In order to provide more international students and alumni of DMU with the opportunity to meet, exchange and share, learn from each other, and build a stage for more students to show themselves and exercise their abilities, as one of the series of activities of the 2022 "International Cultural Festival", “Study in DMU, Advancing for the Blue Dream--The 3rd DMU International Students and Alumni Forum” was successfully held on November 25.
The activity took the form of online and offline synchronization. The 10 international students whose essays were enrolled in the forum gave speeches respectively. Their majors were different, covering public management, law, logistics engineering and management, marine engineering, information and communication engineering, etc; Their teaching languages are different, some are proficient in Chinese, some are taught in English; Their topics are different. Some share their learning methods, some tell their feelings about studying in DMU, and some report their research progress. However, each speaker's words describe the beautiful China in the eyes of international students, convey their gratitude for studying at DMU and their expectations for the future. The event also invited outstanding alumni of international students to send good wishes to the students, and invited relevant professors and leaders of the school to put forward encouragement and expectations to the students. DMUers from all over the world, regardless of color, language, region and time difference, are more closely connected, and teachers and students sufficiently communicated and talked about the future together.
After strict review by the Essay Review Committee, the forum awarded prizes for essays from three themes: "Promoting Common Development", "Deepening Exchanges and Mutual Learning", and "Outstanding Professional Thesis". At the same time, the award-winning works will be included in the forum collection. Next, we will successively display the award-winning works of this forum. Today, we want to display the 2nd prize winner of the theme of "Deepening Exchange and Mutual Learning": Learning Experience Studying a Master on Marine Engineering at Dalian Maritime University. The author is ARANDA QUINTERO RUBI LORENA（鲁比·洛雷娜）from Panama，a master’s degree program student majoring in Marine Engineering.
Learning experience studying a master on Marine Engineering at Dalian Maritime University
Abstract
Studying at Dalian Maritime University has its challenges, from learning the Chinese language, to the learning process involved in dissertation research for a master's degree in engineering. In this article I explain the reasons that motivated me to study at Dalian Maritime University and my experience in the process of admission to the University. In the same way, I describe my whole experience in learning the Chinese language from HSK1 level to HSK3 level. Additionally, I explain which were my favorite subjects of the Master's Degree in Marine Engine Engineering and why. Subsequently, I detail all my experience in the research of the thesis, explaining the method I used to understand the field of study of my thesis, the obstacles I faced during the learning process, the search strategy for scientific articles, the keywords I used, the communication methods with my thesis tutor and research coworkers, and the information organization techniques that I used to visualize the state of the art that I was developing. Finally, I describe the next steps I need to take in advancing my thesis research and I share the gratitude and feelings I have for reaching this point as a student at Dalian Maritime University.
Keywords
Learning process, thesis research, triboelectric nanogenerators, learning Chinese.
Introduction
My name is Rubí Aranda, I am a naval engineer and a mechanical engineer, graduated with honors from the Technological University of Panama, where I have been a teacher for 5 years, teaching laboratories on mechanical engineering subjects. It was always my desire to pursue higher studies in a specialty of my career in naval engineering. Therefore, it was a great joy for me to be one of the scholarship receivers selected by the Panama Maritime Authority to be the beneficiary of a full scholarship offered by the People's Republic of China to study a Master's Degree in Marine Engineering at Dalian Maritime University.
One of the reasons that most motivated me to choose Dalian Maritime University as a Center for Higher Education was its extensive experience in training seafarers and its categorization as one of the best maritime universities in the world. Additionally, the People's Republic of China is categorized as one of the countries that are at the forefront of shipbuilding, a topic of great interest to me. These two reasons made me decide to give my best effort in learning and performing as a new student of this great University, Dalian Maritime University.
University Admission
From the first virtual contact I had with the DMU, I was able to perceive warmth and empathy in the words of all the staff, this made me feel that it was the right place and a safe place to spend the next two years studying. The creation of a group with all the international students made me feel accompanied even though we were far from the campus, I could truly perceive that there were other new students like me who had the same excitement of studying at this great university.
