{"id":354,"date":"2012-10-22T09:01:09","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T14:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/?p=354"},"modified":"2013-05-02T10:01:58","modified_gmt":"2013-05-02T15:01:58","slug":"china-trip-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/2012\/10\/22\/china-trip-report\/","title":{"rendered":"China Trip Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html\r\n  PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional\/\/EN\">\r\n<style type=\"text\/css\">\r\n\r\nh1 { font-size:18pt; }\r\nh2.titlebg { font-size:13pt; }\r\nh3 { color:#4A4F55; padding:0px; margin:5px 0px 5px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:11pt; font-weight:bold; line-height:140%; border-bottom:1px solid #d6d4d4; display:block; }\r\nh4 { color:#4A4F55; padding:0px; margin:0px 0px 5px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10pt; font-weight:bold; line-height:140%; border-bottom:1px solid #d6d4d4; display:block; }\r\n   \r\np { padding:0px; margin:0px 0px 20px; }\r\nimg { padding:0px; margin:0px 0px 20px; border:none; }\r\np img, pre img, tt img, li img { margin-bottom:0px; } \r\n\r\nul { padding:0px; margin:0px 0px 20px 23px; list-style:square; }\r\nul li { padding:0px; margin:0px 0px 7px 0px; background:none; }\r\nul li ul { padding:5px 0px 0px; margin:0px 0px 7px 23px; }\r\nul li ol li { list-style:decimal; }\r\nol { padding:0px; margin:0px 0px 20px 0px; list-style:decimal; }\r\nol li { padding:0px; margin:0px 0px 7px 23px; list-style-type:decimal; }\r\nol li ol { padding:5px 0px 0px; margin:0px 0px 7px 0px; }\r\nol li ol li { list-style-type:lower-alpha; }\r\nol li ul { padding-top:7px; }\r\nol li ul li { list-style:square; }\r\n\r\npre, tt, code { font-size:12px; }\r\npre { margin:0px 0px 20px; }\r\npre.error { color:red; }\r\npre.codeinput { padding:10px; border:1px solid #d3d3d3; background:#f7f7f7; }\r\npre.codeoutput { padding:10px 11px; margin:0px 0px 20px; color:#4c4c4c; }\r\n\r\n@media print { pre.codeinput, pre.codeoutput { word-wrap:break-word; width:100%; } }\r\n\r\nspan.keyword { color:#0000FF }\r\nspan.comment { color:#228B22 }\r\nspan.string { color:#A020F0 }\r\nspan.untermstring { color:#B20000 }\r\nspan.syscmd { color:#B28C00 }\r\n\r\n.footer { width:auto; padding:10px 0px; margin:25px 0px 0px; border-top:1px dotted #878787; font-size:0.8em; line-height:140%; font-style:italic; color:#878787; text-align:left; float:none; }\r\n.footer p { margin:0px; }\r\n\r\n  <\/style><div class=\"content\"><!--introduction--><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/cleve\/panda.jpg\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><p>I have just completed a wonderful trip, a two-week lecture tour of eight universities in five cities in China. I was accompanied on the trip by David Chen from the MathWorks office in Shanghai and Cecilia Liu from our Beijing office. We made a side trip to the Giant Panda Conservation Research Base, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, central China, where we had an opportunity to meet this fellow, who is not a MATLAB user.<\/p><!--\/introduction--><h3>Contents<\/h3><div><ul><li><a href=\"#ef2ce2c2-b2d4-48fb-86e0-8de3c408051e\">Itinerary<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#61e9c9b5-ffe0-4527-b24b-77cea807591f\">Numbers<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#089bef8b-a9f6-44d7-b889-e626eea5e938\">LINPACK inverse<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#a53eea6b-0b45-487e-8adf-105d015574f6\">Food<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#9e11dffb-94ed-49b2-8a0f-f20b8bd5e0a2\">Photos<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#5dce938e-692b-4e73-85fd-0ff824048b1c\">MATLAB Social Networks<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#622c1f64-0844-4f1c-ac0d-59153ef38d6d\">Thanks<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><h4>Itinerary<a name=\"ef2ce2c2-b2d4-48fb-86e0-8de3c408051e\"><\/a><\/h4><p>We visited:<\/p><div><ul><li>Tsingua University, Beijing<\/li><li>Beijing Normal University, Beijing<\/li><li>XiDian University, Xi'An<\/li><li>University of Electronic Science and Technology, Chengdu<\/li><li>Jilin University, Changchun<\/li><li>Tongji University, Shanghai<\/li><li>Fudan University, Shanghai<\/li><li>Shanghia Jiao Tong University, Shanghai<\/li><\/ul><\/div><p>These are some of the most highly rated science and engineering universities, and the largest MATLAB users, in China, especially in electronics and automotive engineering. At all of these universities, except Fudan, I gave my talk on \"The Evolution of MATLAB\", and then spent close to an hour answering questions.  At Fudan, I had lunch with an eminent mathematician, Professor LI Daqian, a Chinese acadamecian and former president of CSIAM, the China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.