The defense started in the afternoon, but it should have been in the morning. However, Professor Yuan just got off the plane yesterday and as he is old, he needs more rest to adjust to the jet lag.
After Shen Qingyi and several other instructors discussed it, they unanimously decided to let Professor Yuan rest for a while.
The defense time was then changed to the afternoon.
There were ten experts in total for the defense review, including three experts from other provinces and seven experts from our institute.
Since the masters and doctoral students were defending together, the two groups of experts were mixed together.
The requirements for review experts for master's and doctoral defenses are different.
A master's degree only requires five candidates with the title of associate professor or above, and the head of the defense committee must be a professor to form an expert group to conduct the review.
A doctorate requires seven experts, and three of them must be from other provinces.
The reason why each student who is defending their thesis has to pay so much money is that the bulk of it goes to the experts' labor fees.
Especially for the experts from other provinces, they not only have to provide labor services, but also have to provide full food and accommodation. The mentors with good conditions will also take them to visit local tourist attractions.
The reason why we gathered a jury of ten people this time is that except for three experts from other provinces, the students of the other seven tutors are all students participating in the defense this time.
Of course, when a tutor's student defends his or her thesis, the tutor is not included in the defense expert committee.
The remaining teachers will conduct the review.
The defense resolution ticket is specially made by the Graduate Office, one for each expert. If they agree, they will circle the opinion column, and if they disagree, they will cross it.
Generally speaking, no cross will be drawn. After all, the tutors contact each other on their own and help each other.
The level of experts that can be invited to the defense depends on the situation of experts in the department, the ability and connections of the department director, and what kind of experts from other provinces can be invited.
There is no need to say much about Professor Yuan.
He is able to serve as a professor and recruit students at two universities at home and abroad at the same time. There are only a handful of people in the entire Dongjiang University who have this honor.
Although the three experts from other provinces were invited by the department director, they were also invited to give Professor Yuan some face.
Professor Yuan is about to reach retirement age, and Ren Huaibo is very likely to be his last disciple.
This was also the first time that Ren Huaibo met his mentor in person. During previous interviews, someone else did the interview on his behalf, and Professor Yuan connected remotely and took charge of the process.
Because Professor Yuan spends most of his time abroad and rarely returns to China, Ren Huaibo can only rely heavily on his junior mentor Chu Xia to pursue his doctorate.
Professor Yuan probably couldn't give much guidance. As a young teacher, Chu Xia was definitely eager to try her hand at teaching students for the first time.
Take the fact that she arranged Ren Huaibo to work in her office, for example. Chu Xia definitely intends to cultivate Ren Huaibo.
The defense will be conducted in the order of Master's degree first and then Doctoral degree.
Except for Chi Zhouxu and Tang Jiahui, the rest of the students were on the upper floors. Since there were more of them, all arrangements had to be made according to their wishes. Chi Zhouxu and Tang Jiahui were arranged in the first two positions.
Generally speaking, the earlier you rank, the less favorable it is for your defense.
Because at the beginning, both students and experts are very energetic, the PPT presentation process may not be affected much, but the subsequent question-and-answer session will be difficult to deal with.
This is also the most critical step in the review process by the defense experts, almost without exception.
Masters students have ten minutes to ask questions in this session, and doctoral students have twenty minutes.
Chi Zhouxu knew that Tang Jiahui was timid and easily nervous, and couldn't bear to see his girlfriend being wronged, so he lined up to be the first to go on stage.
The situation turned out just as Zhou Mo had expected. The first one would have to endure more doubts.
But she wouldn't worry too much. Chi Zhouxu's defense PPT had been rehearsed in the department, and Shen Qingyi and she had revised it word by word, and not even a typo could be allowed.
Chi Zhouxu has a sunny personality and handsome looks. From an external perspective, he has certain advantages.
He was very calm throughout the report, his speech was not fast and there was no pause. After he finished the PPT, there was applause from the audience.
It’s a good start.
The person in charge is Director Tao from the Social Medicine and Medical Informatics Teaching and Research Section.
"Dear experts, please express your opinions." Director Tao adjusted his glasses, turned around, and finally his gaze fell on Professor Yuan.
"Let me go first," Professor Yuan, who was sitting at the head of the class, said, looking at the projection screen. "Please turn to the introduction section of the PPT."
Chi Zhouxu did as he was told.
Professor Yuan said, "Your figures are well done. They are layered and logically connected, but there are still some details to consider. Which paper did you cite about the effects of smoking? Was it Richard's paper?"
Chi Zhouxu really didn't notice this detail, and he didn't try to hide it. He said calmly, "I'm sorry, Professor Yuan, I didn't remember it very well. Let me check my article."
He flipped through the references at the end of his paper and replied, “I cited another one.”
Professor Yuan: "Whose is it? What's the author's name?"
Chi Zhouxu: "It should be a domestic author named Luwei."
Professor Yuan: "You can go back and change it. Richard's paper is a classic, with a large sample size and a very clever experimental design. I suggest you take a look at the concept of that paper. The multi-center, blinded, and stratified sampling methods are also very sophisticated."
Chi Zhouxu: "Okay, thank you Professor Yuan, I will definitely go and see it."
Afterwards, Professor Yuan asked some more questions regarding several interesting positive results in Chi Zhouxu's results.
Overall, there was mostly discussion, with some guidance, but no deliberate embarrassment, and the atmosphere of the defense was relatively relaxed.
But experts are experts after all, and sometimes the questions they ask are a dimensionality reduction blow to master's students who have just stepped into the threshold of scientific research.
There is a saying among the people: answer the question and answer the question, but answer without arguing.
What this means is that when an expert asks a question, just listen. If you can answer, answer it. If you can't answer, just say you don't know and ask the teacher for guidance. Don't make excuses, and don't argue with the expert.
Zhou Mo had already reminded Chi Zhouxu and Tang Jiahui.
When Professor Yuan asked his last question, Chi Zhouxu frankly said that he didn't know the answer. Professor Yuan nodded to show his understanding and said that this question was quite difficult for a master's student.
Following the clockwise direction, the other teachers asked some more questions.
Ten minutes passed quickly. Chi Zhouxu performed very well and was praised by Director Tao, who said that the young man was energetic and well-mannered.
This made Chi Zhouxu feel a little embarrassed.
When he was walking off the stage, he almost tripped over the wiring connecting the projection screen, causing the whole audience to burst into laughter.
Such a funny scene also added a bit of relaxation to the tense defense atmosphere.
The experts sat around a huge oval conference table, surrounded by two or three circles of students.
Shen Qingyi sat right at the apex of the short axis of the elliptical table, while Zhou Mo and the students in the group sat behind Shen Qingyi.
After Chi Zhouxu stepped down, he sat among them.
He excitedly shook hands with Liu Kai first. Although he looked calm, his palms were actually sweating.
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