Recently, the Central Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Education jointly released the list of the “Most Beautiful College Students” in 2021. Song Zhe, a 2019 doctoral student from the School of Information and Electronics at BIT, was among them. Only 10 students were selected nationwide.

She has won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Invention Award for her dedication to scientific research, overcoming difficulties, facing the major needs of the country, rooted in the field of satellite communication measurement, developing a number of key technologies and breaking through many bottlenecks in this field.

She actively embraced the development trend of the times and responded to the national call for “mass entrepreneurship and innovation”, and won the championship of the 6th China International “Internet+” Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition.

Let’s get closer to the “Most Beautiful College Student”--Song Zhe

/ Character Profile /

Song Zhe, female, is a PhD student in the School of Information and Electronics, BIT. Under the supervision of Professor An Jianping, a famous expert in the field of satellite communication in China, she has proposed many key technologies such as orthogonal decoupling measurement of communication arrays, arbitrary code rate modulation and demodulation, and multimode signal resolution methods, based on the national major needs of satellite communication measurement. She presided over the development of several satellite communication measurement devices to serve many national major space models such as Beidou and Tiantong. She is one of the youngest winners of the second prize of the National Technology Invention Award and the national champion of the 6th China International “Internet+” Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. She has applied for 63 invention patents, owned 25 software copyrights, and many patents have been applied in the Fifth Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Group and other units.

Overcoming a series of technical problems

She gave the satellite a “medical checkup”

During the development, launch and in-orbit operation of communication satellites, measurement is the quantification of the deviations that occur throughout the life cycle of a communication satellite. Satellite measurement, equivalent to a satellite “physical examination”, may produce deviations during operation, facing the complex space environment. Song Zhe’s measurement work is to be 36,000 km away from the satellite to diagnose exactly where the “sick”. Without measurement, the satellite cannot leave the factory, cannot go to the sky, cannot play a role. As a national symbol of science and technology of space engineering, the core measurement technology cannot be given, or be sold. It must be self-reliance and independent innovation.

As satellite orbital altitude can often reach thousands to tens of thousands of kilometers, a small deviation on the star will lead to a significant deviation from the ground coverage area. The prerequisite for small deviation is the high precision measurement of satellite communication. Under the premise of ensuring high accuracy, satellite communication measurement also needs to solve the problems of measuring equipment with single function, low efficiency and high price, that is we can’t measure, can’t measure fast and can’t afford to measure. This makes satellite communication measurement a recognized technical problem in the field.

Song Zhe debugging equipment in the laboratory

In the face of these problems, Song Zhe made breakthroughs, proposed a variety of new technologies, developed a number of equipment devices, to achieve a flexible and variable communication rate, a measuring instrument can measure hundreds of scenes. While ensuring the accuracy of measurement, the efficiency is of 100 times higher. Compared with similar foreign products, performance indicators significantly improved, but the price is only 1 / 10 of foreign products.

Song Zhe showing her innovation to aerospace companies

The above-mentioned satellite communication measurement devices have been used in many national major space models such as “Beidou” and “Tiantong”. These achievements have been highly evaluated by experts such as academician Wang Xiaomu, the winner of the highest national science and technology award, and other units such as China Satellite Communication Center and China Aerospace Science and Technology Group.

Is it difficult? Difficult! How can we call it “awesome” if it is not difficult?

There is no time when the road of scientific research is not difficult. For Song Zhe “difficult” is the norm, the problems faced are difficult, the process of solving problems is also difficult.

Song Zhe said, the difficulty of satellite measurement is that its accuracy requirements are very high, and the distance to the ground is very far. If you want to understand the satellite’s operating status, or fault location, you can only be done in the ground 36,000 km away. If the satellite in orbit operates for a long time, in order to do a good job of long-term maintenance, Song Zhe and team members need to do a full range of prediction at the beginning of the design. People engaged in engineering research often say two sentences, one is “absolutely safe”, and the other is “slight negligence may lead to great disaster”. Satellite engineering is a system engineering, a small link of error will influence the normal operation of the whole system. To ensure that nothing can go wrong, we must be comprehensive, careful to ensure that no one link can go wrong. Song Zhe’s daily efforts are to prevent “great disaster”, so as to ensure that “nothing can go wrong”.

