Chengxi recently completed her MSc at Loughborough through the Loughborough-China Materials Programme and as a master's student learned how to operate the characterisation instruments in the department. She credits this with improving her research skills and remains in the department today, now studying for her PhD. 

"I found that the University I studied in China has a programme with Loughborough University called LCMP (Loughborough-China Materials Programme). My major in China was Materials Physics, which is interdisciplinary, however, at that moment, my interest in materials gradually increased. I was thinking about majoring in materials instead of continuing the path of materials physics. After learning more about the Department of Materials at Loughborough, as well as the teaching quality and subject ranking for example, I realised that this was a good opportunity for me to change the current situation and to experience a whole new life. 

The teaching methods in Loughborough University and in China are not exactly same. Some lecturers have their own way of teaching. Simon Hogg for example, I really like the way he teaches. His lectures inspired me to think, and listening to his explanation of any points I was confused by after independent thinking have made the message conveyed in each lesson very efficient. It can be said that studying in Loughborough has changed my learning style and made it more efficient.

As for facilities, Loughborough gives me a good opportunity to operate the characterisation instruments such as XRD, SEM by myself instead of technicians. The University allows students, whether undergraduate or postgraduate, to be trained and use the instruments independently. This is definitely a very good experience for me to improve my research skills. Here you have opportunity to operate characterisation instruments by yourself even if you are a postgraduate student, not just PhD or research staff. With high teaching quality and good laboratory environment, you will seek the best research experience at Loughborough University.

I have a lot of support from the department, including mental health support from Dr Xujin Bao. As the programme leader, in my first year studying in Loughborough University, he met with us almost every week and asked about our adaptation to life in the UK. I also had lots of research support from my supervisor Dr Houzheng Wu. He pointed out the direction for my academic path, and is still my academic leader now. I've also received Technical Support from Dr Keith Yendall. His careful training and training and assistance in characterisation instruments have greatly helped my research project.

Regarding my career, in the future, I would prefer to be a researcher in a research institute or teach in a university. To support this career ambition, I am now working on a PhD degree in Loughborough University. I have been involved in a project about high entropy ceramics, which is also what my PhD working on. The part results of the structure characterisation of high entropy silicides done during my master's course have been published in a journal.

I was awarded Distinction for my MSc course and the Morgan Advanced Materials Postgraduate Award for my project."