<\/p><h4>Numbers<a name=\"61e9c9b5-ffe0-4527-b24b-77cea807591f\"><\/a><\/h4><p>The numbers associated with MATLAB usage in China are unknown, but staggering. The distribution of MATLAB among students in China is beyond MathWorks control. There are several popular MATLAB forums on the internet. Two of them, \"I Love MATLAB\" and \"MATLAB Sky\" have over half a million registered participants each. Twitter-like microblogs, with limits of 70 Chinese characters, have tens of thousands of MATLAB related posts per day. Shortly after the start of one of my talks, one post even had a cell phone photo of my necktie, because it featured baby pandas from the Panda Preserve. We met with authors and publishers of MATLAB and Simulink books, which sell tens or hundreds of thousands of copies, which is way beyond the sales of English language MATLAB books.<\/p><p>The CUMCM, the China Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling, is sponsored by CSIAM and supported by MathWorks. Last year more than 60,000 students, comprising 21,219 teams from 1,284 universities participated.  The teams have three days to develop a model for a given problem and write a paper about their solution.  Last year's problem involved the design of a solar house.  About 2\/3 of the teams used MATLAB in their solution. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcm.edu.cn\">&lt;http:\/\/www.mcm.edu.cn<\/a>&gt;.<\/p><p>David estimates that I spoke to over 4000 students and faculty during the trip.<\/p><h4>LINPACK inverse<a name=\"089bef8b-a9f6-44d7-b889-e626eea5e938\"><\/a><\/h4><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/cleve\/linpackg.jpg\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><p>For years, in my \"Evolution of MATLAB\" talk, I have pointed out that the cover of the LINPACK User's Guide contains a matrix and that the back cover reveals its inverse.  I invite listeners who are bored with the talk to find the inverse and check with me after the talk.  I have given this challenge many dozens of times at universities all over the world. At UESTC in Chengdu, for the first time ever, an undergrad produced (an almost correct) solution and, a few days later, at Jilin University in Changchun, another student produced a numeric solution by replacing the letters with integers.<\/p><p>It's not a difficult problem, once you set out to do it. But the curiousity demonstrated by those who try is wonderful to see.<\/p><h4>Food<a name=\"a53eea6b-0b45-487e-8adf-105d015574f6\"><\/a><\/h4><p>For many evenings, and several lunches, we had Chinese banquets with our host professors and deans.  There was a large variety of delicious dishes on rotating \"lazy susan\" platters in the center of the table. I ate too much, but it was impolite not to try everything.<\/p><p>We spent the weekend on our own in Chengdu where the Sichuan food is pleasantly spicy.<\/p><p>I got to be pretty good at using chopsticks.<\/p><h4>Photos<a name=\"9e11dffb-94ed-49b2-8a0f-f20b8bd5e0a2\"><\/a><\/h4><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/cleve\/tsinghua.jpg\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><p>Tsingua University, Beijing, provided the largest audience that I have ever addressed, over 1000 students.<\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/cleve\/bnu.jpg\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><p>Beijing Normal University, and some of the other universities, gave me flowers.  There were many autograph and photo seekers after the talks.<\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/cleve\/xidan.jpg\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><p>Xidan University, Xi'An, handed out tickets and students lined up an hour ahead of time.<\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/cleve\/uestc.jpg\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><p>A big audience at UESTC, Chengdu.<\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/cleve\/jilin.jpg\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><p>Sitting room only at Jilin University, Changchun.<\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/cleve\/tongji.jpg\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><p>Chinese banquet after the lecture at Tongji University in Shanghai.<\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"5\" hspace=\"5\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/images\/cleve\/sjtu.jpg\" alt=\"\"> <\/p><p>Group photo at Shanghia Jiao Tong University.<\/p><h4>MATLAB Social Networks<a name=\"5dce938e-692b-4e73-85fd-0ff824048b1c\"><\/a><\/h4><p>The Chinese forums and microblogs that focus on MATLAB represent a huge, vibrant, untapped resource.  At every stop I asked the audience if they had ever accessed <tt>matlabcentral<\/tt> or this Cleve's Corner blog. Only one or two individuals out of the thousands in the total audience had ever done so.  We need to do more to connect our two communities.