Dean Shuilong Shen has completed his retirement procedures, yet his work at Shantou University continues. During his five years at STU, the College of Engineering has successively obtained the doctoral program of first-level discipline in Civil Engineering and the postdoctoral research station for Civil Engineering. The interdisciplinary discipline of Smart Coastal City of the College has been recognized as a High-Level Discipline of Guangdong Province, and Engineering has entered the global top 1% in ESI rankings. In collaboration with Springer Nature, the international academic journal Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities has been founded… Recalling these breakthrough achievements one after another, he faintly remembers a brief conversation with Executive President Quan Wang before he decided to join Shantou University.

Shuilong Shen’s journey to Shantou University originated from an invitation by former Executive President Peihua Gu in 2017. In October 2018, Quan Wang, the current Executive President, traveled to Shanghai Jiao Tong University for a conference and held a special meeting with Professor Shuilong Shen, hoping to persuade him to join STU.

President Wang acknowledged Professor Shen’s contributions to the Civil Engineering discipline at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and his influence in the academic community. He noted that Civil Engineering at SJTU, as a national first-class discipline, had already reached a high level, making substantial breakthroughs difficult. In contrast, the Civil Engineering discipline at STU was relatively underdeveloped. “If we work together, we can push it forward—from 60 points to 80 points; that leap will be remarkable.” These simple and sincere words made Professor Shen see a fellow scholar equally devoted to pure academic research, sparking mutual respect and a resolve to “accomplish something” at Shantou University. Later, during his visit to STU, he had a cordial conversation with Hong Jiang, then Secretary of the Party Committee and President of Shantou University. Feeling the sincerity and support of the university leadership, he confirmed his decision to work at Shantou University.

In May 2019, Professor Shuilong Shen officially joined Shantou University as Dean of the College of Engineering. At that time, Shantou University was in transition, shifting from a small but elite teaching-oriented university to a research-oriented university featuring integrated development of liberal arts, sciences, medicine, and engineering with distinctive interdisciplinary strengths. The challenges brought by this transition, along with existing institutional difficulties, came as a cold shock to the newly arrived Professor Shen: financial pressure, resource constraints, staffing shortages, and restrictions from outdated and unreasonable systems… He gritted his teeth and resolved to “settle in and make the best of it,” starting with what was achievable.

Since 2019, working with other college leaders, Professor Shen has led faculty and students of the College of Engineering to reform academic programs in line with the era of intelligence and informatization, promoting interdisciplinary integration. He has applied modern information technology to address challenges in the construction and intelligent maintenance of traditional civil engineering structures and decentralized manufacturing, advocating smart construction and intelligent manufacturing. Efforts have been made to drive the intelligent and intensive development of decentralized industries such as textiles and garments, and toys, as well as to build intelligent and sustainable coastal cities.

Meanwhile, he has attempted to introduce management experience from 985 Project universities to the College of Engineering, formulating various administrative regulations and improving administrative efficiency. In his view, the future development of Shantou University and its College of Engineering requires drawing on mature management practices from renowned universities at home and abroad, conducting sound top-level design, and enabling faculty and students to focus wholeheartedly on long-term goals.

For Professor Shuilong Shen, the sense of accomplishment from publishing papers, winning awards, or securing research funding is limited. Only students bring him lasting fulfillment. Many of his graduates years after graduation still maintain close contact with him.

In Professor Shen’s eyes, there is little fundamental difference among students. When recruiting graduate students, he never picks or chooses; he willingly takes on students overlooked by other supervisors and guides them personally.

After supervising doctoral and master’s students for five years, he was delighted to discover that students at Shantou University show no significant disparity compared with those at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Under his guidance, some STU students have even outperformed their SJTU counterparts. He was overjoyed, for this verified his belief about student development: an individual’s growth is not determined by academic scores, but by whether they can concentrate and commit wholeheartedly at a critical stage. He often says, “There are no unteachable students, only incompetent teachers.”

Professor Shen highly values cultivating students’ independent thinking ability. He believes the core mission of education is to inspire minds, not merely impart knowledge. Teaching should focus on methods of thinking, helping students understand how knowledge is generated.

According to his student Qian Zheng, Professor Shen’s classes are never filled with dry theoretical principles. Instead, he presents academic content as stories, using heuristic methods to explain how scientists of the past reasoned and demonstrating the derivation of knowledge. “Every research question we raise is carefully broken down and analyzed, and he always simplifies complex concepts in a clear and understandable way.”

During the three years of COVID-19 restrictions, Professor Shen organized students to hike on Sangpu Mountain adjacent to the university, visit the Heroes’ Monument, and narrate the history of the Communist Party of China beneath the monument… In Qian Zheng’s memory, amid the anxiety and depression of that period, Professor Shen injected strength into the students. His rigorous yet approachable demeanor has subtly influenced them in both conduct and scholarship.

From 1994 to 1998, Professor Shen’s mentor, Academician Jun Sun of Tongji University, was invited by Shantou University and Mr. Li Ka-shing to serve as a part-time supervisor for the Civil Engineering discipline at STU for more than four years. During this period, Academician Sun not only taught the course Introduction to Civil Engineering but also participated in the planning and guidance of master’s and doctoral programs. He laid the foundation for STU’s master’s and doctoral programs of first-level discipline in Civil Engineering. Academician Sun had long cared about the development of Shantou University; in 2019, at the age of 94, he revisited STU, allowing faculty and students to once again benefit from his invaluable insights.

Professor Shen says that, in a sense, his arrival at STU is a continuation of his mentor Academician Sun’s legacy.

In his opinion, inheritance is a vital part of university culture and the source of its cultural heritage. Academician Sun brought his modesty, kindness, rigor, and pragmatism to STU, imprinting his character and spirit on the university. As Academician Sun’s student, Professor Shen has forged ahead along the path paved by his mentor, embracing a unique sense of mission and devotion. Through his guidance to students, his contributions to the disciplines of the College of Engineering, and his meticulous efforts in improving systems and regulations, he has gradually imprinted his own qualities—rigor, pragmatism, and wisdom—on Shantou University.

Professor Shuilong Shen believes that the College of Engineering has a solid foundation as a pioneer in CDIO engineering education reform. Its future development should continue this CDIO legacy to fully leverage this foundation. Inheritance encompasses not only past achievements and foundations but also the dedicated faculty of Shantou University and the generations of students who pursued their youth and dreams here.

For a university, how to preserve and pass down these legacies, and how to make alumni feel the same warmth and belonging upon their return as they did during their studies, is a question worthy of deep reflection in university cultural construction.

In 2024, Professor Shuilong Shen was elected a Foreign Member of the Academia Europaea and a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. These honors represent international recognition of his lifelong academic achievements. Waving his hand modestly, he insisted, “No need for coverage, no need to report this.”

Text: Xueyu Yang

Photos: College of Engineering