Recently, the 9th "Leica Cup" National College Students Metallographic Skills Competition(NCSMSC) sponsored by the Advisory Committee of Materials of Higher Education, Ministry of Education,was held in Taiyuan, Shanxi. The representative team of HUAT won the  team second prize, Huang Zhekai won the individual first prize , Leida and Xu Zhipeng won the individual second prize respectively. HUAT won this honor again after many excellent prizes in the eighth competition last year.

It is reported that the National College Student Metallographic Skills Competition is the most important comprehensive event for materials subjects, and it has been officially included in the 2019 National College Subject Competition Ranking. Currently, it has become the competition with the highest professional specifications, the most complete system, and the widest coverage and influence in materials field.

873 contestants from 291 universities all over the country participated in the competition, including 60 contestants from 20 universities in Hubei (including Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, etc.). The competition is divided into three stages: preliminaries, semi-finals and finals. The preliminaries are organized by participating universities themselves, and the semi-finals and finals are held at Taiyuan University of Technology.

Contestants from our university arrived in Taiyuan, Shanxi on October 9, under the leadership of Zhang Hongxia Director of the Academic Affairs Office and Teacher Zhao Hongli from the College of Materials Science and Engineering. After a short period of adjustment and venue adaptation, three players from HUAT entered the finals. In the end, their performance ranked third among the participating universities in Hubei.

According to the announcement of the Competition Committee, the 10th National College Student Metallographic Skills Competition will be held in Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2021.