On June 3, the university held the first online doctoral thesis defense during the epidemic. Huang Shiyuan, a 2016-grade doctoral student of Hehai College, completed his doctoral thesis defense via Tencent Meeting at home. He was the first one to do a thesis defense online in the university.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           The Defense Committee is chaired by Zhu Jungao, professor and doctoral tutor of Hehai College, Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Geotechnical Mechanics and Dam Engineering of Hohai University, Council Member of the Chinese Institution of Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering - the China Civil Engineering Society (CISMGE-CCES), Deputy Director of the Special Committee on Soil Strength and Constitutive Relation, CISMGE-CCES, and member of the Special Committee on Rock Mechanics, and member of the Chinese Hydraulic Engineering Society (CHES). Members of the Defense Committee include Liu Yuanxue, professor and doctoral tutor of the Army Service Academy, new star of science and technology and excellent teacher of General Logistics Department (GLD), leading scientist of Chongqing Municipality and Director of Chongqing Municipal Key Laboratory, Yu Wenbing, research associate and doctoral tutor of Chongqing Jiaotong University, Xu Guangxiang, professor and doctoral tutor as well as Liang Yue, professor and doctoral tutor. The Secretary of the Defense Committee is assumed by Qiu Zhenfeng, associate professor of Hehai College. The experts attended the online defense meetings held in Nanjing, Lanzhou and Chongqing.

       To ensure "on-time defense despite the delayed beginning of term”, the Graduate School, based on extensive research and demonstration, laid out a complete online defense scheme and implemented the two-level (university and school) defense supervision system to effectively guarantee the quality of online defense. This was the first online defense held by the university during the epidemic. Both university and school supervisors attended the defense meeting. The defense also attracted nearly 50 students and teachers of Hehai College engaged in relevant fields. The procedures were the same for online and offline defense. Huang Shiyuan, a doctoral student, first made a 40 minute statement on the research work finished during the doctoral phase and then summarized the innovative achievements in the doctoral thesis, with every question asked by members of the Defense Committee answered immediately and one by one. After that, the sitters-in left the meeting room. The Defense Committee developed the defense decision via online discussion and took a vote by secrete ballot on SO JUMP. Finally, the Defense Committee unanimously accepted the doctoral thesis defense of Huang Shiyuan and granted him the level of doctor of engineering. This online thesis defense, which lasted for two hours, was performed in rigorous process and good order, and achieved an ideal result.  

This defense meeting marks a reform of the university on the mode of defense, which creates a better platform and opportunity for the university to advance the cultivation of doctoral students, especially in terms of thesis defense. Therefore, this new practice significantly advances the university’s effort in carrying out international and domestic evaluation on doctoral theses and cultivating high-level talents according to rigorous international and domestic standards. In comparison with the traditional mode, the online defense of doctoral thesis will create a new platform for domestic and foreign colleagues to discuss and exchange opinions at depth and thus has important significance for promoting the meeting of ideas and the exchange of academic achievements.

Nearly 1000 graduate students of the university will have their graduation defense in this term, who can freely choose online or offline defense depending on their actual conditions during the epidemic. The Graduate School will draw on experiences from this defense meeting and actively cooperate with other schools to further improve the online defense scheme, with multiple measures taken to improve and guarantee the quality of online defense and postgraduate theses.