2003 - 2011
I traveled all the way to Christchurch, New Zealand from Canton, China in 2003, and went to Darfield High School. This was where my study abroad experience begun. Getting away from parents and totally being on my own was something of a mixed feeling to me. To make the cultural shock even worse, the city I came from has 10 million population, making it a stark contrast to the small town Darfield where nearly everyone knows everyone else. I lived in a homestay with a local family for two years and graduated from Darfield High School with 'Proxime Accessit Dux' amongst other prizes. In 2005 February, I went to the University of Canterbury (UC) to do a bachelor degree in mechatronics engineering. The first year in UC, I was granted direct entry into some second year math papers. Since then my math paper I took was always one year in advance to my colleagues. I started working as a part time tutor in my third year. I worked every summer during my undergraduate study. In second year summer holiday, I was lucky enough to find a job in an excavator firm in Christchurch to fulfill my practical work experience required for my degree. In the subsequent summers I worked in the Geospatial Research Centre and Commtest Instrument Ltd (now belongs to General Electric) as an intern. In September 2008, well before my final year exam, I have given a job offer from Transfield Worley for an electrical graduate engineer position, while at the same time I was granted a scholarship from the New Zealand Foundation of Research and Science Technology (FRST) and an industry sponsor funding for a PhD research project. Despite the obvious financial disadvantage of doing a PhD over the engineering job, after consulting with my supervisors, parents and friends, it did not take me long to decide taking the PhD research path. The pre-approved scholarship did not stop my desire for scoring in my exams. In my final year of study, I got straight A's and graduated from UC in Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering with first class honors in April 2009. The sum of the research funding was substantial and I was thrilled by the research topic because it has huge commercial potential. Because of the industry sponsorship, my research is more commercial oriented, and I got an office in Commtest as well as the one in the campus. This way is perfect as it provides me the opportunity to work in a real company and also a PhD degree after three years! So I started my PhD in mechatronics engineering at the same university in April 2009. My research topic is energy harvesting for wireless sensors.
2012 - 2014
After graduating from my PhD, I worked in General Electrics Ltd as an Electronics Hardware Engineer.