According to media reports, several universities have recently announced the first batch of engineering PhDs who have applied for and been awarded doctoral degrees based on their practical achievements. On December 15th, Northwestern Polytechnical University announced that Huang Lingcai, the chief designer of the AG600 series and a 2020 doctoral student, has been awarded a doctoral degree in engineering after being reviewed and approved by the university's degree evaluation committee. He has become the first engineering doctoral student at Northwestern Polytechnical University and one of the first in China to apply for and receive a doctoral degree based on practical achievements. In addition, Tsinghua University, Chongqing University, and Xi'an Jiaotong University each have one engineering PhD candidate who applied for and was awarded a doctoral degree based on their practical achievements. For a long time, the main basis for applying for and awarding graduate degrees has been the thesis. In scientific research evaluation, using the number of papers and the level of published journals as criteria for judging students' academic abilities is not conducive to cultivating students' scientific research and academic abilities. On January 1st of this year, the comprehensively revised Degree Law was officially implemented, which for the first time listed "practical achievements" and "thesis" as the basis for degree awarding at the legal level, providing strong legal support for breaking the evaluation shackles of "only thesis" and promoting the reform of the training mechanism for graduate students. The achievements of the four doctoral degree holders in the field of engineering fully demonstrate the rationality and feasibility of using practical achievements as the basis for degree awarding. The achievement of a PhD in relevant engineering from Tsinghua University is the research and application of equipment for dust removal and arc melting reduction separation technology in steelmaking electric furnaces; The achievement of a PhD in engineering from Chongqing University is the development and application of anti-oxidation coatings for high-temperature ultra supercritical steam turbine valves; The achievement of the engineering PhD from Northwestern Polytechnical University is the development of a large-scale firefighting amphibious aircraft firefighting task system... Some of these practical achievements have been successfully applied in dozens of coal-fired power units in China, while others have overcome some "bottleneck" technical problems. In summary, they have all made breakthrough scientific research progress in related engineering fields and achieved the transformation and landing of scientific and technological achievements. The importance of technological innovation goes without saying. As talents who focus on technology application, have the ability to solve complex engineering problems, and promote industrial innovation, the training and evaluation of engineering doctoral students are crucial to the high-quality development of multiple fields in China, such as electronics and information, advanced manufacturing, energy and environmental protection, biology and medicine. It is an inevitable need for the construction of an innovative country. The research achievements of engineering doctoral students should be closely integrated with the realization of technological progress and the promotion of industrial upgrading. The changes in the new evaluation system "baton" will help engineering doctoral students move towards effectively solving complex problems in their respective fields. A problem oriented research approach and solution path can provide important references for the transformation and implementation of more scientific and technological achievements. More importantly, the evaluation system for doctoral degrees is no longer solely based on academic papers, which is expected to break more conventions that are not conducive to talent cultivation and research level improvement. In addition to the engineering PhD mentioned earlier, as of December 10th this year, there are 59 engineering masters who have obtained their degrees through practical achievements. We look forward to more and more graduate students obtaining degrees through practical achievements. (New Society)