Getting papers published in authoritative journals or writing a guide on doing scientific research — Zhang Bolin has accomplished tasks that other students seldom take on in college.
在专业期刊上发表论文，撰写科学研究指南，这些鲜有大学生能够完成的任务，张博林都做到了。
But the 24-year-old graduate student at the College of Precision Instruments, Tientsin University, believes that, rather than being a star student, he’s grasped the right way to do things.
这位24岁的小伙儿来自天津大学精密仪器与光电子工程学院。在他看来，自己并不是什么学霸，只是掌握了正确的方法。
Rough start
艰难伊始
When Zhang first entered university, he was still wet behind the ears. “I had the ambition and passion to make a difference, but I didn’t know how,” he says.
初进大学的张博林也是懵懵懂懂，他说那时的自己“虽然野心勃勃、热情满满想要有所作为，但是却不知道从何下手。”
He struggled in vain to find his way by being class leader and participating in various science and technology competitions. For months in his sophomore year, he felt stressed and frustrated because his college life met none of his expectations.
他为了竞选班长想尽办法，还参加了各种各样的科技比赛。到了大二，他却开始觉得处处受挫、筋疲力尽，因为他发现自己的大学生活早已不是曾经期待的样子。
“I was losing sleep,” he says. “Every night I would stare at the ceiling, thinking about a solution.”
他说，“那时，我一直在失眠。每天晚上盯着天花板，寻找出路。”
It wasn’t until he heard the story of the smart vehicle team at Shandong University that Zhang realized what he was doing wrong.
直到有一天，张博林听说了山东大学智能汽车小组的故事，他突然意识到之前的错误所在。
Breakthrough lesson
破茧之思
Shandong University has one of the best smart vehicle teams among Chinese colleges. The team’s secret is passing on their winning work from generation to generation. “That allows new team members to innovate upon the already mature technology,” Zhang says.
山东大学拥有国内大学里最优秀的智能汽车小组，而他们成功的秘诀就在于优秀成果的传承。张博林解释道，“正是这种精神，他们新的组员才能在成熟的技术上有所创新。”
He therefore told himself that innovation is not about creating new things, but making small adjustments to improve things that already exist.
因此，他觉得创新并不一定要发明创造新事物，也可以是对现有产品进行微小的改造升级。
It is the same with writing papers. “We can’t write something from nothing,” he says. “Instead, we should propose a better theory or practice based on existing achievements.”
他说，“如同写论文，我们不能凭空编造，而需要在当前成果的基础上提出更好的理论研究和实践方法。”
According to Zhang, his routine for writing a paper is finding a topic, doing lots of background research, and developing a challenging point. “Existing papers are published for a reason,” he says. “Learning from them can ensure I’m on the right track.”
张博林写论文的固定流程首先是寻找选题，通过诸多背景调查找到一个可以展开的方向。他认为，“凡存在皆合理，通过浏览已有的论文可以让我把握正确的方向。”
Simple approach
回归简单
Having struggled himself, Zhang understands how students feel about scientific research. “They think of it as a complicated mystery,” he says. But Zhang believes it is students who make it so complicated. “Put simply, doing research is like using the television – there’s no need to figure out how it works, we only need to know how to use it,” he says.
有过切身经历的张博林也十分理解同学们对于科学研究的看法，他说“他们总是把科研看作是复杂而神秘的存在。其实，让科研变得复杂的人正是同学们自己。简言之，做研究就像看电视，我们没必要知道他们的工作原理，我们只要会用就可以了。”
In the first chapter of his guide to scientific research, Zhang introduces Singlechip, a seemingly simple device that can be programmed to process certain functions. “Similar to watching television, there’s no need for students to grasp how Singlechip works. More important is understanding how to write the program so it processes the desired functions,” says Zhang.
在《科研指南》的第一章，张博林介绍了单片机，这是一种可以通过编程执行特定功能的简单系统。他说，“就像看电视一样，同学们没有必要掌握单片机的工作原理，学会如何编程使其执行你需要的功能才是最重要的。”
With such programming skills, students can do scientific research and even participate in science and technology competitions.
而只要掌握了编程技巧，同学们就能开展科学研究，甚至参加科技竞赛。