held at the university's campus on May 22, with more than 1,500 master's and doctoral students receiving their diplomas.

A small group of students was selected by the university to physically attend the graduation, while a large number of graduates and their families watched the ceremony at home, kept away by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two robots used in the ceremony were built by students from the university's robotics club to enter in competitions. The club members spent nearly three weeks turning the robots into human-like forms capable of taking the places of the graduates.

"It was really memorable to attend my master's graduation ceremony this way," one of the graduates told Pear Video, a popular streaming app.

One netizen wrote that watching the ceremony seemed weird, "like a scene from a horror movie", yet added "I cannot help but feel moved by how much the university wanted to let every student experience their own graduation ceremony."

1 2 3 4 5 Next   >>|
Global Edition
BACK TO THE TOP
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349