Beijing Review

A VIRTUAL GOODBYE

Li Mengrong is among the 10 lucky graduates at the Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications who had their tassels turned by the university president—with the help of a robot.

Li joined the on-campus commencement ceremony remotely through the Internet, represented by a humanoid robot with Li’s “face,” which walked up to the university’s President Ye Meilan in the graduation gown to receive the diploma. The president and Li greeted each other virtually and Ye then turned the tassel on the robot’s graduation cap and handed the diploma to it. The video of the ceremony went viral.

The special ceremony was held not only as an opportunity for the school to showcase the robots developed by its students, but also because many graduates could not attend in person due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

For the class of

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