The final of the 17th “Challenge Cup”, a national extra-curricular academic and scientific works competition for college students, was held online by Sichuan University from March 24 to 28. The young students from all universities in China gathered in the cloud and competed with each other. The project, “Large-scale Measurement Device-Independent Quantum Key Distribution Network” from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), won the Grand Prize in the special track of “Competition for Published Topics”. Other projects of USTC also won awards in the competition.
(Grand Prize Project and Team Members. Image by USTC)
The project of Quantum Distribution Network is directed by Prof. XU Feihu from the School of Physics, with an interdisciplinary team consisting of LU Yichen and ZHANG Likang, graduate students majoring in quantum physics, and LI Wei, a graduate student in electronic science and technology.
The innovative networking scheme of this project provides the technical feasibility for building a large-scale quantum communication network without trusted relays. The team has also performed high-speed chip-based experimental demonstrations and network performance simulations with this technology, laying the foundation for subsequent field experiments of quantum networks and their integration with classical fiber-optic networks.
Another project, “Frequency Locking Device Based on Scanning Fabry–Pérot (FP) Cavity” won the second prize in the same special track. Taking advantage of a scanning FP cavity, the transmission frequency locking device can lock the frequency of multiple beams of light by referring to a frequency-stable reference light. This method can achieve a wide range of frequency locking and high expandability with a low cost.
In the main track, “Bismuth Monatomic Catalyst for Efficient Catalytic Carbon Dioxide Reduction to Prepare Formic Acid” won the second prize, and “Risk Prevention and Control Device for Lithium-ion Battery in Full Temperature Range” and “Rooftop Photovoltaic for Domino-like Automatic Snow Removal Controller” won the third prize. These projects have a high prospect of future application.
In recent years, The USTC has attached great importance to the Challenge Cup Competition. Many units jointly organized several rounds of training and mock defense exercises, and the spirits of our students in overcoming difficulties was fully demonstrated in the process of the competition.
The school will take the innovation and entrepreneurship competitions as an opportunity to cultivate the students' scientific and technological innovation ability, and create a good atmosphere for our teachers, students and alumni to participate in scientific and technological innovation and entrepreneurship, which would play a part in the construction of a country strong in science and technology.
(Written by ZHANG Boxian, edited by JIANG Pengcen, USTC News Center)