The School of Materials Science and Engineering, ZJU has held a materials microstructure exploration contest since March of 2010. This contest follows the theme of exploring the microstructure of materials and uncovering sources of fascination. It encourages the students to innovatively express and reveal the fascinating world of materials microstructure using optical or electronic microscopes. This contest's goal is to improve the artistic tastes of any student majoring in science or engineering, including their art percipient, skills to express and ability to annotate the humanistic spirit, and enrich their humanistic connotations by the means of combining science with the arts while innovating fascinating works.
In 10th Microstructure Contest, many students beautify these microstructures of their materials into some animals – butterfly, whale, to name a few.