Ma Tao, a 25-year-old boy, was diagnosed with congenital severe neurological deafness when he was born. He did not admit defeat with a first-grade hearing disability, and relied on his tenacious perseverance to counterattack all the way. Not only did he pass the Anhui University of Technology, but he also achieved professional grades for six consecutive semesters. First, it has successively won many awards such as National Scholarship and National Encouragement Scholarship.
In September 2022, he successfully enrolled in Suzhou University majoring in integrated circuit engineering.
Recently, he shared his inspirational story on the school's new media platform, which touched the teachers and students of the school. Many people praised him: "Anyone who has a dream is great."
Yangzi Evening News/Ziniu News contacted Ma Tao and listened to him tell the story behind his growth.
He is currently in the last semester of his undergraduate career. On the one hand, he is nervously preparing for his graduation thesis, and on the other hand, he is preparing for the National Integrated Circuit Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in June.
He said frankly that he hopes to devote himself to the field of chip design in the future, and to manufacture more cost-effective and more comfortable hearing aids through mixed-signal ADC and other technical means, which can help more hearing-impaired people.
Yangtze Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Yan Chunxu
1. Hearing level one disabled, only 6 years old can be called "mother"
"When I was five years old, my mother called me, but I couldn't hear it. It was only after I went to the hospital for an examination that I found out that I had a hearing problem." Ma Tao, born in 1998, is from Suzhou, Anhui. The world has been silent since he was sensible.
He was diagnosed with congenital severe neurological deafness, with a hearing loss of 90 decibels in both ears.
Loss of hearing makes learning to speak extremely difficult.
Ma Tao clearly remembers that when he was in elementary school, he often went to the ENT department of the hospital, and he had been treated many times to no avail.
The doctor advised Ma Tao's parents: "Go back, it's useless to watch it any longer, and send it to a special school to learn sign language when you grow up." The doctor's words made Ma Tao's parents very sad, but they were unwilling to give up and swore secretly: " Children must be taught to speak."
Ma Tao still remembers the process of learning to speak.
He always keeps his eyes open to see other people's mouth shapes, and touches his mother's throat to feel the vibration of the vocal cords.
He learns simple syllables and shouts to the river. Even the simplest syllable requires tens of thousands of practice, feedback and correction.
When Ma Tao called out "Mom" for the first time when he was 6 years old, his mother wept with joy.
When he was 8 years old, he wore a hearing aid, and he could hear the sounds of the outside world vaguely, and he could express coherently. "My father even took me to the village to show off for this. I can feel his pride."
Ma Tao said that since he was surrounded by friends who had played since he was a child, he did not feel that he was different from others when he was young.
The persistence and love of his parents also deeply affected Ma Tao, and the care of friends around him warmed Ma Tao. He always reminded himself not to be a weak person.
So Ma Tao worked hard all the time in school, and got good grades in all subjects. During the college entrance examination, when he completely gave up English listening, he was lucky enough to be admitted to university and entered Anhui University of Technology to study light sources and lighting.
2. After being admitted to university, he became "the first row of nail households"
In October 2019, the first month after Ma Tao entered school, he felt confused, so he found his counselor, Mr. Chen Ken, to have a heart-to-heart talk.
During this conversation, Chen Ken knew about Ma Tao's situation.
Chen Ken said that freshman courses are mostly basic courses such as advanced mathematics, ideology and politics, and computers, and each class has more than 100 students.
"There are so many people, it is not easy for the teacher to find him. Ma Tao can't hear clearly in class, so he is worried that he will not get a good grade in the exam." Therefore, Teacher Chen Ken always communicates with other teachers carefully first.
After Mr. Chen learned that Ma Tao’s English performance was not good, he encouraged him: “If you want to be excellent, you must be excellent in all aspects, not only in professional courses, but also in English.” Encouraged by Chen Ken, Ma Tao Confidence built.
Ma Tao arrives at the classroom 10 to 20 minutes before each class. If it is a course like advanced mathematics, he will even go to the classroom half an hour earlier to grab a seat in the first row. His classmates jokingly call him "the first row of nails".
When there are many people in the class, Ma Tao needs to guess the content of the lecture by looking at the teacher's mouth shape. "If the teacher wears a mask, basically you can't hear anything in this class." However, he also has his own solution. Record it, then go back to the dormitory and put the phone to your ear to listen to it repeatedly until you understand it.
Hard work pays off, and Ma Tao's efforts have paid off.
