The new university semester has yet to even begin, but Bai Haoran and Zhang Wanlin, both undergraduates at Tongji University in Shanghai, had spent much of last week burning the midnight oil.

The reason wasn't that they were preparing for an upcoming exam. Rather, they were rushing to craft a photovoltaic energy storage power box which they hoped to donate to relief efforts in Turkiye and Syria.

The two countries were on Feb 6 hit by 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that have killed more than 30,000 people and left millions homeless.

On Feb 9, Bai, who majors in building electricity and intelligence at Sino-German College of Applied Sciences of Tongji University, learned that mobile power sources were urgently required for rescue and humanitarian efforts through a list released by the Turkish Embassy in China. Having taken classes on photovoltaics and energy storage last semester, the 21-year-old quickly approached his classmate Zhang and drew up a plan to create photovoltaic energy storage power boxes.