Yao Yueying, a 2021 graduate of UIC's Food Science and Technology Programme, has been admitted to a Master of Science programme in Food Science and Human Nutrition at the National University of Singapore.
Yao Yueying
On 15 June 2021, Yueying received an email from Food Chemistry, an international academic journal dealing with the advancement of chemistry and biochemistry of foods. The email congratulated her as her paper had been accepted for publication. Yueying's paper, New insights into chemical compositions and health-promoting effects of edible oils from new resources, was published in this journal. This paper was supposed to be the backup plan for her Final Year Project during the pandemic, and now it turned out to be the best graduation gift to herself.
Four years of college life that's "always on track"
Yueying chose UIC for its liberal arts education and the high concentration toward students. As she wished, Yueying managed to find her future career path after four years' study—scientific research.
As for Yueying's college life, she concluded that it was "always on track" because it went the way she had expected. Her suggestion for other students is to participate in more activities as a freshman, spend their holidays wisely by getting an internship, starting a hobby, or gaining a skill. Also, apply for an academic project to put everything they have learnt so far into practice as a junior and work hard towards their Final Year Project as a senior.
Yueying (right) won the Second Class Award in her second year of college and the First Class Award in her third year.
When Yueying was still a freshman, she participated in various activities. She once won the championship in UIC's freshman debate competition. After that, she did an internship in the customs of Nanping, Fujian, focusing on testing work.
Into scientific research
Yueying believes all the processes will be undertaken smoothly as long as there is an experiment plan. However, Yueying realised she was wrong after multiple practices since the experiment failed many times and required solid knowledge support.
Every time Yueying encountered failure, she always felt like "falling apart". The frustration once destroyed the confidence inside of her. However, holding a positive attitude is essential, said by her teachers and teaching assistants, and never lose faith. As a result, Yueying learned to adjust herself with a better performance in experiment with more careful operations and the patient guidance of teachers.
Yueying has learned a lot in the laboratory
In the second semester of her junior year, Yueying had the most "anxious" semester of her college life. Her research concentration for FYP was about compound plant protein, konjac gum, and making a prototype to test the physicochemical properties and organoleptic properties. However, Yueying, unable to return to campus because of the COVID-19 outbreak, was anxious about finishing the experiment on time. So Professor Xu Baojun, her supervisor, suggested she prepare a backup plan, that is, to work on a literature review for another topic while experimenting.
Yueying recalled a project she had been working on during the winter vacation. Her plan to study the chemical composition of edible oil from several new sources, including avocado seeds, jackfruit seeds and papaya seeds, had been put on hold due to laboratory constraints. Yueying decided to conduct her literature review based on this project.
After deciding to research two papers simultaneously, Yueying asked herself how she could manage the time wisely while there were still many classes to take. Therefore, she thoroughly used her spare time to read adequate academic papers to stick strictly to the schedule.
A screenshot of Yueying's paper published
Her efforts paid off. Yueying finished two papers on time. The backup plan was published as an SCI paper—New insights on the chemical composition and health promoting effects of edible oils from new resources. In this paper, the chemical constituents and health effects of oil extracted from the avocado seed, jackfruit seed, papaya seed, Sakya seed, pomegranate seed, cherry seed, and pumpkin seed were collected from popular databases such as Google Scholar and Science Direct from the past 20 years. The discovery of beneficial ingredients in these oils provides the possibility for the future development of using seed oil as a functional food for the prevention and management of various chronic diseases. This paper is now included in the top section of Food Chemistry.
Feeling grateful towards the teachers
Spending her four years in the lab makes Yueying pursue a postgraduate study at the National University of Singapore. She would like to thank all the teachers for giving her support and guidance. She also looks forward to exploring more in the field of scientific research.
Yueying described the FST programme at UIC as like a big warm family. She explains that the teachers put themselves in the student's position and actively help them if they encounter problems. Also, she admires the teachers who devote themselves to scientific research, and she hopes she can be like them one day.
From MPRO
Reporter: Li Ruifeng
Editors: Samuel Burgess, Deen He, Covee Wang