There are 80 students in Ma Tao's major. He has ranked first in his major for six consecutive semesters, with an average credit score of 92 points, and nearly half of the courses have more than 95 points. Gao, he not only received various scholarships in the school, but also received national scholarships, national inspirational scholarships, etc.
Talking about the reasons for his excellent grades, Ma Tao said with a smile: "Preview before class, listen carefully in class, take notes, review more after class, and learn important content three times!"
3. Study chip design and spend all day in the laboratory
After the first semester, Ma Tao wanted to switch to computer science.
Teacher Ding Shoujun from the college took the initiative to persuade: "Don't change your major, come to my research group!" In this way, Ma Tao joined Ding Shoujun's optoelectronic functional crystal research group.
Hearing impairment could not stop Ma Tao from studying hard. He chose the direction of microelectronics, mainly researching chip design.
Since the laboratory equipment needs to run 24 hours after it is started, Ding Shoujun often leads the students to stay up late at the side of the single crystal furnace to observe the growth of crystals, and then go to the classroom the next day for class.
Ma Tao was deeply touched when he saw Teacher Ding's hard work, and he followed him to do experiments all night.
Ma Tao worked hard to learn the pulling growth of crystals, adjusted the growth temperature of crystals, and participated in experiments such as grinding and polishing of crystals after annealing. "Sometimes the grown crystals are not what we want, so we find various reasons and seal them around the container. Discuss the reasons of poor performance, crystal internal stress, etc., adjust various parameters, and after several failures, we have a satisfactory result.”
Through unremitting efforts, Ma Tao has successively won the second prize of the "Challenge Cup" National College Student Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Works Competition, the gold prize of the "Internet +" College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in Anhui Province, and many other awards. He also won the "Star of Self-improvement of Chinese College Students" Outstanding University Students of Anhui Province" and other honors.
In the summer vacation of 2022, Ma Tao did not go home, but stayed in the laboratory to study.
Teacher Ding Shoujun can see Ma Tao when he comes to the laboratory every day.
Ma Tao drew circuit diagrams, read books, and took notes in the laboratory, and did not return until very late.
Every night after 10 o'clock, when the doorman of the college building closes the door, Ma Tao can always be seen.
The uncle doorman has a lot of "opinions" and often reports to Ding Shoujun: "You are busy to the end every day!" Teacher Ding will always say with a smile: "I can't help it."
Ding Shoujun also often sighed: "He is in this state every day. As a teacher, I find it difficult to persevere. This perseverance is not something ordinary people can achieve."
4. Successful research, want to design hearing aids in the future
Because of his excellent undergraduate grades, Ma Tao had the idea of being a graduate student. "However, there are oral English questions and answers during the graduate student interview, which is quite difficult for me. Also, I am afraid that I may not be able to understand the teacher's questions. I feel quite embarrassed to ask the teacher to repeat the words several times. Although they will patiently say it again, it is especially embarrassing for me."
During the interview at Soochow University, Ma Tao was very nervous at first, afraid that the teacher would mention unfamiliar content, but when he walked into the examination room and saw that the interview teachers were very amiable, his mentality gradually relaxed.
In addition, Ma Tao made a lot of preparations before the interview, so he answered many questions fluently.
On September 28, 2022, he was successfully admitted to the School of Electronic Information, Soochow University, majoring in Integrated Circuit Engineering.
In fact, he has already won offers from many double first-class universities before, "I chose Soochow University because I like this major." Ding Shoujun is also very happy: "He likes chips and wants to develop in the direction of integrated circuits. His best choice. I choose a major that suits me, and I think this is a very happy thing.”
Ma Tao told reporters that he has a new dream in the new semester, "Because not long ago, I broke my hearing aid while playing basketball, and had to spend more than 10,000 yuan for a new hearing aid, and I could only wear it on the left ear and the right ear. It will be uncomfortable to wear in the ear. It suddenly occurred to me that I will study integrated circuit engineering. I hope that in the future I can devote myself to the field of chip design, and use mixed-signal ADC and other technical means to manufacture cost-effective hearing aids, which can help more hearing-impaired people. .”
Ma Tao said: "I think the most important task in college is to study hard. If I have enough spare time, I will participate in more competitions to exercise my skills." Ma Tao also wants to encourage hearing-impaired people like himself: "Don't care about other people's eyes. If you like to do something, you can work hard, don't give up, and believe that you will succeed in the end."