摘要：5月19日，哥伦比亚大学工程学院 Class Day典礼如约而至，视频中，华裔学生代表Andrew Yang（BS’25）身着学术礼服，从台下一步步走向讲台。他接过Applied Physics Faculty Award（Illig奖）与Valedictor

5月19日，哥伦比亚大学工程学院 Class Day典礼如约而至，视频中，华裔学生代表Andrew Yang（BS’25）身着学术礼服，从台下一步步走向讲台。他接过Applied Physics Faculty Award（Illig奖）与Valedictorian证书后，自信地面向台下观众发表致辞。

当他穿着游戏角色服装喊出“我们正如汪洋大海，注定要掀起巨浪”，突然也就读懂了其中的含义：不是冰冷的公式，而是用激光照亮原子，用幽默化解焦虑，用冒险连接彼此。

文章转载自：留学生研究社

作者：梁晓轩

点击观看视频

Andrew Yang的演讲，正如理工男该有的模样——

真实而不做作：直抒所思，无需刻意煽情；

自然且有趣：偶有轻松笑料，既展现专业性，又让人听得下去；

英文流利、自信满满：条理清楚、停顿得当，让听众感受到他对学术话题的驾驭力；

没有虚假的情感堆砌，也没有刻意的煽动式高潮，有的只是从科研细节里流露出的“自然而有温度”的感染力。这样的演讲，既让同学们看到他作为“双料学霸”的学术实力，也让现场每个人体会到——真正有趣的灵魂，不需要矫揉造作。

荣誉头衔

Andrew Yang（BS’25）和 Jennifer Oettinger（BS’25）分别被评为2025届工程学院的毕业生致辞代表（Valedictorian）与贺词代表（Salutatorian）。

Andrew 兼修应用物理与应用数学双学位，也是本年度Illig Award（应用物理系教师奖）的获得者；Jennifer 主修计算机科学，辅修应用数学与经济学。

两位毕业生将在5月19日的Class Day典礼上接受全院嘉奖。

学术与科研方向

Andrew 的研究兴趣集中在物理、数学与计算的交叉领域。

他曾与应用数学助理教授Xuenan Li合作，从设计LSTM模型到寻找周期奇异结构；

大部分研究工作与材料科学及应用物理/数学双聘教授Simon Billinge合作，专注于从高通量衍射数据中开发快速算法和程序，用以探测材料结构的变化。

他和Billinge教授已经将这些技术带到三大洲的beamline站点进行实际应用测试。

学术交流与教学经历

Andrew 是首位以本科生身份受邀在Bruker-AXS / MIT Symposium上发言的哥大学子。

他积极参与科普与教学：在SHAPE项目中与Sinisa Vukelic教授一起为当地高中生教授计算机辅助设计（CAD）；作为助教，与Xuenan Li教授共同讲授动力系统课程，并与Nakul Verma教授及Billinge教授一起为哥大本校学生传授机器学习在材料分析中的应用。

毕业后他将前往加州理工学院（Caltech），继续通过中子衍射与机器学习（尤其是对原子间势的研究）来探索材料结构与行为。

图源：哥大

演讲原文及翻译：

Thank you! Dean Morrison.

谢谢你，莫里森院长。

Every good ceremony places its best speeches at the beginning and the end which is why I'm speaking in the middle of our class day.

每一场精彩的典礼都会把最好的演讲安排在开头和结尾，这就是为什么我在我们年级庆典的中间发言。

And to be honest, that’s fair. When I look at this crowd, I see students pioneering clean energy. Ridding plastic from our oceans. We have a real-life Stark lab featured recently in a Veritasium video.

说实话，这也挺合理的。当我看着在场的各位时，我看到的是正在探索清洁能源的学生，正在从海洋中清除塑料的学生。我们还有一个现实版的斯塔克实验室（注：即漫威电影中钢铁侠的实验室），最近还登上了 Veritasium 的视频（注：知名科学类 YouTube 频道）。

Students using machine learning to explore the quantum world. And working with NASA to launch a freaking satellite to space.

