STORY OF JIANYE
CHEN Jianye is a 24’ mechanical engineering undergraduate of ZJUI. In the “Ying jianke Cup” 15th National Structure Design Contest for College Students, the “Dengfeng Team” formed by CHEN Jianye and his two peers, CHEN Yuqing and YUAN Meng from the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, ZJU. The three students stood out among the 111 teams that qualified for the national contest through model making, loading, and other stages, finally winning the first prize in the National Structure Design Contest for College Students, and receiving the laurel crown for Zhejiang University!
▲The "Dengfeng Team" composed of CHEN Jianye, CHEN Yuqing and YUAN Meng won the first prize in the National Structure Design Contest for College Students
Overcoming obstacles along the way
In 2018, CHEN Jianye, who was still in his first year of senior high school, started his relationship with structure design contest with his passion and dream. At that time, under the leadership of a senior, he participated in the "Dengfeng Cup" National Structure Design Contest for Secondary School Students and won the second prize. Although this was already a very good achievement, CHEN regretted that he did not win the first prize.
In 2021, CHEN Jianye is a freshman in ZJUI. After the preliminary selection of Zhejiang University's school contest, he teamed up with XIN Yu, a civil engineering student in the same year with him at ZJUI, and JIN Chuhao from the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture and participated in the Zhejiang Structure Design Contest for College Students as one of the three representative teams of Zhejiang University and won the second prize. CHEN Jianye recalled, "We all know that mast tower structures require more workmanship and are more adventurous, but innovation is in the genes of ZJUI students, and we wanted to break through by insisting on innovation." In addition, through participating in the contest and gaining experience, he also observed carefully and studied intently, noting that the shortcomings of ZJU is in the piece of component section and node design in the structure contest. He speculated that this is also the reason why ZJU has not been able to achieve good results in many contests.
After accumulating several experiences, he cherished this national contest, which was also the last opportunity he set for himself to realize his dream. As the team leader, he made up his mind to grasp this opportunity firmly and gave his best efforts. In response to the shortcomings of ZJU’s structure design team in cross-sectional design, they determined the form of dense and sparse spacing between the main body of the structure, and optimized the design of the cable distribution, the eaves layer, and the top of the tower. For this reason, CHEN Jianye’s team made more than 30 models in total, and they not only stayed at school during the whole summer vacation to perfect the model, but also insisted on testing for more than half a year until the eve of the contest in March. As the leader of the team, CHEN Jianye took the lead in the contest, actively cooperated with his teammates, and overcame difficulties. During this period, he played his strengths and used the secondary development of SAP2000 to analyze 350,000 loading conditions, which laid a solid foundation for the contest. With their determination and perseverance, they won the first prize of the National Structure Design Contest for College Students.
▲ Photos from the National Structure Design Contest for College students
Adhering to love with the original intention being unchanged
As a student of mechanical engineering, CHEN Jianye chose to participate in this contest, which traditionally belongs to students of civil engineering, precisely because of his love for structure design and his years of uninterrupted dedication to it. Although he chose mechanical engineering after the college entrance exams, the foundation he gained in high school and the cross-disciplinary learning experience of research training under the guidance of Assist Prof. Yasutaka Narazaki, faculty member in civil engineering of ZJUI, made him steadfastly choose to take on the structure design contest again.
The barriers between programs are broken by "passion," and many innovations arise from interdisciplinary fields. How can CHEN Jianye, who loves structure design, be hindered in his exploration due to a popular concept?
Perhaps it is this unconquerable heart and irresistible love for structure that has sustained him through his long journey of contest. CHEN Jianye believes that in the pursuit of his passion, he is aggressive and always pursues the "best," but as long as he puts in 100% effort, he becomes very calm when facing the results.
Despite the hardships of the contest process, he believes that it is very worthwhile to do everything possible to study what he loves.
Innovating continuously to write the future
After receiving the national award, CHEN Jianye also shared his experience in the contest with his junior schoolmates, providing them with guidance for their structure design contest. He said, "I hope they can do the work they really love, don’t be afraid of setbacks, and be willing to try and make mistakes." He also advised students to train their innovation ability in addition to their professional studies instead of just pursuing the GPA and neglecting the exploration in other fields. "Engineering learning cannot ossify one's own thinking, and we must dare to innovate in order to creating the brilliant future of Zhejiang University. "
Looking back on the preparation process, CHEN Jianye expressed his gratitude to his instructors for their careful guidance. Researcher WAN Huaping and Assoc Prof. ZOU Daoqin from the College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, as well as Assist Prof. Cristoforo Demartino from ZJUI, gave him efficient guidance and great support in the preparation for the contests.
▲ Group photo of CHEN Jianye's team with their instructors
After 5 years, CHEN Jianye’s wish was finally fulfilled with the National First Prize. CHEN Jianye always follows his interest when chasing his dream and he has spared no effort to climb to the top. From high school to university, he went hand in hand with structure design and lived up to his own passion.
