Author: Wu Jiaxi

By the end of the 18th Challenge Cup, Wuhan University had acquired fantastic scores in various areas, ranking high among schools participating in the competition and winning 24 national-level awards in total.

Photo of WHUers in the 18th Challenge Cup

The ‘Challenge Cup of National College Student Curricular Academic Science and Technology Works Competition’ (Challenge Cup), is one of the most authoritative and representative scientific research competitions for college students. Every time it is held, it attracts countless students from all over the country, eager to devote themselves to it wholeheartedly and showcase their excellent talents.

In the competition, WHUers actively engage in every area, ranging from traditional to special themes like ‘Red Special Project’. When asked how he got involved in the competition, Hong Wangcheng, one of the members of the ‘Guarantee of overage migrant workers rights’ team, recalled: “The Challenge Cup is a renowned academic competition. Before the competition, not only our college but also our school’s Youth League committee promoted it vigorously, which greatly evoked students’ enthusiasm to participate in it.”

Hong’s teammates in the competition

With the launch of policies claiming to dismiss overage migrant workers in the architectural field, Hong and his teammates found that these policies harmed migrant workers’ rights, which inspired them to investigate this phenomenon in-depth. “We carried out a series of social practices with the hope of figuring out the aims of these policies and predicting their social influence, and later we transformed this topic into a project,” Hong said.

The theme of Hong’s team

However, participating in such a significant competition is much more than choosing a topic and organizing a team, and it has nothing to do with ease and relaxation. After the competition, we interviewed Hu Yuxuan, who had led her team to win the National Grand Prize in the 18th Challenge Cup, on the obstacles they encountered during the preparation period, and she replied, “Frankly speaking, difficulties ran through the entire process. From the very beginning, we suffered from insufficient data provided by the company, and during the preparation, we had difficulties in accurate positioning due to improper methods.”

Of course, surrendering to difficulties is never a choice for WHUers. On the contrary, they always immediately attempt to find a way out. “The moment we got into trouble, we actively tried to deal with the problems. We repeatedly communicated with the company and finally agreed to collect the data by ourselves, relying on the platform it provided. Additionally, we looked back on our practical process step by step, ending up discovering the source of the problem, which enabled us to improve our approach,” Hu told us in sharing the background story.

Though filled with difficulties and challenges, the journey through the competition was still full of happiness and pleasure, witnessing the growth of all the participants and the pure, precious friendships they had formed. Just like Hong said, “On the morning before our presentation, we were extremely nervous, but all of us gathered together to make sure that our final presentation would go smoothly, which reflected our strong cohesion.”

Eventually, with thorough preparation, plenty of WHUers like Hong and Hu confidently went onto the national stage, showing the remarkable achievements of their projects and attaining satisfying scores. Recalling the experience of the competition, Hu remarked, “Though we met countless difficulties and even thought of giving up, we persisted until the end, upgrading our capacity in various areas.”

In the end, Hong said, “Being uncertain about the future of the project had made me doubt myself initially, causing a lot of pain, but the process witnessed my growth in cognition of self-worth and scholarship, which I regard as precious spiritual wealth for people majoring in law.”

The finest diamond must be cut. In the 18th Challenge Cup, we were surprised and moved by the indomitable spirit shown by WHUers, and we believe that more and more WHUers are bound to inherit this spirit, standing on an even higher peak next time.

Photo by: Hu Yixuan