The ‘Two characteristics and one dimension requirements’, that is, advanced, innovative and challenging, are the construction standards for undergraduate courses in the new era. College physics is a core course in science and engineering majors. The course content covers various branches of basic physics, such as force, heat, light and electricity, aiming to improve the scientific literacy of undergraduates. Building university physics courses upon the basic requirements and improving the quality of course teaching will help meet the needs of cultivating science and engineering professionals in the new era. In this article, based on the specific practice of thermodynamic courses of college physics, we discusse how to integrate cuttingedge research content to enhance the features of university physics courses being advanced, innovative and challenging and to better cultivate students scientific literacy and innovation awareness.