我们当中有人使用机器学习探索量子世界，有人正在与 NASA 合作，把一颗卫星发射到太空。

Despite all of these amazing people who could be up here today. They chose the dork with the Among Us keychain—that you’ve probably never seen outside of class.

尽管有这么多优秀的人都可以站在这个讲台上，他们最后选了那个挂着《Among Us》钥匙扣（注：一款太空狼人杀类游戏）的人，也就是我——你们可能在课外从没见过我。

For those of you who've had me as a T.A. though, watching me yap up here probably isn’t strange. You know I love lecturing and could very well spend the next 45 minutes glazing Euclidean distance matrices.

不过对那些我当过助教的人来说，看到我在台上唠叨大概也不算陌生。你们知道我喜欢讲课，我甚至可以在接下来的45分钟里讲欧几里得距离矩阵。

But the best part about teaching here at Columbia is seeing how we all interact so differently with the same material. And I think this is representative of Columbia as a whole.

但在哥伦比亚教书最棒的一点是，看见大家用完全不同的方式去理解同一份内容，我觉得这正是整个哥大的写照。

Now, don't fact-check me but not only does our class represent all 50 states, we represent almost half the countries.

虽然别急着去查证，但我们的这一届不仅代表了美国所有50个州，还代表了全球几乎一半的国家。

We come from the biggest cities to the smallest towns and a fifth of us are the first in our families to even attend—let alone graduate—university.

我们来自最大的大都市，也来自最小的乡镇。有五分之一的人，是家中第一个上大学、甚至第一个完成学业的人。

Yet together as one class. We struggled through introductory physics, bared through the insane heat waves in our dorms, pulled all-nighters to finish our Art of engineering projects and spent hours in Butler how to add just one more page to our Music Hum essays.

而我们，作为一个集体，一起熬过了物理入门课，一起在宿舍里忍受疯狂的热浪，为了“工程艺术”项目通宵达旦，也曾在巴特勒图书馆里思考该怎么在“音乐人文”论文里多写一页。

So I want to share a bit about my background and how it shaped my perspective here. Now I know we're all excited to graduate and finally be free of classes. But unfortunately, I'm going to put you through one last lecture.

所以我想分享一些关于我的背景，以及它是如何塑造我在哥大所持的视角。我知道我们都很兴奋即将毕业，终于可以摆脱课程了。但不幸的是，我还是要再给大家上一堂“课”。

My research is all about how materials look on the nano scale. So current microscopes aren't powerful enough to see the individual atom, so we have to be a little more creative and we shine lasers on them.

我的研究是关于材料在纳米尺度下的样貌。现有的显微镜还不足以看到单个原子，所以我们必须更有创造性——我们会用激光照射它们。

So it's kind of like when you shine a laser on a mirror and the direction the laser bounces tells you the angle the mirror is oriented.

这有点像你用激光照镜子，激光反射的方向会告诉你镜子的朝向。

But no real-world mirror is perfectly smooth so if you turn off the lights and use a strong enough laser, you can see not only a bright dot where the reflected light lands but also small fluctuations in light.

但真实世界中的镜子并不完全光滑。如果你关上灯，用足够强的激光，你不仅能看到反射光落下的位置出现一个亮点，还能看到一些光线的细微波动。

These minute ripples tell us what atoms compose our mirror and where the defects are.

这些微小的波纹告诉我们镜子是由哪些原子构成的，哪里存在缺陷。

The tiniest waves are the most important—waving hi in orientation week to some of your now closest friends, tearful waves goodbye to your family after convocation—who have hopefully rejoined you on this day.

而最微小的波纹往往最重要：迎新周时你向现在最亲密的朋友挥手致意；开学典礼之后，你含泪向家人道别——他们今天或许已经在台下重新与你团聚。

Shout out to my mom, dad, my grandfather, my grandmother, and my sister Annie who’s just starting high school—no pressure, alright!

