On September 9, the second day of new students' arrival, the School of Statistics and Data Science held a symposium for the class of 2022, with the participation of Wang Zhaojun, Executive Dean of the School, Ren Zixiong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Deputy Dean of the School, Wang Xiaoya, new students' advisor, and 20 representatives of new undergraduate and postgraduate students.
At the beginning, Ren Zixiong briefly introduced the purpose and significance of the symposium and encouraged everyone to talk about their expectations for the future and their opinions and suggestions for the development of the School.
The representatives of freshmen expressed their opinions freely. They expressed their excitement of coming to Nankai University, and also elaborated their reasons for choosing this institute, either because of its profound historical heritage, or its distinctive disciplines, or the further understanding of Nankai University during the admission announcement.
Xia Yuchong, a new undergraduate student, introduced his hometown and expressed his sense of novelty about his first sights of Tianjin. He talked about how warm and considerate the teachers and seniors were on the day of arrival when he came to Tianjin alone. Peng Qian, a new doctoral student, talked about her feelings about the orientation, saying that she felt the future was unlimited and the School had ambitious development goals and targeted plans, which gave her the motivation to move forward. She mentioned that during her last four years in Nankai University as an undergraduate, she was impressed by the academic atmosphere and environment of the School as well as the excellent ability of the teachers, so she chose Nankai University without any hesitation. Zhao Chenxi, a new master student, said that Nankai University has been his dream school during his four-year undergraduate study, when he was encouraged and influenced by his Nankai alumni teachers. Yuan Mucheng, a new MAS (Master in Applied Statistics) student, said that she hoped she could improve her professional and practical ability in practice in finance and Internet industries. As the monitor of the 2022 MAS class, she said she has the obligation to help the freshmen get familiar with Nankai campus, such as taking them to ice-breaking activities and organizing sports activities. She quoted the words of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, "Now, youth is for endeavor", expressing her confidence to work hard in the future.
Executive Dean Wang Zhaojun extended a warm welcome to all the new students. In response to some of the new undergraduates' lack of understanding of statistics and data science, he explained what statistics is and what statistics actually does, taking his daughter's study and work experience as an example. He mentioned the concept of general mathematics and vividly explained the characteristics of statistical estimation from a simple case of producing round tubes in a factory. He also explained that serving national strategies requires not only basic but also applied disciplines. He hoped that the new students would have a clear goal, and not waste time. Wang Zhaojun also emphasized that the School is a big, simple and warm family, and invited students to raise their problems and difficulties directly, so that the School can make better progress and development and solve problems efficiently for them.
Ren Zixiong summarized and introduced the activities launched by the School at the Mid-Autumn Festival, and also encouraged everyone to suggest ideas for these activities.