The opening-up 40 years ago accelerated the academic and technical exchanges between China and advanced western countries. In the early 1980s, geographic information system was introduced into China. As one of the founders of GIS major in Sun Yat-sen University, Zhang Xinchang summed up his career in one sentence: "I like doing scientific research, preferring to engage in education and being open-minded. It is my greatest wish to do something for higher education in China. "
Recently, Sina Guangdong invited Professor Zhang Xinchang, a leading talent of Guangzhou University's Hundred Talents Program, an academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, a famous teacher of Guangdong Province's high-level talent training special support program and a doctoral tutor, to be a guest in the live broadcast room and share his personal stories of continuous contributions in cartography, geographic information science and other fields.
Zhang Xinchang is a guest in Sina Guangdong live broadcast room.
Stick to your life from the beginning
As the first batch of college entrance examination students after the downfall of the Gang of Four, Zhang Xinchang is full of enthusiasm for college life. At first, he applied for the aviation photogrammetry major of Wuhan Institute of Surveying and Mapping, dreaming of shooting the great rivers and mountains of the motherland on the plane. Before the formal admission, Zhang Xinchang was favored by the school admissions teacher because of his good handwriting. Directly admitted to the map drawing major with excellent results.
After the admission results were announced, Zhang Xinchang felt that it was a good choice to paint the great rivers and mountains of the motherland with his own drawing pen, although he did not realize his wish to learn aerial photography.
From then on, Zhang Xinchang began to study and study in the fields of cartography and geographic information science and technology. He pursued tirelessly in the fields of cartography and geographic information science for 40 years, and also handed over a perfect answer sheet for his academic career.
Establishing Geographic Information System Specialty to Fill the Subject Blank
From 65438 to 0994, Zhang Xinchang transferred from Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping to Sun Yat-sen University, and presided over the establishment of the undergraduate major of Geographic Information System (GIS) in Sun Yat-sen University, which filled the gap that there was no GIS major in the geography subject of Sun Yat-sen University. Zhang Xinchang said that if Sun Yat-sen University doesn't offer GIS undergraduate major, it can't adapt to the rapid development of the new era, and the geography of Sun Yat-sen University can't reach a higher platform.
Zhang Xinchang said frankly: "I really started to engage in geographic information science. In fact, it was the first time to study GIS applications abroad, which was a huge turning point in the field of geographic information science and technology."
From 65438 to 0997, Zhang Xinchang went to university of east london, England as a visiting scholar. In the process of learning, Zhang Xinchang discovered the "New World", and the British have made a geospatial analysis through Arc/Info software. With the support of this software, local people who want to buy a house can directly conduct regional analysis online, and property buyers can conduct spatial analysis online after putting forward their own opinions. If in the mode of China, we can only draw the relevant corresponding areas by hand, and then let the buyers see where to choose a house, which is a very labor-intensive thing. This overlay analysis function of Arc/Info software surprised Zhang Xinchang. However, after being shocked, Zhang Xinchang is more concerned about how to learn these advanced technologies. During his one-year stay in the UK, Zhang Xinchang continued to study and made in-depth research on Arc/ Info software, including its various analysis tools, models and algorithms, which laid a good foundation for his future development.
After returning to China, Zhang Xinchang is faced with a very realistic problem: as a newly opened major that is not favored by the school, it is even more difficult to add a piece of equipment. However, Zhang Xinchang did not give up because of this. He bought a computer with more than 8,000 yuan in his salary card, programmed non-stop every day, and brought the printed map to the class for students to see, so that students could really feel the advanced geographic information technology. He has always insisted on a very strong idea: "Let China students master the most modern science and technology and make contributions to the economic and social development of our country."
The GIS specialty of Sun Yat-sen University has grown from scratch in 24 years, which is inseparable from the efforts of Professor Zhang Xinchang.
Keep pace with the times, from traditional classroom to massive open online courses.
In recent years, the rapid development of the Internet has greatly changed the teaching mode of higher education. As a brand-new online open course, massive open online course was first started in the United States on 20 1 1. In 20 12, aiming at this educational development direction, the Ministry of Education began to introduce large-scale open online courses into domestic teaching platforms. Zhang Xinchang said excitedly: "When I heard this course, my whole person was boiling for it. This is a channel that can dedicate my teaching and research results to GIS students in colleges and universities across the country! " Zhang Xinchang said that before that, the only way to spread his teaching ideas was to write books and publish them. Now, with the establishment of online teaching platform in China, students from all over the country can watch courses directly online.
As one of the earliest large-scale open online course teachers in Sun Yat-sen University, Zhang Xinchang said that the course is open to the public, and the first essence of designing the course is popularization. The lecturer's language should be humorous, and the knowledge should be conveyed in simple terms, so that students can feel that you are an innovative person, and the knowledge taught can guide him to study and work better in the future, which is useful. Of course, popularity alone cannot keep the audience interested in watching. It is also necessary to add some scientific ideas, methods and technologies to the curriculum to make these scientific ideas easy to understand. Zhang Xinchang gave a simple example. At present, the concepts of cloud computing and cloud platform are difficult for non-computer majors to understand if they are explained by "how computers build networks". At this time, it is necessary to use a simple and real example to explain some relatively obscure concepts so that more people can understand them.
In order to teach large-scale open online courses, Zhang Xinchang dare not relax. Teaching an online course requires you to devote your energy to preparing for ten classes. Every word, every concept and every knowledge point spoken by the tutor should be very clear and correct. Zhang Xinchang will check every professional concept with his team of young teachers and doctoral students, and then integrate the sorted knowledge points. Although the process consumes a lot of energy, Zhang Xinchang never tires of it: "The bounden duty of teachers is to impart knowledge, and it is my greatest wish to do something for higher education in China." Today, Professor Zhang Xinchang's "Digital City" excellent course ranks first in the 992 excellent video open classes of "Aike. com". The online open course "Introduction to New Geographic Information System" taught by China University, a large-scale open network course branch, also won the title of the first batch of excellent online open courses by the Ministry of Education.
Mutual communication and integration contribute to social development.
In recent years, the development of geographic information system has been in the fast lane, and it has been widely used in many industries, and is playing its role in positioning, navigation, autonomous driving, government decision-making and many other aspects. Zhang Xinchang said that the emergence of new technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud platforms and big data has made the virtual world and the real world well integrated, and the development of geographic information science has been integrated with science and technology in many related fields. Nowadays, GIS technology is still improving and perfecting. In the future, through these technical means, where there is a ground disaster and where emergency is needed, GIS can be used to immediately locate and analyze the dangerous situation and make emergency measures quickly.
Zhang Xinchang said: "When we stop talking about GIS technology, it means that our discipline has matured, and our technology has truly integrated into people's daily lives and into the core of science and technology. I believe this day will come. "