在此我要特别感谢我的爸爸妈妈、爷爷奶奶，还有我的妹妹 Annie，她刚刚升入高中——别有压力哈！

Sound waves of applause at our amazing performers and learners from waving flags to wavy tides at the free kayaking sessions downtown. We make these waves every day from the interactions and time we spend with each other.

掌声的声波送给我们优秀的表演者和学习者。从迎风飘扬的旗帜，到市中心免费皮划艇活动中荡起的波浪（注：哥大周边的社区活动），我们每天都在通过彼此的互动和陪伴制造这些“波动”。

In 1807, Joseph Fourier showed how waves can combine to form beautiful functions. Our interactions combine to form this beautiful community.

1807年，约瑟夫·傅里叶展示了波动如何叠加成美丽的函数。我们的互动，也共同构成了这个美丽的社区。

When you think back at the time you spent here, what's going to stick with you?

回顾我们在这里度过的时间，你会记住什么？

Well. Sure, the horrors of a machine learning midterm are probably never going to leave you.

也许，机器学习期中考试的恐怖记忆将永远挥之不去。

But I'm certain it's also filled with unplanned urban explorations, watching sunsets on the Brooklyn Bridge, losing four buy-ins in five hands of Hold'em, and making an Among Us-shaped candle for white elephant.

但我相信你们记得的还有很多：临时起意的城市探险、在布鲁克林大桥看日落、五局德州扑克输了四局、以及为“白象交换礼物”（注：White Elephant，一种圣诞趣味礼物交换游戏）制作了一个《Among Us》蜡烛。

展示他的小蜡烛

All of these with friends by your side.

而这一切，都有朋友相伴。

While we have some of the most rigorous courses, access to lucrative internships and the best research laboratories, what really makes us us is our commitment to each other.

虽然我们拥有最严苛的课程、最好的实习机会和一流的实验室资源，但真正定义“我们”的，是我们彼此的承诺。

After all, our slogan is not just engineering, but engineering for humanity.

毕竟，我们的口号不只是“工程”，而是“为了人类的工程”（Engineering for Humanity）。

And Columbia engineers—engineers—are particularly well versed in the humanities.

而哥大的工程师们，尤其擅长人文学科。

So I'm going to Caltech for my PhD—shout-out to Brent's lab who are hopefully on live right now.

我即将去加州理工学院攻读博士学位，顺便向 Brent 实验室打个招呼——希望你们现在正在看直播。

And when I went to visit LA I got lost late at night looking for Union Station and I asked a stranger at the bus stop for directions and ended up sitting next to him on the bus.

我去洛杉矶参观的时候，深夜在找联合车站（Union Station）时迷了路。我向公交站的一位陌生人问路，最后我们一起坐上了同一班车。

We chatted a bit before our conversation turned to the syllogisms and the Nicomachean Ethics and he was impressed that Columbia taught us so well about Aristotle that he offered to take me out for dinner and, well, sure!

我们聊了一会儿，话题竟然聊到了三段论和《尼各马可伦理学》（注：亚里士多德的伦理学名著），他对哥大居然把亚里士多德教得这么好感到震惊，于是提出请我吃顿饭——我也答应了。

I could have ended up without my kidneys and in an ice bath it turns out he was a former sociology professor and we engaged in one of my most exciting debates about what it means to belong somewhere all because I went screw it, I'm in.

说实话，我可能本来会在冰浴中醒来发现自己少了一颗肾（笑），但事实上，他是一位前社会学教授，我们进行了一场我人生中最精彩的辩论之一，主题是“归属感意味着什么”。而这一切，只因为我当时想的是：“算了，我冲了。”

Which brings me to my final point—the importance of taking risks splashing through the ripples of uncertainty.

这也引出了我今天想讲的最后一个观点：冒险的重要性——去踏入那些不确定的涟漪。

While this mindset has led to unpleasant situations like being detained in Japan during midterms week and googling symptoms of beaver fever after drinking water from a creek—hear me out.

