‘It Was Interesting to See How Our Chinese Colleagues Work’: HSE Researchers Take Part in Hefei Summer School
This summer, Diana Sukhoverkhova, Daria Mazur, and David Kagramanyan, research assistants at the MIEM HSE Laboratory for Computational Physics, spent five weeks in China. At the Future Scientist Exchange Program (FuSEP) summer school in Hefei, they worked in new fields of science together with their Chinese colleagues. HSE's promising scientists spoke to the HSE News Service about their intense and productive time in China.
The FuSEP Summer School is supervised by one of the top technological universities in China—the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). The university’s numerous campuses resemble small towns with shops and cafes, where students can pay with a special pass card.
The school programme included lectures and workshops on high-energy physics, chemistry, and cosmology. In addition, each participant joined a laboratory, was assigned an academic supervisor, and carried out research projects.
The participants also enjoyed an eventful cultural programme—they explored the city of Hefei, went on an excursion to Suzhou, rode Alipay electric mopeds, visited Chinese theatres, and walked around Shanghai.
All three research assistants of the MIEM Laboratory for Computational Physics are also first-year doctoral students of the Doctoral School of Engineering Science (School of Applied Mathematics). Diana Sukhoverkhova studies on the ‘System Analysis. Mathematical Modeling. Information Technologies’ programme, Daria Mazur on the ‘Condensed Matter Physics’ programme, and David Kagramanyan on the ‘Mathematical Modeling, Numerical Methods, and Software Systems’ programme.
Diana Sukhoverkhova carried out a project on the application of machine learning to classifying topological phases. ‘The idea of the project was to use my experience in applying machine learning to the analysis of phase transitions (which I do at HSE University) to the experimental data provided by the laboratory,’ said the researcher. ‘It was difficult to take in so much new information, because work on the project overlapped with the difference in time zones and cultural features that I had to get used to. But despite this, I had a lot of interesting experiences, gained new knowledge in my field, and the change of environment inspired me to continue my current research and pursue science.’
Every morning of the summer school, David Kagramanyan and his colleagues went to the Science Island at 7 am. ‘Laboratories dealing with plasma physics, machine learning, chemistry, and thermonuclear energy were located on the island,’ he said. ‘I worked at the laboratory of intelligent machines, where I solved problems of thermal conductivity for Bitter magnets using machine learning. It was complicated. For example, for the first week and a half, I was dealing with software configuration, since all the necessary programming packages were unavailable for download from foreign servers. As it turned out, China has all the necessary infrastructure for downloading and configuring software from Chinese servers. For example, the popular PyPI resource for downloading Python packages has been replaced by the Tuna service. However, despite the unusual working environment, it was interesting to see how Chinese colleagues work, and share experiences with them.’
This was not the first trip to China for Daria Mazur—last year she went to Qingdao for the InterPore conference. ‘I was familiar with the country, from food and communication to technology like WeChat. During the programme, I carried out a project on modelling the properties of an alloy using molecular dynamics methods. The task included both modelling the ‘box’ in which the alloy is put, and applying machine learning methods to create a potential that would describe the system. In addition, I managed to work on my Moscow tasks (in particular, finishing an article). I also achieved another goal related to China—I visited the largest city in the world, Chongqing. The trip left me with a lot of positive memories and interesting acquaintances.’
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