Recently, the 13thNational Metallographic Skills Competition for College Students, hosted by the Teaching Guidance Committee for Materials Science and Engineering Majors under the Ministry of Education and organized by Huanggang Normal University, was held in Huanggang, Hubei Province. At this event, Yang Yu from the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing) won the first prize, Fan Jiahui won the second prize, and Chen Ying, Wang Kangjun, and Li Zehao won the third prize. Teachers Ma Feng and Wang Qi were awarded the title of "Excellent Instructor".
The National Metallographic Skills Competition for College Students was initiated by Tsinghua University in collaboration with Beijing University of Science and Technology, Central South University, and other institutions. It is one of the 84 competitions listed in the ranking of national college student academic competitions and is the most prestigious, well-established, large-scale, and influential academic competition for materials science and engineering majors nationwide.
This year's competition consisted of two tracks: the Metallographic Skills Competition and the Metallographic Conference. The scale of the Metallographic Skills Competition was unprecedented, with 571 higher education institutions participating and 400,488 undergraduate students competing in the preliminary contests held by their respective universities from April to June. Based on the preliminary results, outstanding contestants from each institution participated in the regional semifinals across 26 divisions. Ultimately, 1,458 contestants from 530 institutions advanced to the finals of the 13thNational Metallographic Skills Competition for College Students (Leica Cup), and 438 contestants from 178 institutions qualified for the finals of the 2ndNational Undergraduate Metallographic Conference (Yongxin Cup). A total of 3,520 participants, including contestants, team leaders, instructors, competition committee members, judges, and special guests, gathered in the ancient city of Huangzhou, setting a new record for the competition. Five students from our university, led by teachers Ma Feng and Wang Qi, participated in the finals.
In the Metallographic Skills Competition, contestants drew two out of three samples (20 steel, industrial pure iron, and ductile iron) by lot as their final competition samples and were required to prepare both samples within three days according to the competition rules. For the designated metal samples, contestants had to complete grinding, polishing, and etching processes on the specified end face within 30 minutes, ultimately producing clean, flat samples with microstructures that could be clearly observed under a metallographic microscope for evaluation by the judges. The judges assessed the contestants' experimental skills based on the quality of the metallographic images, cleanliness of the observed surface, flatness of the observed surface, and their operational habits during the competition.
