From August 21st to 24th, the finals of the "Wei Rui Cup" 3rd National College Student Chemical Experiment Innovation Design Competition were held in Xiamen University, sponsored by the CCS and the National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center of the Ministry of Education. Affected by the COVID-19, the finals will be held online. After two days of fierce competition, the "Exploring the Secret of Light and Nitrogen (逐光氮秘)" team composed of 2019 chemistry majors Ma Kexing, Yang Junjie, and Chen Baicheng (instructors: Shen Yongwen, Hu Xiuqin) finally won the special prize. Lanzhou University students won the special prize in the competition for three consecutive times.

A total of 908 teams from 410 colleges and universities in seven competition areas across the country participated in this competition. After competing in different divisions in the early stage, 90 teams were recommended to participate in the national finals. In the end, 18 special prizes, 33 first prizes, 39 second prizes, and 8 excellent competition organization units were selected.

The entry "Photocatalytic [2+2+1] Cascade Reaction to Construct Dihydroimidazole Compounds and Its Mechanism Exploration" of the " Exploring the Secret of Light and Nitrogen " team comes from the work of Professor Xu Pengfei's research group. With the strong support of Professor Xu Pengfei's group, and after more than 100 times of experiment optimization and improvement, the three undergraduates transformed the series of scientific research achievements developed by the research group into experimental projects suitable for undergraduate experimental teaching. Through this experiment, students can learn about photochemical reactions, multi-component catalytic cascade reactions, free radical chemistry, etc., and deepen their understanding of reaction mechanisms and ionic intermediates. Moreover, students may have further proficiency in the operation of organic constant and micro experiments, and they will design and assemble simple photoreactors on their own, learn low-temperature anhydrous and oxygen-free experimental techniques, improve their ability to solve practical problems and independent exploration.

Previously, in the Northwest Division of the 3rd National College Student Chemical Experiment Innovation Design Competition held on June 24-26th, the "Precise Instrument with lithe and graceful^[1](精仪有曼) " team from Lanzhou University (members: Xu Xinxin , Ma Mengmeng, Wang Ran, instructors: Ye Weichun, Zeng Zhicong) and the " Exploring the Secret of Light and Nitrogen " team won the first prize in the Northwest Division competition. The "Jingyi Youman" team's entry "Construction of Raman Spectrometer and Application of Analysis and Detection of Flexible SERS Substrate" comes from the scientific research work of Associate Professor Ye Weichun and young researcher Zeng Zhicong. In this project, the students independently assembled and debugged the instrument components, applied the cutting-edge SERS technology to actual testing, deepened their understanding of the functions and principles of instrument components, strengthened the strong sense of mission for localizing analytical instruments, and learned about the composition and structure of materials for design and preparation of research ideas.

This competition has been highly valued and strongly supported by the Teaching Development Center and College of Lanzhou University. In order to ensure the smooth progress of this online finals, the instructor team carefully conducted regular guidance and discussions, prepared the equipment and venues required for the competition in advance, and organized students to mock defense for many times. The contestants cooperated, made full use of their spare time, overcame the unfavorable factors such as high-temperature weather and the influence of the summer epidemic, and devoted themselves to preparing for the competition. This competition fully demonstrated the solid foundation, strong practical skills and excellent comprehensive quality of chemistry students in our school.

The two winning experimental projects of this competition will be offered in the "Integrated Chemistry Experiment" course for chemistry majors in the fall semester of 2022. Participating in this competition is of great significance for deepening the teaching reform of chemistry major in our school, improving the teaching quality of professional core courses, and cultivating top-notch innovative talents in chemistry.

（Translated by Zhu Hanqing，proofread by Che Zheng）