After several months ofpreparation, the first MSRA-USTC Summer Camp, which was co-hosted by Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) and School of Information Science and Technology (SIST), USTC, finally ushered in its opening ceremony on Aug. 11th, 2011. Altogether 16 USTC students and 8 foreign students were picked out by IEEE Student Branch of USTC and IEEE China Office, to participate the activity. The 24 undergraduate and graduate students were from various countries including the United States, Spain, Nepal, Tanzania, Nigeria and China, etc. They spent five busy but fulfilling days together in Hefei and Yellow Mountain.

In the morning of Aug. 11th, the opening ceremony was held at the meeting room of SIST. Prof. LI Weiping, Dean of SIST, made a welcome speech and revealed the theme of the Summer Camp: Cultural Exchange and Teamwork. He encouraged the campers to try to understand different cultures in an open perspective so as to broaden their horizons. He also pointed out that it is important for the campers from different backgrounds to build effective teamwork so as to achieve the common goal.

After the speech, it was time for the campers to make their self introductions. They prepared well-designed display materials to introduce their hometowns, hobbies, characters, as well as their research interests. To motivate the awareness of teamwork, the 24 campers were randomly divided into 8 teams with two USTC students and one foreign student in each team. Three members from the same team should choose their own subject and finish the team project together. To support the activity, MSRA provided 8 Kinects – the newest Microsoft products, for the campers to research and develop.

The Summer Camp also arranged one day for the campers to take part in the Sixth International Conference on Image and Graphics (ICIG 2011). The campers listened to those wonderful academic speeches and learnt a lot of professional knowledge. Meanwhile, the campers spared some time from their tight schedule and prepared a public report together. In the morning of Aug. 13th, the campers showed their reports by group in front of Dean LI, Prof. LING Qiang, Prof. ZHU Zuqing, Prof. LI Ao and other teachers and students from SIST. Each report clearly showed the division of work within one team and brought forward many questions and hot discussions. At last, Dean LI presented some souvenirs to all the campers and had lunch with them together.