Learning Chinese language
The first class I had was HSK1. Honestly, at first I was overwhelmed by the huge difference between my native language, Spanish, and the Chinese language. I used to think that if we just didn't share the same alphabet the challenge would be much greater. However, the guidance and teaching that our Chinese teacher gave us, gave me the confidence that with a lot of study I could achieve it. Our teacher made us feel safe in class, allowing us to practice pronunciation, which as always is one of the most complex factors. Guided by the teacher, at first, I focused on learning the difference in the pronunciation of some consonants. The idea was to stop pronouncing these consonants as they sound in Spanish and start pronouncing them as they sound in Chinese. It was difficult, but at the same time it was a lot of fun. And even more fun was when the teacher assigned us to learn a song in Chinese, because I love to sing and adding the Chinese language was much more challenging.
The teacher told us that in order to memorize the Chinese characters it was necessary to practice over and over again. So, I took her advice and I chose to use a board, on which I practiced the new words from each lesson over and over again on a weekly basis. For me, each Chinese character was a drawing, and the challenge was too great. My technique was to try to assign a meaning to each part of the drawing of each character, so that it would be easier for me to relate said drawing to its meaning. Then I wrote each character repeatedly, until my drawing was as similar as possible to the character written in the book.
The transition from HSK1 to HSK2, I consider it to be smooth. There was more information to learn, Chinese characters were harder to draw, but overall, I found it quite manageable, perhaps because I wasn't dealing with language differences for the first time. However, the transition from HSK2 to HSK3 was very difficult for me. Many of the Chinese characters seemed similar to me, some of the grammar rules were overwhelming and complex, the drawing of the Chinese characters was definitely more difficult, and the Listening part of the Workbook seemed almost impossible to understand, since the conversations happened more faster and longer. The guidance of my Chinese teacher was essential for me, finally I think I have adapted quite a bit to the new level of difficulty. Today I am in the middle of the HSK3 course, and I feel very proud and grateful to the teachers I have had for guiding me in this arduous learning.
Master's subjects
In general, I can say that all the professors who gave me classes in the different subjects of the Master's Degree in Marine Engineering were very kind and clear in their classes. They were willing to answer any questions and that made me feel confident, which promoted my level of learning. One of the aspects that most caught my attention in the way of teaching at the DMU was the evaluation method. It is my opinion that, unlike other countries, the DMU does not evaluate the ability to memorize, but rather focuses on the student's ability to analyze. The tasks of all subjects sought for us students to read a great amount of information with a scientific basis so that based on the information collected we could understand the state of the art of different technologies and the maritime environment. So that we could be able to generate new ideas and proposals to promote and improve the maritime sector. Understanding this evaluation method, I felt very grateful to be able to be in a university that is committed to the creation of true trained human resources, whose ultimate goal is to develop professionals capable of thinking and developing ideas based on scientific data.
One of my favorite subjects was Marine Fuel Emissions and Energy Efficiency, because through the teacher's guide I was able to truly understand the parameters through which marine fuels differ, their energy efficiency and their emissions, not only during its operation but throughout the entire life cycle. As part of the final evaluation, I developed a paper that allowed me to make a comparison between the use of liquefied natural gas as a marine fuel and the use of SOx Scrubbers as a method of removing SOx in the exhaust gases of the marine engine, with the objective to generate my personal opinion on these two different methods of reducing air pollution. My teacher's guidance was essential in this learning process, and I am very grateful for it.
Another subject that I really liked was Ships Pollution Prevention Technology, because the professor outlined in a very orderly way the different technologies used to reduce pollution from ships in all its forms, based on the International Convention to Prevent Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). This allowed the students to understand that a ship emits pollution not only through the burning of marine fuel, which is what is perhaps most talked about, but also oil pollution, pollution by harmful liquid substances and bulk, contamination by sewage from the ship and solid waste. It showed us that there are currently methods and different technologies to deal with these types of pollution. This type of information is important for us to know because it teaches us what exists and allows the growth of ideas to develop scientific research.
