Meet Yonghao Yang

Continuing to meet the students in MSPI. Now we meet Yonghao Yang, who is in his final year of the MSPI programme.

Where do you come from?

I come from Shanghai, China.

Where did you do your bachelor degree?

I did my bachelor in Shanghai polytechnic university and BTH. It is an exchange student programme. So I have bachelor degree in both school.

Why did you choose MSPI and BTH?

The fourth year of my bachelor, I come to Sweden as an exchange student. By then, I travelled a lot, and I always have a question in my mind. Why most of the European countries are developed countries. And some of them are considered as the most developed countries in the world. But the people live in there are somehow “lazy” for me. They don’t really work so much and they don’t really master some extraordinary skills. Compared with them, students and workers in China works day and night. They struggled every day to improve themselves. I always wondering what caused this. I think I have some clue about this problem.

The problem is not about how advanced the technology is. Technology can be easily learned and implemented. The essential part is the system. What I saw here is, the school is closely connected with the company, suppliers are closely connected with the manufacturer, and each part is supporting another part in a way. Different from the pure technology, the system need generations to transform. In my country, we don’t lack of good engineers. That is why I chose the MSPI. I want to be the one guild the system and develop it into a virtuous cycle.

How are you finding the MSPI experience and your time at BTH so far?

The experience in MSPI studying is totally different from the studying experience I had before.

The campus is beautiful and cosy, the lessons are not so difficult. The most different experience here is that all the theory is teach with practice. There are plenty of projects that student can test their skill.

What has been your favourite course so far, and why?

I cannot remember the course name. But there are some concepts I find interesting. First is the sustainability. This is a new concept for me, and it is also a big challenge for my country. Second is the PPS concept of course, it is the main part of the program. I think the concept of PSS and the system under it can somewhat answer the question I mentioned above.

The key areas for the program is Sustainability/sustainable development, Product-service systems and Innovation. How do you think engineers can benefit from mastering these perspectives?

The importance of sustainability is very obvious I think. For the product-service system and innovation, I think it is a way to guild us to move towards success more strategic way

Why is this essential for companies to take these views into consideration?

As for me, the modern society is changing rapidly and those company will fail if they are not prepared enough for the challenge. Sustainability problem will have a huge impact for the industry that need the supply of the nature resources. And PSS is one way to reduce the impact of the sustainability problem. What more, it is a way to accommodate the company to the changing market. The traditional “produce and sell product” is becoming more and more difficult. And the PSS is a new marketing model.

What is the main challenge in this field in the future?

As far as I know, one challenge of this field is lacking of some detailed and well defined theory. It will be nice if we can have some quantitative measurements in this course. Take the example of sustainability. The basement of the sustainability concept is the sustainability principle I think. But I don’t really think that 8 principles well explained the concept. Do not systematically increasing the concentration of the substances extracted from the earth crust. But how much increase is systematically increasing, it is impossible to have zero extraction, and it is also pointless to say we reduce as much as we can. Everyone want to more towards sustainability will do it. What we really want is a strategic way to accomplish sustainability more efficient. So I think a mathematic model of the problem will be helpful. May be some study of the overall resource storage, and the usage per years. Quantify the result, so we can have a guild line to test what is real sustainability. How much effort the company or the society should make to be sustainable. For instance, if the fire generation station reduce their 90% of emission. They still contribute a lot to the air pollution. If we put anywhere a solar panel in a farm, it is expensive and does not really make any difference. The farm don’t have much pollution at first place. I think there is or there should be a value of threshold as the goal we want to step over. The research should be done and teach to the student. Otherwise, whatever we do, it is just we think it will be sustainable. As for me, most of the time I don’t know how sustainable the idea is or is it sustainable at all. If we have the sustainability principles like a formula we can use, I think it will help a lot.

The same suggestion for PSS as well. If a company wish to implement PSS, to how much extent service-oriented the company should be to have a better result. I think it will be helpful if there is research study all the company implemented the PSS concept, and analysis their performance. Analysis the outcomes and risks. Generate the value of expectation. Then we have a better vision of the result of PSS.

In your opinion, what is the most important thing the education programme should focus on? Why?

As for me, the education programme should clearly know what is the role their student going to be in the society. As a researcher or a worker. The teaching method should be different.

What would be your dream job after graduating from MSPI?

I think I want to be a design team leader in product development department in a company.

What do you see yourself doing in 5 years from now?

I think I will be back to Sweden for my Nobel Prize towards Economics in Stockholm.  When I standing on the stage, I will say “thanks BTH for give me such opportunity to study PSS”. Of course this only happens if PSS or sustainability is categorize in economics.

What kind of hobbies and activities do you enjoy in your spare time?

In my spare time. I usually play a lot of games. Computer game, online game, video game. Also, I like reading, especially SI-Fi. I am writing my own novel as well. And sometimes some academic reports on the topic I interested in. for example, mathematic and physic. It is so much fun to test the scenario in the fiction or report using numbers and figures. And see how they changed my life view point.