The class meeting of Tsinghua University Special Pilot CS Class (Yao Class) was held at the Multi-functional Hall, FIT Building on June 10. Prof. Andrew Yao, ITCS Director, Prof. Amy Wang, Deputy Director, Assos. Prof. Xiaoming Sun, Assis. Prof. Meizhi Hu, Ms. Yan Zhang, Yao Class Assistant, Mr. Wentao Han and Mr. Haoxiong Tao, Yao Class TMs together with Yao Class students in Grade One to Four all joined the meeting.

Prof. Yao was very happy that all twenty-seven Yao Class 60 graduates have chosen to pursue further study at prestigious institutions in the USA, France, Canada, Hong Kong and Tsinghua University. Prof. Yao has always placed high hopes on them and asked them to stick to their dreams in the future.

Prof. Wang also encouraged graduates to work hard in building their academic career. She went on to wish all Yao Class students a bright future and quoted a line from Prof. Yao that “smart people usually lose for arrogance while ordinary ones fail for laziness.” 

Excellent student representatives from Yao Class 60 shared their experiences at Yao Class for the past four years. Chenguang Zhu, who received an offer for graduate study at Stanford University, compared Yao Class as “the shoulder of giants” and encouraged fellow students to work in a down-to-earth way for their dreams.

The annual Yao Award, an ITCS scholarship to stimulate the students’ research enthusiasm, was also presented at the meeting. Junior students from Yao Class, Lixin Shi (First Prize), Yuan Du, Yuan Zhang (Second Prize), Zhouyue Su, Zhaoquan Gu, Zihe Wang (Third Prize) were honored for their excellent performance and outstanding research results.

Faculty members of Yao Class then took students’ questions on the program during the meeting. And graduates joined a group photo after the meeting.