THE year 2021 marked the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the 20th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia Treaty of Good-neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, and the 5th anniversary of the establishment of Shenzhen MSU-BIT University (SMBU). In the past year, all SMBU students and teachers forged ahead and achieved remarkable results in various aspects. Here we highlight SMBU’s important moments in the year of 2021. Highlights On May 27, SMBU’s team was chosen as a finalist of 2021 Mathematical Contest in Modeling/ Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (MCM/ICM). SMBU’s other teams won four second prizes (Honorable Mention) and five third prizes (Successful Participant) in MCM/ICM. On June 8, SMBU was authorized to confer bachelor’s degrees in four majors — Russian, mathematics and applied mathematics, materials science and engineering, and international economics and trade. On June 26, SMBU held its commencement ceremony for the 2021 graduates, including the first batch of 100 undergraduate students. The employment rate of the 2021 graduates reached 94.79 percent, equivalent to the level of universities under China’s “Double First-Class” initiative. On Sept. 16, with support from Chinese and Russian governments, SMBU chartered a plane to bring over 80 Russian teachers back to campus, rarely seen in the country during the pandemic. On Sept. 23, SMBU held 27 events themed “Impression Russia” in 12 categories during the 17th China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair (ICIF) to showcase cultural exchange achievements between China and Russia. SMBU was the only university among the 67 subvenues across the city in the cultural fair. On Oct. 14, SMBU’s four majors, specifically mathematics, materials science and engineering, biology, and economics, were selected as key development disciplines in Guangdong Province’s new round of high-level university building plan. On Oct. 27, SMBU held a ceremony on its Longgang campus to mark the fifth anniversary of the university’s establishment and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Good Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation. On Oct. 31, a foundation stone laying ceremony for the affiliated kindergarten of Shenzhen MSU-BIT University (SMBU) was held. On Nov. 24, SMBU had three more majors — mathematics and applied mathematics, materials science and engineering, and international economics and trade — listed as first-level undergraduate majors in Guangdong Province. Together with the Russian major, SMBU now has four Guangdong first-level undergraduate majors. On Dec. 16, SMBU was awarded the Luban Prize, China’s top award in the construction industry. Achievements On March 17, the research paper co-authored by Chen Xinming, senior student from SMBU’s Faculty of Materials Science, was published in the journal Mendeleev Communications. On April 1, a paper co-authored by Che Yuqi, SMBU postgraduate student studying nanotechnology, was published in Scientific Reports, an open-access journal from the publisher of Nature. On April 20, a paper co-authored by Duan Jingtong, senior student from SMBU’s Faculty of Materials Science, was published in the international journal Nanomaterials. On June 10, a short video created by Qu Yingchao and Feng Yuyao, freshmen from SMBU’s Faculty of Language and Literature, won second prize in 2021 Russian Day and Russian Learning in the Digital Era Short Video Competition. Another two teams won the excellence award. On June 17, an SMBU project won the second prize of a competition of projects celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC among universities across Guangdong Province. On June 19, five student teams from the Faculty of Economics won first and second prizes at the Third Guangdong Comprehensive Game Experiment Competition of Economics for Universities in Guangdong Province Grand Final, the first time that SMBU students have won the first prize in the competition. Shenzhen MSU-BIT University (SMBU) is a nonprofit Chinese-foreign cooperative university jointly founded by the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government, Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) and the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). | 