The University of Western Australia (UWA) is one of Australia’s leading universities and has an international reputation for excellence in teaching, learning and research.
From 13th July to 30th August 2015, Zhejiang University selected 6 outstanding undergraduate students, qualified with excellent learning abilities, fluent English communication skills and basic experiment experience, to participate in 7 weeks of UWA-China research training program, including 2 students from college of Agriculture and Biotechnology.
During this program, each student went to the lab they chose in the interview and had their own project to complete under the instruction of their supervisor.
At the beginning of the project, students finished the induction and started to be familiar with the lab, the tools and protocols with mechanism thereof. After that, students began their independent experimental design and daily planning. At the end of the program, every student got some results and gave a 3-minutes presentation to introduce and summarize their findings.
Zhang Yijin: Antioxidants are compounds found in foods especially fruits and vegetables, they can neutralize molecules called free radicals which can harm cells. Free radicals cause oxidative cell injuries in human bodies and also plants, which are really harmful. Antioxidants act like warriors to protect lives, they use their own electrons to make free radicals into healthy atoms therefore prevent cellular damages.
Ruihui Li: Nowadays, the number of people who suffer from obesity has soared to an incredible record level. Therefore, it is very important to change food quality, especially the kinds and amount of fatty acids. We are trying to find a way to manipulate rumen micro ecology simply by changing what we feed the animals, so that we can reduce the amount of type B bacteria and increase type A bacteria. Thus, we can have a higher level of healthy fats in the related products.
The program is of immense significance. On one hand, it broadened the students’ international horizons and improved their structures of knowledge. On the other, their communication skills and coordinative working were fully trained and apparently leaped to a high level. More specifically, the research experience in the world top university helped them improve their professional experimental skills, form complete research conceptions and better their adaptability to overseas academic and research environment, which can serve as a highlight in their applications, and give students a better understanding of their future career.