当然，这种心态也让我遇到过一些不太愉快的情况，比如期中周被困在日本、喝了溪水之后疯狂上网搜索“贾第虫病”（Beaver Fever，注：由污染水源引起的腹泻病）的症状……听我解释，

I wanted to try the cold spring up at Cold Springs so I...don't do it,

我只是想试一下 Cold Spring 那边的冷泉而已——别去试啊！

but taking these risks has also allowed me to explore amazing physics across the Pacific Ocean, become the first undergraduate speaker for the Bruker / MIT Symposium, and wear a video game costume for graduation speech!

但也正是因为这些冒险，我才得以探索跨越太平洋的奇妙物理，成为 Bruker / MIT 研讨会（注：Bruker为德国科学仪器公司，MIT即麻省理工）历史上首位本科生发言人，还能穿着电子游戏服装在毕业典礼上演讲。（此处Andrew突然解开长袍，露出游戏服装，引发观众爆笑）

Thank you.

谢谢大家！

One more—despite all of this, sorry.

等一下，还有一句——不好意思。

Now, more than ever, it feels difficult to take risks, especially when it feels like the whole world is watching and there's always something we can lose.

如今，冒险比以往任何时候都更难，尤其是当我们感觉全世界都在看着自己，而我们总有可能失去点什么的时候。

Despite this I'm confident our class is exclusively qualified to overcome any hardship.

但我相信，我们这一届，有着独特的能力去克服任何困难。

During our end stop, our campus flooded from the rain but rather than hiding away we brought out a boat and Sea of Thieves’d our way outside of John J.

还记得我们迎新周时吗？当时校园因暴雨被淹。但我们没有躲起来，而是拉出了一艘船，像在玩《盗贼之海》（Sea of Thieves，注：一款海盗题材多人游戏）一样，从 John Jay 宿舍楼划出去。

We survived a pandemic stood with our families abroad and braved events other students may never face in their lives.

我们经历了疫情，与身在海外的家人并肩度过，也勇敢面对了许多其他学生可能一生都不会遇到的挑战。

We even spent a good portion of college without generative AI like. Is it crazy like we started our journey without Claude or Perplexity,

我们甚至在大学的大部分时间里，还没用上生成式AI。想想看，我们的大学之旅开始时还没有 Claude 或 Perplexity（注：两款热门生成式AI工具），

and now lolms have dominated our oh sorry... ehh...GPT says I'm out of free credits so I guess I have to close things off.

而现在，大语言模型（LLM）已经统治了我们的生活……哦，不好意思，GPT刚提醒我我的免费额度用完了——我得结束了。

We came here maybe not knowing about what the future would hold and definitely not knowing what these four years would bring, but we made it with the invaluable support of our friends and family.

我们来到这里的时候，也许不知道未来会怎样，更不可能预料这四年会发生什么。但在朋友和家人的支持下，我们撑了过来。

After weathering so many tides, we've made it to the crest of our college careers.

经历了这么多的风浪之后，我们已经站上了大学生涯的浪尖。

Look among us, class of 2025, we are seas and we're gonna make waves.

看看我们，2025届的毕业生——我们就是一片海洋，而我们注定要掀起波澜！（注：此处“seas”双关，既指“海洋”，也指School of Engineering and Applied Science）

Clap a little longer so I can put my robe back on.

掌声请再响一点，让我把毕业袍穿回去（笑）。

Thank you class, best class ever in the university, thank you, thank you, Ok, that's enough, alright, thank you so much sorry for the cheesy send off, but if you wanted a professional speaker you would have looked in the college.

谢谢大家，你们是这所大学历史上最棒的一届！谢谢！谢谢！好了，差不多了……真的，感谢你们。对不起结尾有点俗套，但如果你们想听一场专业的演讲，你们应该去文理学院（Columbia College）找人（注：哥大工程学院和文理学院为两大本科单位，此处为典型哥大式自嘲，视频中学生笑声即因于此）。

Now I'd like to invite Reid Ellison, class of 2008 and president of the Columbia Engineering Alumni Association to the podium.

现在，请允许我邀请2008届校友、哥伦比亚工程学院校友会主席 Reid Ellison 上台致辞。

🎉【诚挚邀约采访】

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来源：留学生Daily