The “Carbon-Purifying Membrane Magic” team, led by Fan Xingshuo and Wang Shiling, two undergraduate students majoring in Energy and Chemical Engineering, won the National Grand Prize in the “challenge-based competition” track of the 19th “Challenge Cup” National College Students Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Works Competition. Their project, Machine Learning-Based Predictive Models for the Gas Separation Performance of Microporous Membranes, was developed by a team largely composed of students from non-AI majors. By bringing AI methods into chemical engineering research and targeting key bottlenecks in industrial R&D, the team demonstrated the vitality of interdisciplinary learning and student-led innovation in serving national strategic needs.
For years, the development of membrane materials has been constrained by long design–synthesis–testing cycles and high experimental costs. In particular, the relationship among membrane structure, gas properties, operating conditions, and separation performance remains difficult to predict accurately. Systematic AI-driven R&D workflows for gas separation membranes are still emerging. Focusing on gas membrane separation, an important technology for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS), the project addresses the limitations of traditional trial-and-error development.
The team integrated machine learning with membrane material research and developed a multimodal framework that links molecular structure with physicochemical conditions, together with a dual-space knowledge distillation strategy. They also built an interactive prediction and reasoning platform based on Qwen3-30B, enabling rapid performance prediction and decision support. Rather than replacing experiments, the platform helps screen candidate materials and operating conditions within seconds, thereby improving the efficiency of subsequent laboratory validation. The project is closely aligned with industrial needs and offers a practical student-led approach to the digital transformation of the energy and chemical sector under China’s dual-carbon goals.
As team leader Fan Xingshuo said, “Our original goal was to use interdisciplinary knowledge to solve real industrial problems and bring laboratory research closer to frontline application.”
The campus has continued to promote interdisciplinary education and provide systematic support for student innovation and entrepreneurship. The team’s college established a joint supervision group across disciplines and designed a tailored learning plan combining AI technologies with chemical engineering scenarios, helping team members rapidly build the skills needed for cross-disciplinary research. By integrating teaching, research, experimentation, and industry resources, the college provided the team with a full-chain training environment covering mechanism analysis, data modeling, experimental validation, and application-oriented exploration.
At the beginning of the project, the students were still struggling with thousands of lines of code. Over time, they learned to use tools such as PyTorch Lightning for model training and gradually shifted from a single-discipline mindset to systems-level interdisciplinary thinking. During the project, the team summarized its findings and published a related paper in a Q1 SCI-indexed journal.
Related paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0011916425009026
With this experience, Fan Xingshuo and Wang Shiling were recommended for postgraduate admission without taking the national entrance examination. They will continue their studies at the School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the School of Information and Communication Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, respectively. For the team members, “disciplinary boundaries are meant to be broken” has become more than a slogan—it is a shared lesson from their research journey.
The year 2026 marks a crucial stage in the digital and intelligent transformation of higher education and industry. Breaking traditional disciplinary boundaries requires both the courage of young researchers and the support of a well-developed education system. Looking ahead, the campus will continue to promote high-quality development through digital-intelligent innovation, deepen interdisciplinary education reform, integrate high-quality resources, and strengthen research platforms. These efforts will help students grow through cross-disciplinary innovation, cultivate more versatile talents who can serve national strategies and industrial needs, and contribute DUT’s strength to China’s dual-carbon goals and scientific self-reliance.
