Qian Xuesen Attaches Importance to Talent Cultivation

In 1955, Qian Xuesen finally returned to the motherland after hardships. He successively served as the director of the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the dean of the Fifth Research Institute of the Ministry of National Defense. Qian Xuesen is very clear that whether it is to develop science and technology or consolidate national defense, the key lies in talents, and he always puts talent training in a very important position.

Qian Xuesen was happy to stand on the platform as a teacher after returning home. At the beginning of 1956, there was no house in the Institute of Mechanics. Qian Xuesen borrowed the house of the Institute of Chemistry to hold a workshop on engineering cybernetics to impart the latest scientific knowledge. Qian Xuesen's workshop is held once a week. In addition to young researchers from the Institute of Mechanics and the relevant research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, there are also young teachers from Peking University, Tsinghua University and other universities. More than 200 people come to the class each time.

At first, the students were a little worried, for fear that Qian Xuesen could not understand his lecture in English. As we all know, Qian Xuesen has lived in the United States for 20 years and has been teaching engineering cybernetics in English. Can he explain such an esoteric engineering theory course in Chinese in less than half a year after he returned to China? Unexpectedly, when Qian Xuesen was lecturing on the podium, he spoke authentic Mandarin, acting as an interpreter himself, without a single sentence of English, which surprised everyone. It turned out that in order to teach a good lesson, he spent a lot of time asking others for the meaning of English words in Chinese, such as the word "randam". He comprehensively compared the opinions of many people and finally decided to translate it into "random".

Qian Xuesen never brought books with him in his lectures. He took two sheets of paper and a piece of chalk. The board writing was very delicate and standard. The lectures were detailed, concise and fascinating. This workshop has trained a large number of talents in automation control for our country, and has made great contributions to the development of China's aerospace industry in the future.

Later, at the initiative of Qian Xuesen, the State Council decided to set up two research classes in engineering mechanics and automation at Tsinghua University. Qian Xuesen personally taught "hydrodynamics" in the engineering mechanics research class ". From the end of 1958 to the beginning of 1959, Qian Xuesen taught once a week. Under the national conditions of the shortage of talents at that time, he broke the traditional practice of a teacher with a graduate student, and used the method of collective training to quickly cultivate a group of graduate students.

Qian Xuesen still felt "not satisfied" with the research class alone ". In February 1958, some scientists jointly initiated the establishment of a new type of university, focusing on cultivating cutting-edge scientific and technological talents urgently needed by the country. Qian Xuesen is also one of the advocates. On June 2, 1958, the university was approved to be established, and its name was "University of Science and Technology of China". From the beginning of its establishment in 1958 to the relocation of the University of Science and Technology of China from Beijing to Hefei, Anhui Province in 1970, Qian Xuesen has been concurrently the director of the Department of Mechanics and Mechanical Engineering (later changed to the Department of Modern Mechanics).

Qian Xuesen has high requirements for basic courses such as mathematics, physics and chemistry, especially mathematics. He said that a dynamist's housekeeping skill is to count. Once, he asked a tutor who graduated from engineering: How many math problems did he do in college? The answer was more than 300. Qian Xuesen asked the deputy director of the Department of mechanics: how many math problems do students usually do? The answer is more than 340. Qian Xuesen said: This is not possible. The University of Science and Technology of China should have higher requirements than ordinary engineering colleges and must supplement basic courses for students. In the end, the school decided that 58 students graduated half a year later. Qian Xuesen chose the book "Mathematical Methods in Engineering" to start a course. After half a year, he did more than 3000 math problems alone. Students generally reflect that although they graduated half a year later, they have laid a good foundation and benefited for life.

Source: Liberation Daily