<\/p><h4>Thanks<a name=\"622c1f64-0844-4f1c-ac0d-59153ef38d6d\"><\/a><\/h4><p>David Chen had made all the arrangements and Cecilia Liu provided invaluable logistic assistance. It sounds like it would be have been a strenuous trip, but with these two at my side every step of the way, it was a very pleasant and stimulating experience.  Thanks, David and Cecilia!<\/p><script language=\"JavaScript\"> <!-- \r\n    function grabCode_5e78cfe9d2f64b50bf9093720fb94122() {\r\n        \/\/ Remember the title so we can use it in the new page\r\n        title = document.title;\r\n\r\n        \/\/ Break up these strings so that their presence\r\n        \/\/ in the Javascript doesn't mess up the search for\r\n        \/\/ the MATLAB code.\r\n        t1='5e78cfe9d2f64b50bf9093720fb94122 ' + '##### ' + 'SOURCE BEGIN' + ' #####';\r\n        t2='##### ' + 'SOURCE END' + ' #####' + ' 5e78cfe9d2f64b50bf9093720fb94122';\r\n    \r\n        b=document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0];\r\n        i1=b.innerHTML.indexOf(t1)+t1.length;\r\n        i2=b.innerHTML.indexOf(t2);\r\n \r\n        code_string = b.innerHTML.substring(i1, i2);\r\n        code_string = code_string.replace(\/REPLACE_WITH_DASH_DASH\/g,'--');\r\n\r\n        \/\/ Use \/x3C\/g instead of the less-than character to avoid errors \r\n        \/\/ in the XML parser.\r\n        \/\/ Use '\\x26#60;' instead of '<' so that the XML parser\r\n        \/\/ doesn't go ahead and substitute the less-than character. \r\n        code_string = code_string.replace(\/\\x3C\/g, '\\x26#60;');\r\n\r\n        copyright = 'Copyright 2012 The MathWorks, Inc.';\r\n\r\n        w = window.open();\r\n        d = w.document;\r\n        d.write('<pre>\\n');\r\n        d.write(code_string);\r\n\r\n        \/\/ Add copyright line at the bottom if specified.\r\n        if (copyright.length > 0) {\r\n            d.writeln('');\r\n            d.writeln('%%');\r\n            if (copyright.length > 0) {\r\n                d.writeln('% _' + copyright + '_');\r\n            }\r\n        }\r\n\r\n        d.write('<\/pre>\\n');\r\n\r\n        d.title = title + ' (MATLAB code)';\r\n        d.close();\r\n    }   \r\n     --> <\/script><p style=\"text-align: right; font-size: xx-small; font-weight:lighter;   font-style: italic; color: gray\"><br><a href=\"javascript:grabCode_5e78cfe9d2f64b50bf9093720fb94122()\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small;        font-style: italic;\">Get \r\n      the MATLAB code <noscript>(requires JavaScript)<\/noscript><\/span><\/a><br><br>\r\n      Published with MATLAB&reg; R<br><\/p><p class=\"footer\"><br>\r\n      Published with MATLAB&reg; R<br><\/p><\/div><!--\r\n5e78cfe9d2f64b50bf9093720fb94122 ##### SOURCE BEGIN #####\r\n%% China Trip Report\r\n%\r\n% <<panda.jpg>>\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% I have just completed a wonderful trip, a two-week lecture tour\r\n% of eight universities in five cities in China.\r\n% I was accompanied on the trip by David Chen from the MathWorks office\r\n% in Shanghai and Cecilia Liu from our Beijing office.\r\n% We made a side trip to the Giant Panda Conservation Research Base,\r\n% in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, central China, where we had an opportunity\r\n% to meet this fellow, who is not a MATLAB user.\r\n\r\n%% Itinerary\r\n% We visited:\r\n%\r\n% * Tsingua University, Beijing\r\n% * Beijing Normal University, Beijing\r\n% * XiDian University, Xi'An\r\n% * University of Electronic Science and Technology, Chengdu\r\n% * Jilin University, Changchun\r\n% * Tongji University, Shanghai\r\n% * Fudan University, Shanghai\r\n% * Shanghia Jiao Tong University, Shanghai\r\n%\r\n% These are some of the most highly rated science and engineering\r\n% universities, and the largest MATLAB users, in China, especially in\r\n% electronics and automotive engineering.\r\n% At all of these universities, except Fudan, I gave my talk on\r\n% \"The Evolution of MATLAB\", and then spent close to an hour answering\r\n% questions.  At Fudan, I had lunch with an eminent mathematician,\r\n% Professor LI Daqian, a Chinese acadamecian and former president of CSIAM,\r\n% the China Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.\r\n\r\n%% Numbers\r\n% The numbers associated with MATLAB usage in China are unknown, but staggering.\r\n% The distribution of MATLAB among students in China is beyond MathWorks\r\n% control.\r\n% There are several popular MATLAB forums on the internet.\r\n% Two of them, \"I Love MATLAB\" and \"MATLAB Sky\" have over half a million\r\n% registered participants each.\r\n% Twitter-like microblogs, with limits of 70 Chinese characters, have tens of\r\n% thousands of MATLAB related posts per day.\r\n% Shortly after the start of one of my talks, one post even had a cell phone\r\n% photo of my necktie, because it featured baby pandas from the Panda Preserve.\r\n% We met with authors and publishers of MATLAB and Simulink books, which sell\r\n% tens or hundreds of thousands of copies, which is way beyond the sales of\r\n% English language MATLAB books.