For many of us, remote sensing is something remote. But for Gong Wei, it is what he loves and what he does. As the Vice Director of WHU State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, member of major councils and organizations, leader of many key projects and winner of great awards, Professor Gong Wei has been recognized as a well-established star figure in the technology and application of laser and optical remote sensing.
A recent interview revealed both his broad horizon when it comes to academic work and his great life experience and wisdom.
“Optical remote sensing is to perceive the world by non-contact optical means”
For an ordinary person, it is hard to understand what optical remote sensing really means. In order to make it simpler for common people, Professor Gong put it this way: “In a nutshell, optical remote sensing is to perceive the world by non-contact optical means. 80% of the information on human activity is location-related, most of which can be obtained by means of optical remote sensing.”
In fact, nowadays, remote sensing technology has penetrated into every aspect of our daily life, economic development and national security. For instance, mobile navigation: finding a nice restaurant in “Meituan” and using the services of “Didi taxi” are inseparable from the support of remote sensing technology.
On matters of national security, the remote sensing technology is able to acquire ground data and atmospheric information on a wide range and with a high level of precision, which are indispensable for yielding correct estimations, disaster monitoring, weather forecasting as well as military scheduling.
Professor Gong described Remote sensing technology as our third eye and the expectation of this eye is to perceive with increased frequency, clarity, wholesomeness and remoteness. This is also the development trend of remote sensing as a science, towards high level time-resolution, spatial-resolution, spectral-resolution and prediction to aid predicting future events based on large remote sensing databases.
“I chose remote sensing mostly out of interest and love for the overview ability provided by this technology”
When asked about the reason behind his choice for the field of remote sensing, Professor Gong answered briefly, “I chose remote sensing mostly out of the interest and love for the overview ability of remote sensing.” Talking about his extraordinary subject, Professor Gong expressed vivid passion, “The discipline of remote sensing has its unique charm and appeal, which arouses my curiosity for its internal mechanisms and laws.” It also reminded him of some previous studies he underwent. This period of exploration into the discipline was long, and the scientist focused on remote sensing research, largely due to a sense of responsibility.
Recently, he is busy with a new quantitative remote sensing method of the atmosphere and surface features aided by laser technology. The research project focuses mainly on the development of new laser software and hardware to detect the world in an angle combining high time-resolution, spatial-resolution and spectral-resolution. Through years of research, the scientists have proposed and developed the multispectral LiDAR system which can detect surface features with a high level of spatial and spectral accuracy simultaneously, improving the ability to differentiate typical surface features in nature. Additionally, LiDAR offers a high time-resolved, spatial-resolved and spectral-resolved multifunction atmosphere and it procured some interesting results difficult to obtain before having this system in place.
“Interest is the best teacher; it allows a person to focus on work for a longer period of time”
Professor Gong, strongly believes that interest is the best teacher, since it allows a person focus on work for a longer period of time. “I returned home from the United States at the end of 2004,” Professor Gong began talking about his experience, “I’ve been working at Wuhan University for more than a decade, during which time our team of researchers has reached a certain scale and completed a number of important research subjects with a series of valuable results.” These developments were also the fruit of each team member’s combined efforts.
In his view, one’s scientific achievements equal multiplying the interest by abilities, mode of thinking and cooperation. “Interest is the best teacher, since it allows a person focus on work for a longer period of time.” He then emphasized the importance of teamwork, “Cooperation can complement each other’s advantages and double the efficiency.” In addition, the opportunity is also of great significance. Professor Gong sincerely appreciated the wonderful opportunity and platform given by Wuhan University and the care, support and help from seniors such as Academician Deren Li and Academician Jianya Gong. He admitted that only with their help could he work smoothly and improve continuously.
“Studying abroad is more ofa life experience”
Nowadays, more and more students choose to go abroad to live in a different atmosphere and broaden their vision on the world. As a student and professor who had spent time studying and working at Hampton University, Professor Gong expressed his opinion on the differences between the Chinese and American education systems.
“In my perspective, studying abroad is more of a life experience.”He said, “An individual gains a more comprehensive understanding towards the world after living and learning abroad for some time. He has to be ready to work hard, but what’s good is that his ability in arranging and coordinating study and life will get stronger.” Meanwhile, he added that the atmosphere and diverse culture can complement with one’s background knowledge obtained home and be beneficial to the individual’s human and professional training.
For professor Gong, studying and working abroad was a truly rewarding experience. The main difference between the Chinese and the American universities lies in the systems themselves. When it comes to teaching, innovation is a priority as the US is a developed country, thus more attention is paid to cultivating students’ innovation ability. As a developing country, China needs not only innovation, but also the advanced productivity experienced by the developed countries, thus we stress the “ knowledge buildup”. In scientific research, in general, the US emphasizes peer-review while China places equal significance on peer-review and the quantity of results. Since the Chinese pay more attention to human development, solely relying on peer review may be difficult, so the number of achievement is also valued. The remote sensing discipline in the American universities, especially in terms of hardware technology is more mature than that studied in the Chinese academic institutions as the former’s basic industrial development is better. However, the remote sensing science in Chinese universities has its own characteristics with greater space for development and more opportunities.
“Different universities should have a different spirit”
Wuhan University is on its way to becoming an international first-class university and has made great progress in all academic areas. Asked about how can a university become a place for talents, Professor Gong said, “Firstly it needs a spirit.” He then explained, “Different universities should have a different spirit, which is the very essence of development.”At the same time, he pointed out that a university needed teachers well versed in both Chinese and Western education, an advanced infrastructure, vibrant innovation and learning atmosphere, students thirsty for knowledge, as well as the ability to serve the society. What’s more, a university meeting the above requirements is a top international university. In order to achieve or maintain a world-class level, Professor Gong suggested that we should focus on:
(1) Personnel training and talent introduction. There should be more young and creative teachers in our university receiving the support of our national policy makers.
(2) Building a strong infrastructure. It’s very resource-intensive to conduct advanced teaching and teaching and research. As a result, our infrastructure and curriculum systems need to be further improved and to optimize resource spending.
(3) Innovation and learning atmosphere. We need to create an atmosphere of learning and innovation, to promote innovation, sharing resources and ideas and providing mutual assistance. In addition, there’s a need to establish exchanges and cooperation worldwide to give students more opportunities in taking part in international conferences and in academic ways of expanding their educational horizons.
(4) To attract outstanding students. The students are the future of a university. Now that domestic enrollment has been relatively stable, there’s greater space for the enrollment of international students. We should learn from the developed countries and attract more excellent international students through the support of the central policies.
(5) Social service. Foreign universities and research institutes undertake a wide range of cooperation with enterprises, resulting in targeted social service and superior economic benefits. Our social service covers wide areas aimed at individual welfare, however, further strengthening and communication between the policy makers and the operational level in a timely transfer and application of scientific fruits and patent transfer are needed.
"Now that China has entered a new stage of rapid development, the society and the state have a higher level of demand for remote sensing technology and science. I’m eager to make my contribution to these demands.” Like a guide leading us through the palace of science, Professor Gong has set a role model for us all to follow.
(Edited by Diana & Sijia Hu)
For more information about Professor Gongwei:http://en.whu.edu.cn/info/1073/1918.htm
