2021 Winter GEARS – Virtual Poster Competition

During Winter 2021, the Global Training Initiative matched 81 students with mentoring professors at various North Carolina universities for the virtual Global Education, Academics and Research Skills (GEARS) program. The students, who are enrolled at twenty-six different international and domestic universities, completed a 4 or 5-week intensive research project related to their field of study. In addition to learning valuable research skills, participants received GTI coaching in scientific communication and a workshop on pursuing graduate studies in the United States. The final program component tasked students with creating an academic research poster for a virtual presentation of their work.

After scoring the presentations on a rigorous rubric, the GTI is excited to announce the winners of the winter 2021 virtual poster competition!

Overall Top-Scoring Presentations

The following six presentations represent the highest-scoring submissions for the Winter 2021 GEARS Program.

First Place (session 1): Xinyue Qi, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) – “Solar Panel Energy Prediction Study”

• Mentor: Majed Al-Ghandour, NC State University

First Place (session 2): Hongwei Zhou, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) – “Visualization of the Three-Body System”

• Mentor: Larry M. Silverberg, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NC State University

Second Place (session 1): Heting Hong, Northeastern University (NEU) – “Face Mask Wearing Detection Base on Yolov5x-Deepsort”

• Mentor: Min Chi, Department of Computer Science, NC State University

Second Place (session 2): Zhiwei Li, China Medical University – “Disordered Eating and Suicial Ideation Among College Students”

• Mentor: Paula Baisden, College of Health and Human Services, UNC Wilmington

Third Place (session 1): Jiangyi Nan, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) – “Computation and Simulations of Mortgage Loan from Financial Mathematical Perspective”

• Mentor: Zhilin Li, Department of Mathematics, NC State University

Third Place (session 2): Hexiang Chen, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) – “Response of Chinese Media to Western Negative Discourses: Racism, Xenophobia, and Social Othering During COVID-19”

• Mentor: Julia Morris, International Studies, UNC Wilmington

Honorable Mentions

Yanding Wang, China Medical University – “Application of Artificial Intelligence for Health Communication in Crisis”

• Mentor: Yang Cheng, Department of Communication, NC State University

Yuxin Wu, Tsinghua University – “The Certifiable Robustness Problem in Decentralized Implementation of Graph Neural Networks Over Wireless Channels”

• Mentor: Huaiyu Dai, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, NC State University

Runhan Feng, Communication University of China – “Simulating Ocean Sceneries In and After a Hurricane”

• Mentor: Larry M. Silverberg, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NC State University

Yuyang Chen, Zhejiang University – “Social Othering and COVID-19: Humanitarian Consideration and Political Propaganda”

• Mentor: Julia Morris, International Studies, UNC Wilmington

GTI sincerely thanks our various partners for making this virtual program a possibility:

• Partnering universities that provided program support and mentoring professors: 
  • North Carolina State University
  • North Carolina Central University  
  • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • The University of North Carolina at Wilmington

• International Partner Universities:
  • Beijing Institute of Technology
  • China Medical University
  • Chonnam Unversity
  • Chulalongkorn University and Chula International School of Engineering
  • Donghua University
  • Huazhong University of Science and Technology
  • Northeastern University
  • Southern University of Science and Technology
  • Suzhou University
  • Tsinghua University
  • University of Philippines
  • Zhejiang University