\r\n%\r\n% The CUMCM, the China Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling,\r\n% is sponsored by CSIAM and supported by MathWorks.\r\n% Last year more than 60,000 students, comprising 21,219 teams from 1,284\r\n% universities participated.  The teams have three days to develop a model\r\n% for a given problem and write a paper about their solution.  Last year's\r\n% problem involved the design of a solar house.  About 2\/3 of the teams used\r\n% MATLAB in their solution.\r\n% <http:\/\/www.mcm.edu.cn http:\/\/www.mcm.edu.cn>.\r\n%\r\n% David estimates that I spoke to over 4000 students and faculty\r\n% during the trip.\r\n%\r\n\r\n%% LINPACK inverse\r\n%\r\n% <<linpackg.jpg>>\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% For years, in my \"Evolution of MATLAB\" talk, I have pointed out that the\r\n% cover of the LINPACK User's Guide contains a matrix and that the back\r\n% cover reveals its inverse.  I invite listeners who are bored with the talk\r\n% to find the inverse and check with me after the talk.  I have given this\r\n% challenge many dozens of times at universities all over the world.\r\n% At UESTC in Chengdu, for the first time ever, an undergrad\r\n% produced (an almost correct) solution and, a few days later, at Jilin\r\n% University in Changchun, another student produced a numeric solution by\r\n% replacing the letters with integers.\r\n%\r\n% It's not a difficult problem, once you set out to do it.\r\n% But the curiousity demonstrated by those who try is wonderful to see.\r\n\r\n%% Food\r\n% For many evenings, and several lunches, we had Chinese banquets with our\r\n% host professors and deans.  There was a large variety of delicious dishes on\r\n% rotating \"lazy susan\" platters in the center of the table.\r\n% I ate too much, but it was impolite not to try everything.\r\n%\r\n% We spent the weekend on our own in Chengdu where the Sichuan food is\r\n% pleasantly spicy.\r\n%\r\n% I got to be pretty good at using chopsticks.\r\n\r\n%% Photos\r\n%\r\n% <<tsinghua.jpg>>\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% Tsingua University, Beijing, provided the largest audience that I have ever\r\n% addressed, over 1000 students.\r\n%\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% <<bnu.jpg>>\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% Beijing Normal University, and some of the other universities,\r\n% gave me flowers.  There were many autograph and photo seekers\r\n% after the talks.\r\n%\r\n% <<xidan.jpg>>\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% Xidan University, Xi'An, handed out tickets and students lined up an hour\r\n% ahead of time.\r\n%\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% <<uestc.jpg>>\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% A big audience at UESTC, Chengdu.\r\n%\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% <<jilin.jpg>>\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% Sitting room only at Jilin University, Changchun.\r\n%\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% <<tongji.jpg>>\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% Chinese banquet after the lecture at Tongji University in Shanghai.\r\n%\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% <<sjtu.jpg>>\r\n%\r\n%\r\n% Group photo at Shanghia Jiao Tong University.\r\n\r\n%% MATLAB Social Networks\r\n% The Chinese forums and microblogs that focus on MATLAB represent a huge,\r\n% vibrant, untapped resource.  At every stop I asked the audience if they\r\n% had ever accessed |matlabcentral| or this Cleve's Corner blog.\r\n% Only one or two individuals out of the thousands in the total audience had\r\n% ever done so.  We need to do more to connect our two communities.\r\n\r\n%% Thanks\r\n% David Chen had made all the arrangements and Cecilia Liu provided invaluable\r\n% logistic assistance.\r\n% It sounds like it would be have been a strenuous trip, but with these two\r\n% at my side every step of the way, it was a very pleasant and stimulating\r\n% experience.  Thanks, David and Cecilia!\r\n\r\n##### SOURCE END ##### 5e78cfe9d2f64b50bf9093720fb94122\r\n-->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have just completed a wonderful trip, a two-week lecture tour of eight universities in five cities in China. I was accompanied on the trip by David Chen from the MathWorks office in Shanghai and Cecilia Liu from our Beijing office. We made a side trip to the Giant Panda Conservation Research Base, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, central China, where we had an opportunity to meet this fellow, who is not a MATLAB user.... <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/2012\/10\/22\/china-trip-report\/\">read more >><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":637,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions\/637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/cleve\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}