Thesis research
I was assigned to the Science and Technology Laboratory of the DMU to develop my thesis research in the area of triboelectric nanogenerators. At the beginning I felt quite overwhelmed since this is a topic that I had never heard of and had never read about, so my knowledge about it was zero. However, my thesis tutor made me feel confident that with a lot of effort and dedication I would be able to complete my graduation thesis on time, as he along with two other Chinese students would offer me their guidance and support on any topic that I could not understand.
Since I am currently in Panama City, my thesis tutor invited me to some virtual meetings where all the students from the Science and Technology laboratory who were developing research participated. Later, we agreed to communicate by text, that is, I prepared a Word document with my research progress, comments and questions, I sent it to the working group on wechat, my thesis tutor answered directly in word, he sent me the file back , my other two Chinese colleagues read the information and made their comments to me as well.
At the beginning, it was very difficult for me to complete the reading of a single paper, because since I knew nothing about it, understanding a single paragraph was highly complex for me. I had to investigate a large number of concepts that I did not know. But with a weekly effort and a lot of work I finally managed to understand the working principle of triboelectric nano generators.
I considered that it was necessary to fully understand the field of study of triboelectric nanogenerators, from its conception around 2012 to recent research, as this would surely help me choose a thesis topic. So, I decided to read Dr. Wang's book, who is a pioneer and a world leader in nanoscience and nanotechnology. The book is called Triboelectric Nanogenerators and in addition to explaining the operating principle of triboelectricity, it explains the four working modes of triboelectric nanogenerators, the different structures of triboelectric nanogenerators that have been designed, and different applications in self-powered systems and sensors for harvesting body motion energy, vibration energy, wind energy and large-scale blue energy.
Since I am a naval engineer, I wanted to develop research that could be applied on board a ship. Specifically, I wanted to be able to reduce energy consumption on board the vessel. I made these wishes known to my thesis tutor and with the previous reading that I had done, I could propose three main ideas as the research topic of the thesis. I decided to discuss these ideas with my thesis tutor so that he could guide me in terms of feasibility in the construction of the test bench. This is how we selected one of the three ideas, and now it was my task to delve deeper into this type of nanogenerators.
The experience I was having up to this point was completely new. In order to choose a thesis topic, it had been necessary to understand the field of study in general and all the edges it reached, what had been built and the existing capacities. For me, it was a completely new topic, so I had a lot of work, but with this information I was able to generate a main idea from which I would have to carry out a more detailed and specific investigation that would allow me to say what and how.
At this point, the main idea was based on harvesting blue energy. I knew that the right thing to do was to read again, but now I had to read everything related to triboelectric nanogenerators for their use in harnessing blue energy. So, I decided to search for scientific articles from 2015 to the present, whose keywords involve triboelectric nanogenerators and blue energy. This would allow me to know the state of the art of triboelectric nanogenerators in this field of study.
Since the amount of information read was so much, I decided to make a comparative table in which I was going to write relevant data from each of these scientific articles. The goal was for me to be able to use this chart to compare the capabilities of different triboelectric nanogenerator designs and make it easier for me to choose which type of structure to use for my final design and why. In addition to this, I investigated in greater depth the system on board the ship on which this triboelectric nanogenerator would apply, and I collected technical data sheets of different sensors to know what would be the requirement of the triboelectric nanogenerator that I designed.
With this amount of information collected, the next thing I have to do is make a decision about the characteristics and parameters that I will give my triboelectric nanogenerator. With the approval of my thesis advisor, my co-workers on campus will be able to help me build the bench test to start running the experiment.
Conclusion
I have been able to be aware of each of the phases that it has required to reach this point in my thesis research, and I am impressed to experience that small steps lead to big goals. I am deeply grateful to my thesis tutor and my research co-workers because their guidance has been essential in advancing my research. I hope that my thesis development can be the basis of something bigger, that can lead to truly reduce energy consumption on board ships. And I am happy to feel part of the scientific community that seeks sustainable development.
Author’s resume
Author’s passport name: Rubi Lorena Aranda Quintero
Chinese name: 鲁比·洛雷娜
Gender: female
Nationality: Panamanian
Major: Marine Engine Engineering
Major start time: September 2021
Email address: rubilorena05@hotmail.com
