At 19:00 on the evening of 7 October 2023, in the No.1 Lecture Hall of Science and Technology Building, Yuehai Campus of Shenzhen University, Professor Chen Xiangsheng, President of the College and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, gave a lecture entitled "Introduction to Large Civil Engineering - What Can Large Civil Engineers Do?" to all the new students of the College of the class of 2023, which was presided over by Vice President Yang Lei and Distinguished Professor Huang Shaopeng. Yang Lei, Vice President of the College, Huang Shaopeng, Distinguished Professor, representatives of young teachers, and 2023 freshmen attended the lecture, which was presided over by Yang Lei, Vice President of the College.

Academician Chen Xiangsheng's presentation consisted of three main parts. The first part was "Engineering, Knowledge and Engineering Knowledge". Academician Chen gave an accurate definition of civil engineering from the definition, connection and difference of the three different concepts of engineering, knowledge and engineering knowledge, and told the students that modern civil engineering is constantly creating a brand-new material environment for the human society, and has become an important part of the modern civilisation of the human society.

The second part was "The beauty of civil engineering and the current development of China". Academician Chen started from the representative buildings in ancient times, combined with the great civil engineering achievements in the modern world, especially in China in recent years, and led the students to fully appreciate the beauty of great civil engineering in a few minutes. He also discussed the operation law, development mode and development direction of the civil engineering industry, pointing out that civil engineering construction in Mainland China is moving from large-scale construction to a world-leading development mode of green, carbon reduction and resilient construction.

The third part was "History and Changes in Civil Engineering Development". Academician Chen introduced the three leaps in the development history of civil engineering over the past thousands of years. At the same time, he pointed out that the traditional civil engineering is experiencing the fourth leap, that is, the cross-border empowerment of "digitalisation + artificial intelligence + various types of perception + related disciplines", and will form a new generation of civil engineering with flesh and blood, with perception, with early warning and with immunity - digital civil engineering.

The report greatly stimulated the professional interest of all the students present. In the dialogue session after the presentation, many students raised their questions to Academician Chen on the study method in undergraduate stage, the career direction of this major, and graduate studies, etc. Academician Chen answered their questions patiently and meticulously.

Finally, this lecture was successfully concluded with the warm applause of the audience.