Source: Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center of Sun Yat-sen University 

Edited by: Liu Nian 

On August 13 2016, the two-day 7th National Ophthalmology Graduate Forum came to a successful end. The forum was sponsored by the Graduate School of Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center (ZOC) affiliated to SYSU and State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology. The topic of the forum was “A Starting Point to Academic Excellence.” It aimed at “strengthening academic exchanges, discussing heated issues and relevant progress, developing vision, and enhancing scientific research innovation and academic level”, and consisted of three parts: lectures by professors, exchanges of and comments on the theses of graduates, and team academic activities of graduates. Over 20 well-known scholars and guests from 32 institutions and more than 200 graduate students attended the Forum. 

Part 1 

Lectures by Professors 

Professor Dan Liang, the Center’s vice director in charge of teaching affairs, presided over the opening ceremony of the Forum. Jiuqun Gao, vice president of the Graduate School of SYSU, and Dan Xia, secretary of the Central Party Committee of the Center, extended warm welcome to all participants. They expressed the hope that the success of this Forum can further enhance the academic competence of ophthalmological research of China, and also promote exchanges among ophthalmological workers. 

This part included 3 keynote speeches, namely, “Reflection on Postgraduate Education” (by Professor Zuguo Liu, Xiamen University), “The Design of Scientific Research Topics and the Writing of Theses” (Professor Juan Li, Zhongshan School of Medicine, SYSU), Graduate Education and Clinical Research (Professor Dan Liang, ZOC). The three professors expounded their insights on the positioning of graduate students respectively from the perspectives of overall situation, basic research, and clinical research. Their profound knowledge, rich practical experience and progressive delivery all helped the audience gradually achieve better understanding of the topic. 

Part 2 

Exchanges of and Comments on the theses of Graduates 

The Forum began to call for papers from graduate students majoring in ophthalmology in China on June 20, 2016, and totally collected more than 100 entries from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other major cities. Through careful selection, 20 outstanding theses entered the presentation of the Forum, where judges posed questions and made comments. They graded the presenters from subject design, discussion of experiment and delivery of speech, and selected out the final winners of outstanding paper awards. 

 Judges are giving comments 

 Graduate students are giving presentations 

Part 3 

Team Academic Activities of Graduates — Team Project Design Competition 

To enable graduate students to enjoy the fun of scientific research design and to improve their project design ability, the Center innovatively organized a team research project design competition on the foundation of contest-based TBL teaching model. Three teams participated in this competition: Team Nan Jingling (ZOC, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, People’s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Team Liang Jingjing (Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Peking University People’s Hospital) and Team Shanghai Xinxing (Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine). The teams chose their own topics of clinical project design based on the keywords “lifestyle” and “eye disease.” They innovatively applied video, acting performance and other means to illustrate the theme vividly. Allowing The Q&A session among the three teams promoted mutual learning and exchanges, and increased the fun of the competition. Professor Danying Zhang, deputy director of the Department of Ophthalmology and Optometry, concluded that the experience of growth was what mattered the most, and he hoped the participating graduate students could realize the significance and advantage of win-win cooperation from the competition. 

Through the interworking of the three parts, the Forum promoted mutual understanding among graduate students from various colleges around the country, strengthened cooperation among different universities and regions, inspired academic thoughts, encouraged academic enthusiasm and enhanced academic ability. Meanwhile, it stimulated other students’ research interest and supported the development of ophthalmology. The Forum was a complete success. The Center will strive to provide more comprehensive services, and build a broader exchange platform for guests and graduate students in the coming year.