Song Zhe (first from the left) discussing with team members

Song Zhe and her research team experienced a difficult time in the “Beidou” phased-array antenna measurement project. Song Zhe recalls, “Our country’s Beidou navigation system has very high time accuracy requirements, while the accuracy requirements of the measurement instrument are two orders of magnitude higher than Beidou.” Therefore, Song Zhe’s team was under tremendous pressure to overcome the problem. In order to overcome the difficulties, Song Zhe and his team went to the Xi’an Branch of the Space Academy and started a series of research and exploration.

They start working at 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. every day and return to their residence at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. They do experiments over and over again. ...... The sunrise and the moon are the only companions they have with them every day, and after repeated failures and attempts, they finally overcome the relevant technical problems and apply for several patents. The Fifth Academy of Aeronautics and Astronautics issued a certificate of application of the relevant patents, which concluded that the relevant technology had filled the gap of time delay difference measurement in the field of satellite communication and ensured the time accuracy of the “Beidou” satellite navigation system. Looking back on that time, Song Zhe said, “It was indeed a very difficult time, but it was also very worthwhile.”

Song Zhe and team members testing instruments

Song Zhe works almost 360 days out of 365 days a year, and every day she may face new scientific research problems, but she enjoys this “hard”, she said jokingly: “It’s because it’s hard that we have to do it, if it’s not hard, how can we be awesome?

Song Zhe and BIT

Since she entered BIT in 2005, Song Zhe has spent 16 years of her youth here, from undergraduate to master’s degree, to research assistant to doctorate. Song Zhe has a wonderful chemistry with the BIT. A young scientist was born here, who is a fiery but serious and low-profile researcher.

In 2005, Song Zhe was admitted to the experimental class of BIT with an excellent score of 627. Soon after entering the school, she joined the Experimental Base of Optoelectronic Innovation Education, and since then, the seed of science and technology innovation has taken root in Song Zhe’s heart. In her third year in college, she completed her project “Waste Battery Recycling Machine” and won the first prize in the Beijing Mechanical Innovation Design Competition, and advanced to the national competition with the 6th place in Beijing and won the first prize in the National Mechanical Design Competition. In 2009, Song Zhe was sent to BIT for graduate studies in the Communication and Network Laboratory and joined Prof. An Jianping’s team. In 2012, Song Zhe was awarded the university-level excellent master’s thesis award.

Song Zhe’s team won the “Second Prize of National Technology Invention Award”.

Since then, Song Zhe stayed at BIT as a research assistant to continue her research with her passion of satellite communication measurement. In 2019, Song Zhe started his doctoral studies at BITy. In 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission included “satellite internet”, “5G” and “industrial internet” into the “new infrastructure”. Song Zhe responded to the national call for “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” and started her exploration on the road of innovation and entrepreneurship. In the finals of the 6th China International “Internet+” Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, Song Zhe’s project “StarNet” was selected from 1.47 million projects from 117 countries and regions and 4186 schools, and won the national championship with a high score of 1310 points. She won the national championship.

Song Zhe in the finals of the 6th “Internet+” competition

Song Zhe bluntly said that she is a cheerful and outgoing person, and after coming to BIT, the red gene and fine tradition of the school deeply influenced her, “In BIT, we are talking about practicality and real work, only superficial work is not feasible here”. Professor An Jianping’s team has this slogan, “Vow to do amazing things, willing to be anonymous”, which Song Zhe always keeps in mind, she knows that the honor is an incentive, is the starting point of a new journey, not a capital to show off. She said, “Seeing my research results actually being applied is my happiest and proudest moment. This honor brings me infinite motivation, and I will continue to plow deep in the road of scientific research.” With years of practical experience in scientific research and the low-key and pragmatic style of BIT, she has gradually grown into a young scientist who is quiet, calm and willing to bend down to research.

In the future, Song Zhe will continue to be rooted in the field of satellite communication measurement, which she loves, and face the opportunities and challenges to make new explorations and attempts. Song Zhe said, “My goal is to serve important national research fields with my own innovations and achieve new breakthroughs, and make contributions to the country and the people.”

The road of scientific research is long and difficult, but Song Zhe believes that her love can withstand the long years, and she has no fear and no regret in the long journey ahead.