Dean Shen Shuilong has already completed his retirement procedures, yet his work at Shantou University continues. In the five years since coming to Shantou University, the College of Engineering has successively obtained a First-Level Doctoral Degree Program in Civil Engineering and a Postdoctoral Research Station in Civil Engineering. The college's interdisciplinary program in Coastal Smart Cities was approved as a Guangdong Provincial High-Level Discipline. The Engineering discipline entered the top 1% of ESI. An international academic journal, Smart Construction and Sustainable Cities, was established in collaboration with Springer Nature. Recalling these achievements, each breaking new ground, he vaguely remembers the brief conversation with Executive President Wang Quan before deciding to come to Shantou University.
From Shanghai Jiao Tong University to Shantou University
The connection to Shantou University originated with an invitation from former Executive President Professor Gu Peihua in 2017. In October 2018, the current Executive President, Professor Wang Quan, traveled to a meeting at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and specifically arranged to talk with Professor Shen Shuilong, hoping to persuade him to come to Shantou University.
President Wang acknowledged Professor Shen's contributions to the civil engineering discipline at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and his influence in the field. He noted that civil engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong is a national first-class discipline, already at a very high level, making substantial breakthroughs difficult. In contrast, the level of civil engineering at Shantou University was relatively low. "If we work together and can push it forward, raising it from a score of 60 to 80, that leap would be significant." It was this plain and sincere statement that allowed Professor Shen to see a scholar as purely dedicated to academia as himself. It sparked a sense of mutual resonance and respect, and his determination to come to Shantou University to "do something." Subsequently, Professor Shen visited Shantou University, where he had a cordial conversation with Professor Jiang Hong, then Party Secretary and President of Shantou University. Sensing the sincerity and support of the university leadership, he confirmed his decision to work at Shantou University.
In May 2019, Professor Shen Shuilong officially joined Shantou University as Dean of the College of Engineering. At that time, Shantou University was in transition, shifting from a small, refined teaching-oriented university to "a research-oriented university featuring integrated development of humanities, sciences, medicine, and engineering, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary characteristics." The adverse factors brought by this transition, along with a series of pre-existing difficulties, felt like a bucket of cold water to the newly arrived Dean Shen: pressure on funding, resources, and personnel, constraints from outdated systems and structures. He gritted his teeth and thought, "Since I'm here, I'll settle in," starting with what "could be done."
Beginning in 2019, Dean Shen, together with college leadership, led faculty and students of the College of Engineering in reforming programs in response to the era's intelligent and information-driven characteristics. They promoted interdisciplinary integration, using modern information technology to solve problems in traditional civil construction and intelligent maintenance, as well as challenges in decentralized manufacturing. They advocated for smart construction and intelligent manufacturing, promoted the intelligent and intensive development of decentralized textile, garment, and toy industries, and aimed to build smart, sustainable coastal cities.
At the same time, he attempted to bring the management experience of 985 universities to the College of Engineering, formulating various detailed management rules that improved administrative efficiency. He believes that for the future development of Shantou University and the College of Engineering, it is necessary to draw on the management experience of mature universities both domestically and internationally, to establish a sound top-level design, allowing faculty and students to focus wholeheartedly on long-term goals.
Validating a Perspective on Student Development
For Professor Shen Shuilong, the sense of achievement from publishing articles or receiving awards and research funding is limited. Only students provide him with enduring satisfaction. Many students who graduated years ago still maintain very close contact with him.
In Professor Shen's eyes, there are no significant differences among students. When recruiting graduate students, he never selects them; he takes the ones other supervisors have passed over and guides them himself.
After five years of supervising doctoral and master's students, he was pleasantly surprised to find that Shantou University students are hardly different from those at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Under his guidance, the achievements of Shantou University students have even surpassed those of Shanghai Jiao Tong students. He was as delighted as a child. This, he felt, validated his perspective on student development: a person's growth process is not related to academic performance but to whether they can settle down and focus on doing something at a particular time. He often says, "There are no students who cannot be taught; only teachers who cannot teach."
Professor Shen Shuilong places great emphasis on cultivating students' independent thinking abilities. He believes that the most important task of teaching is to stimulate thinking, not to impart knowledge. Teaching should focus on methods of thinking about problems, allowing students to understand how knowledge is derived.
In the impression of his student, Zheng Qian, Professor Shen's classes never contain dry theoretical principles. He presents classroom knowledge as stories,启发式 (heuristic-ally) showing students how scientists of the past thought and presenting the derivation process of relevant knowledge. "Every research question we posed was meticulously deconstructed and analyzed, yet he always had a way of making complex concepts easy to understand using simple and clear methods."
During the three years of COVID-19 control measures, Professor Shen organized students to hike on the nearby Sangpu Mountain, to visit and pay respects to the Hero Monument, and to give talks on the history of the Communist Party of China at the monument. In Zheng Qian's heart, during that oppressive and anxious period, Professor Shen infused energy into their hearts. His rigorous yet approachable image subtly influenced students in their personal conduct and academic pursuits.
Anticipating a Culture of Inheritance at Shantou University
From 1994 to 1998, Professor Shen's esteemed mentor at his alma mater Tongji University, Academician Sun Jun, was invited by Shantou University and Mr. Li Ka-shing to work part-time in the Civil Engineering discipline for over four years. During this time, Academician Sun not only taught the Introduction to Civil Engineering course but also participated in planning and guiding the master's and doctoral programs. Academician Sun was a founder of the First-Level Master's and Doctoral Programs in Civil Engineering at Shantou University. Before his passing, Academician Sun consistently cared about Shantou University's development. In 2019, at the age of 94, he returned to Shantou University, giving faculty and students the precious opportunity to once again benefit from his invaluable teachings.
Professor Shen says that, in a sense, his coming to Shantou University is also a form of inheritance from his mentor, Mr. Sun.
In his view, inheritance is a very important culture for universities—it is the source of cultural depth. Mr. Sun brought his modest, approachable, rigorous, and practical style to Shantou University, imprinting the university with his character and infusing it with his spirit. As Mr. Sun's student, Professor Shen continues to deepen and solidify the path laid by his mentor, feeling a special sense of mission and connection. His guidance of students through words and actions, his additions to the College of Engineering's disciplines, and his gradual refinement and construction of various rules and details within the college are slowly imprinting Shantou University with his own style: rigorous, practical, and wise.
In Professor Shen Shuilong's view, the College of Engineering is at the forefront with its CDIO engineering education reform and has a very good foundation. The future development of the college requires continuing the inheritance of CDIO, allowing this foundation to play its due role. Good inheritance involves not only past achievements and foundations but also the many faculty members who have diligently worked at Shantou University and the numerous students who once strived for their youthful dreams there.
As a university, how does one ensure the inheritance of these imprints? How does one ensure that those who leave can return and still feel the same closeness they felt when they were there? This is a question worth considering and exploring regarding the construction of university culture.
In 2024, Professor Shen Shuilong was elected as a Foreign Member of the European Academy of Sciences (EURASC) and a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. These recognitions from the international academic community acknowledge the achievements of Professor Shen's decades-long academic career. Professor Shen waved his hand dismissively and said casually, "No need for reports, no need for reports."
