JI Juntao: the only undergraduate winner of Alibaba Centennial Technological Competition

[Message from the editor: JI Juntao (’20, information security) is one of the main characters featured in the newly released university video. Once confused but guided by his mentors, JI found his true passion in life during his undergraduate studies at ZJU. Let’s explore his story of curiosity and excitement.] 

                      JI Juntao (left) is working on a project with his team.

“I am among the first batch of students majoring in information security, and I had once thought that this major was about how to crack QQ passwords,” said JI Juntao, a member of the Class of 2020 majoring in information security at the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University.

After much hesitation, JI Juntao turned to two teachers—Prof. REN Kui and Prof. JI Shouling. “I asked them a lot of questions at that time, including my future development, my doubt about scientific research, etc.” said JI Juntao. “They answered many of my questions earnestly, and Prof. JI admitted me into the Network System Security & Privacy (NESA) Research Lab.” From then on, JI Juntao embarked on his journey of scientific research.

During that time, JI Juntao had to complete 30-38 credit hours every semester, and he also assisted LI Xurong, one of the upperclassmen in the lab, with the routine work of the lab. “It was rather time-consuming, but my efforts paid off. I got my first publication in the CCF-A journal and received a souvenir from Baidu AI Studio,” said JI Juntao. He was a sophomore at that time.

In his junior year, he still took many courses, and performed experiments in the NESA lab. And he also joined the MindBand team. “I think I am very curious and have a wide spectrum of interests, so I like to experiment with new things,” JI Juntao said.

MindBand is a piece of music software developed by JI Juntao and his team members. This AI-based software aims at improving composing efficiency, reducing costs in time and money, and providing inspiration for composers. JI Juntao was chiefly responsible for putting ideas into practice for the product group. With concerted efforts, the project clinched a gold medal in the 4th China College Students’ “Internet +” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. The research paper based on this project was accepted by ACM Multimedia, which is a premier international conference in the area of multimedia within the field of computer science. The MindBand team also set up Hangzhou Xinxian Technology Co. Ltd.

JI Juntao found his true passion in the MindBand project, but he never stopped trying new things. In his junior year, he entered Alibaba Cloud as an intern doing his research into the fault tolerance of middleware to ensure a fantastic binge-shopping experience for netizens during the Double 11 shopping spree. He engaged in the maintenance and improvement of the RocketMQ project, which is widely acclaimed by the industry for its high collection and usage rate on GitHub (a source code sharing platform for developers). He also participated in the Alibaba Centennial Technology Competition, and as the only undergraduate candidate, he led his team to win the championship in the technology category.

Not only did this internship give JI Juntao a sense of accomplishment, but he also honed his personal skills. However, when Alibaba offered him a job opportunity, he declined the offer because he was more determined about the road he would take. He was admitted to graduate school at Zhejiang University with flying colors and made up his mind to commit himself to AI-aided design.

“Fortunately, I consulted two teachers in my sophomore year and met LI Xurong. They opened the door for me in my research work and made me learn how to think like a researcher,” said JI Juntao.