Jin Haoran, class of 2025 in Mechanical Engineering of ZJUI, with outstanding academic performance and exceptional research achievements, has been honored with prestigious titles such as "Outstanding Student", "Academic Excellence Model" and "Innovation and Entrepreneurship Model" at Zhejiang University, along with receiving the Third-Class Scholarship. While completing his major in Mechanical Engineering, he also finished a minor program in Electrical and Computer Engineering.
With remarkable interdisciplinary academic thinking, he has received offers from the world-renowned universities, including University of California, Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, Cornell University, Columbia University, the University of Chicago, the University of California, Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, and Carnegie Mellon University. He will embark on a new journey at the University of Pennsylvania soon.
In June 2021, Jin Haoran, then only 15 years old, had just completed the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) as a student of the Special Class for Gifted Young Students, and was facing a crucial choice of his life—selecting a university. Under the special educational pathway for gifted students, he had not only demonstrated strong self-directed learning abilities but also completed systematic academic foundation training. Recalling his decision back then, he said he was eager to join a platform that could break the boundaries of traditional education.
After learning about ZJUI’s educational philosophy, Jin Haoran made his choice: "I came to ZJUI mainly because I was drawn to its immersive international education model. ZJUI’s English education environment, faculty and curriculum system aligned with international standards, and exchange programs that enable close connection with world top universities have built a truly global growth platform for students. Here, I can not only participate in high-quality academic projects but also enhance my research capabilities through international interdisciplinary collaboration, laying a solid foundation for engaging in more types of practical projects in the future."
Upon entering ZJUI, the Institute’s unique educational model filled him with excitement. However, like many new students, he also faced the language challenge brought by all-English education. "When I first enrolled, there were times I couldn’t follow the faculty’s explanations in class, which really bothered me for a while." To overcome this difficulty, he insisted on sitting in the first two rows of the classroom to ensure he could hear the lectures more clearly. After class, he took the initiative to discuss academic issues with faculty in English—improving his professional competence while continuously honing his English expression skills.
▲ Jin Haoran and his peers working on a course assignment: an automatic vegetable cutter designed for Parkinson’s patients
When talking about his four-year university life, he believes that beyond ZJUI’s international education, the open and inclusive peer atmosphere also left a deep impression on him, and he could not have progressed in his studies and life without the support of his classmates. "From my freshman to senior year, from studying in China to exchanging abroad, my friends and I have always been encouraging and learning from each other. I’m fortunate to be part of ZJUI’s warm community—here, I’ve gained not only knowledge but also precious friendships and the spirit of mutual assistance."
"I think the greatest gain of my undergraduate years is that I gradually clarified my learning goals through the accumulation of knowledge and the refinement of practice." Jin Haoran shared with us.
After systematically studying the coursework for his Mechanical Engineering, Jin Haoran began to explore interdisciplinary research combining mechanical engineering and computer science. Thanks to ZJUI’s unique Summer Research Platform, he obtained the opportunity to participate in a research project on scientific computing led by Prof. Zhan Qiwei from the College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering of Zhejiang University during his freshman summer. This experience not only opened up a broad horizon for him in interdisciplinary research but also allowed him to engage with cutting-edge topics and gain a preliminary understanding of rigorous research processes.
In his sophomore year, driven by a strong interest in interdisciplinary research, Jin Haoran, under the guidance of Assistant Prof. Liu Zuozhu of ZJUI, participated in a research project on a large-model-based medical Q&A diagnosis system. To address the time-consuming and labor-intensive bottleneck of medical image annotation, he and his team proposed a Transformer-based self-supervised pre-training solution. This solution skillfully integrated text understanding and multi-source information fusion technologies, improving the automation efficiency of medical image annotation. This research experience made him realize the application potential of computer technology in people’s livelihood fields such as healthcare, opening up broader dimensions for his subsequent academic exploration.
While dedicating himself to his studies, Jin Haoran has always maintained a focus on practical engineering problems, and multi-agent collaboration technology sparked his keen interest. After conducting in-depth industry demand research and recognizing the importance of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) collaborative operations, he began to focus on UAV swarm control and edge computing research in his junior year. Under the guidance of Prof. Zhao Xinkui from the School of Software Technology of Zhejiang University, he attempted to solve the problems of data loss and service interruptions of UAVs in edge computing scenarios caused by circuit failures or network issues. To address this pain point, he and his team proposed an architecture solution that adds a control layer between the edge layer and the cloud layer. In addition, he developed distributed and centralized scheduling algorithms suitable for different scenarios. Verified through testing on a container cloud platform, this solution reduced fault recovery time by 42% compared to the benchmark algorithm and improved resource utilization. As the first author, he published the relevant research results in the journal Tsinghua Science and Technology under the title "High Availability Migration Mechanism for UAV Failures in Edge Scenarios".
▲ Schematic diagram of the architecture in "High Availability Migration Mechanism for UAV Failures in Edge Scenarios"
Based on his four years of research experience, Jin Haoran gradually built a solid interdisciplinary knowledge framework and clarified his future learning direction. To further enhance his comprehensive capabilities, he proactively enrolled in the ECE Minor program and took interdisciplinary courses such as Control Systems and Data Science and Engineering. These courses deepened his understanding of the underlying principles of hardware-software collaboration in intelligent systems, laying a solid foundation for his in-depth research in related fields. Currently, he is about to pursue further studies at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing on improving machine resource scheduling and predictive maintenance to achieve better real-time decision-making and response.
While focusing on his studies, Jin Haoran has always maintained enthusiasm and pursuit for life. He deeply understands the wisdom of "balancing work and rest"—through scientific time management and a diversified lifestyle. He is passionate about team sports such as basketball and badminton, releasing pressure and strengthening his body through sweating; he also loves billiards, experiencing the sense of accomplishment of "sinking a ball in one shot" with each precise aim and strike. In addition, his footprints have gradually spread across the world, broadening his horizons through immersion in different cultures.
This lifestyle that integrates sports and academic pursuit has not only built his strong physique but also cultivated his calm mindset, allowing him to maintain abundant energy and creativity on his academic journey and achieve all-round physical and mental development.
