Harbin Institute of Technology's (HIT) 11th group wedding for doctoral students which was held on a campus lawn on May 31, 2026 Photo: HIT's official WeChat account

Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) recently held a group wedding for 187 couples, offering its own version of tech-powered romance by presenting the newlyweds with one-carat diamond rings made of diamonds independently developed by the university's research team, China Central Television (CCTV) News reported on Tuesday.

The ceremony, HIT's 11th group wedding for doctoral students, was held on a campus lawn, according to a post on the university's official WeChat account on Sunday. With a record number of couples taking part, the wedding also became an online event, drawing more than five million views.

For this year's wedding, HIT prepared one-carat "True Heart" diamond rings for the couples, with the diamonds independently developed by a team led by Professor Zhu Jiaqi. According to CCTV, Zhu described the lab-grown diamond process as "building blocks at the micrometer scale." A mixture of methane and hydrogen serves as the "nutrient solution," and under the excitation of microwave plasma, gas molecules break down into active atomic groups. Carbon atoms then arrange themselves layer by layer on the surface of a "seed crystal," gradually growing into a pure single-crystal diamond with extremely high hardness and chemical stability.

Compared with naturally formed diamonds, HIT's ones are larger in size and cover a wider range of types. They can be used in diamond batteries, quantum sensing and heat dissipation for high-power chips, showing broad application prospects in various fields, CCTV reported.

Launched in 2013, HIT's group wedding for doctoral students has become a signature campus tradition. So far, 803 couples have tied the knot at their alma mater, witnessed by teachers, families and friends, according to the university.


Global Times