The School of the Gifted Young (SGY) recently uploaded the courses Mathematical Analysis B2 and Electromagnetism to their bilibili account, which signifies the start of the second uploading wave after last year’s autumn 2020 release of online courses. This program is supported by the Rose Science Development Foundation (RSDF). SGY alumna Melissa Ma, Class of ’85, donated funds to establish the RSDF at the USTC Education Foundation in 2018 to support the innovation development of her alma mater, USTC.

    Mathematical Analysis B1, Mechanics A and Introductions to Science, Technology and Engineering, released in Autumn 2020 have received significant praise, with more than 100,000 views in total. On the day the courses went live, the combined views of Mathematical Analysis B2 and Electromagnetism rushed to 10k rapidly, from which the popularity of the premiere courses can be shown clearly.

    SGY’s education focuses on self-motivated learning and researching, with equal emphasis on foundation and innovation throughout the whole undergraduate career. As a result, a “broad, thick and solid” liberal education model is formed. As general education courses in the foundational areas of physics and mathematics, these courses not only help students to build a good foundation for their knowledge system, but also serve as a valuable model of teaching materials, which can be spread on bilibili as high-quality education resources for everyone to benefit from.

    SGY insists on educating students in accordance with their individual aptitudes in order to help students to embark on a “dedicated, innovate and flexible” personalized path leading to success. Students from SGY can choose and adjust their major freely at multiple points within their undergraduate study, which is unusual in the Chinese higher education system. The course Introductions to Science, Technology and Engineering, offered by SGY, helps students to choose their preferred majors by inviting outstanding professors from all departments to introduce to students the history, intentions, frontiers and applications of their field.

    On Oct. 23^rd, 2020, Academician Xinhe BAO, President of USTC, attended the opening ceremony. In his speech, Academician BAO expressed his expectations for the SGY Premiere Courses. He hoped that SGY could do well in spreading knowledge and sharing teaching resources through this platform, and could further strengthen its ability to serve society based on the unique characteristics and advantages of SGY.

• Introduction to Mathematical Analysis and Prof. Yi CHENG

    Mathematical Analysis B1 deals mainly with real numbers, series, functions, derivatives, differentiation, integration, ordinary differential equations, and so forth; Mathematical Analysis B2 deals with analytic geometry, integration of functions of several variables, curve and surface integrals, Fourier analysis, improper integrals and integrals with parameters.

    These two courses are both taught by Prof. Yi CHENG. Having served as the head of the Mathematics Department, the Vice President and Dean of the Graduate School of USTC, and the Director of the Anhui Provincial Department of Education at different times, Prof. CHENG has now returned to his teaching podium to teach undergraduate courses such as Mathematical Analysis and Advanced Mathematics and was awarded the title of "Teaching Master" in Anhui Province in 2020. He teaches with patience and logic in class with his classic blackboard-writing as he has done for many years. “If you transcribe Prof. Cheng’s lines from the blackboard to your notebook,” one student comments, “you’ll find it as a well-designed set of notes for this course.” In addition, Prof. Cheng also does his best to strengthen students’ mathematical foundation and broaden their horizons by presenting extensional materials and answering questions outside of class.

Prof. CHENG and his colleagues have further co-authored the textbook Lecture Notes on Mathematical Analysis (Volumes 1-3) (Higher Education Press).

• Introduction to Mechanics and Electromagnetism and Prof. Bangjiao YE

    Mechanics involves spacetime, inertia, force, torque, momentum, angular momentum, celestial bodies, rigid bodies, fluids, vibrations and waves, and relativity; Electromagnetism covers electrostatic fields, steady-state magnetic fields, electromagnetic induction, electromagnetic media, DC and AC circuits, and Maxwell's system of equations.

    Prof. Bangjiao YE, currently as a professor in the Physics Department of USTC, teaches these two courses. He has been teaching undergraduate physics for a long time. He is the head of the Electromagnetism course team, the vice-chairman of the National Association for the Study of Teaching Electromagnetism in Colleges and Universities, the chair of the Ministry of Education's open online video course Electromagnetism, and was awarded the title of Teaching Master of Anhui Province in 2009. He is the author of the undergraduate textbook "Electromagnetism" and participated in the preparation of "Electromagnetism and Electrodynamics" (Vol. 1). He is also an associate editor of the "University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) Interdisciplinary Basic Physics Course" and the "USTC Physics Graduate Teaching Series" course texts.

    Students comment that “it is a pleasure to attend Prof Ye’s class”; “his lecture is based on a combination of illustrations and text, with many high quality motion pictures in his slides”; “his teaching style makes knowledge easily absorbed and never obscure. There’re lot of supplementary materials on his homepage, which are mostly in English. After reading, it feels like on the seashore, realizing how small my body is, how high my thoughts go, and being released from narrow thinking.”

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Translation by Zihan WU