Since 2011, the Arcadia-Jiangsu Program has worked to promote international education, research collaboration, and student and faculty exchange. Over the years, the number of transfer students from Jiangsu University in China has included a total of 132 students, as of fall 2025.

This year, Siyuan Hong ’27 and Lei Liu ’27 have been awarded Presidential Scholarships, recognizing their outstanding academic achievements and commitment to global learning. In addition, Chengxuan Qian ’26 was awarded a Research Rising Star award for his achievements in undergraduate research.   

Hong and Liu, both juniors, were part of a cohort of ten students who came to the U.S. in July to complete their undergraduate degrees at Arcadia University. Siyuan is pursuing a major in Mathematics and minors in Psychology and Computer Science. Lei is working towards a dual major in Mathematics and Computer Science. The students were honored on November 5 for maintaining top academic standing in their program and being active members of the university community. Siyuan was most recently a guide on the ghost tour of the Castle during Homecoming and Family Weekend, while Lei was an expert carver of a Labubu Jack-o’-lantern at the Pumpkin Carving and Painting event hosted by the Division of Civic and Global Engagement for Halloween.  

Qian, a senior with a dual major in Mathematics and Computer Science, was also recognized for his accomplishments in undergraduate research focused on Multimodal Large Language Model Agents. He has authored 18 publications and preprints, with over 63 citations on Google Scholar, and attended several top-tier AI conferences. 

Chengxuan shared that “participating in these conferences has been incredibly enriching. I have had the opportunity to engage in discussions with leading researchers, attend inspiring keynote sessions from both academia and industry, and gain insights into the latest trends in AI. What impressed me most was the open and collaborative spirit of the community—seeing how rapidly ideas evolve through shared effort motivated me to keep pushing my own research forward.” In the future, he hopes to “advance the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) in the multimodal domain and bring them closer to real-world applications—ranging from intelligent agents and embodied robots to autonomous driving and medical diagnosis” and “develop models that are lightweight, trustworthy, and robust, making them more practical and beneficial in everyday human life.”

This year’s recipients are representatives of the effort that Arcadia University and Jiangsu University have made to foster mutual understanding and prepare students to thrive in an increasingly interconnected world.