1900: A physics genius wandering around Europe

Chapter 184 The Second Batch of Spark Project Members, Difficulties of the Science City

In Li Qiwei's vision, the goal of the Spark Program is to accelerate the level of science in the country.

Through his vision and knowledge for the future, China can avoid detours and complete the accumulation of talent and self-regeneration capabilities ahead of schedule.

The method is to start from one point and spread to the whole area, so that sparks can set the whole area on fire.

Use physics to drive other natural sciences, and spread them throughout China with Master Li Qiwei and his disciples.

The core of the Spark Project is He Yujie, Xia Yuancong and Xu Qitai.

The three of them are also the so-called first batch of veterans.

This ranking has nothing to do with age, it's purely based on who was coached by Li Qiwei first.

His original initial plan was to select talents from the country and then send them to the UK for further studies.

However, plans cannot keep up with changes. After he returned to China, he found that the country's scientific foundation at that time was not as bad as he had imagined.

Therefore, he decided to advance the Spark Plan with Huangpu University of Technology as the core.

He would select outstanding students from the first batch of undergraduates graduating from 1904 to 1908 as the second batch of members of the Spark Program.

Moreover, within four years, he would not enroll a new class of students every year like later universities.

This is a bit unrealistic in the current country.

Li Qiwei still needs to hone his education plan, and this class of students is just right as an experiment.

Once they have accumulated rich teaching experience, they can consider recruiting students every year.

Therefore, the first student union of Whampoa Polytechnic was a very unique one.

Because in the four years of the entire university, there will only be students from their class, there will be no younger classmates, and they will not be able to become seniors.

It's a lot less fun.

Next, the third batch of members of the Spark Project will be selected from the graduates of 1908-1912.

These two groups of members, like He Yujie and others, will be sent to various universities to teach.

Or maybe he will build a few more universities and absorb the problems internally.

He estimated that three batches of Spark members should be enough, and the rest was to select the best from the best and find real scientific research talents rather than teaching talents.

Ridgway did not intend to stay in the country until 1912 because the domestic situation at that time was too complicated and not conducive to his personal safety.

After returning to Europe, his biggest goal was to find a way to obtain a piece of land from the British as the base for the City of Science.

This is the core of all his plans.

During this era, almost every country in Europe had overseas colonies.

But in terms of size, Britain is the undisputed leader.

The several alternative locations that Li Qiwei had his eyes on were all British territories.

So no matter what, he couldn't get around the British.

He was also thinking about what bargaining chips he could use to make Britain agree to sell him a piece of land.

And the timing of establishing a science city is also important.

The first time point is before 1914, when the war breaks out. As long as Li Qiwei strictly maintains neutrality, there should be no major problems.

Of course, he would also find a way to have an armed force.

The second time point is after 1918, preferably in 1919.

In this case, there will be more than ten years of buffer time before the next war starts.

There are still 1931 years from now to 27, and Ridgwell is confident that he can develop an atomic bomb within these 27 years.

Even with his strong self-confidence, he sometimes feels a little tired.

This is really too difficult.

As a time traveler, he couldn't guarantee that his plan would succeed.

Although Li Qiwei was not worried about simply building the atomic bomb, there were too many things that needed to be handled and dealt with during this period.

He has no system and has to do everything himself, accumulating knowledge bit by bit.

Sometimes even Li Qiwei wanted to give up, but he gritted his teeth and persevered.

In his previous life, he was just a PhD and didn't have much social experience.

Now in this era, he forces himself to become the superior, constantly learning the feeling of controlling all living beings.

The city of science he wanted to create was a pure place, but this purity required his supreme status to protect it.

Li Qiwei exhaled heavily and threw away the pessimism in his mind.

As a Chinese, since his mission has been determined, he has no intention of explaining whether it is right or wrong.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Let’s start with the selection of the second batch of Spark members.

After reading the physics test paper, Li Qiwei basically decided on the candidate in his mind.

At the same time, the real historical experiences of these people also emerged in my mind.

The first one is Li Yaobang, 20 years old, from Guangdong, with a physics score of 68. He was one of the earliest Chinese to study physics abroad, and received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1914.

The absolute value of the electric charge of solid particles was determined by the Millikan method.

He returned to China in 1915 and became a professor at Nanjing Higher Normal School.

Second place, Zhang Yihui, 18 years old, from Anhui, with a physics score of 65.

In 1914, he graduated from Kyoto Imperial University with a Bachelor of Science degree.

In 1922, he worked at the Graduate School of the University of Chicago in the United States.

He returned to China in 1924, founded the Department of Physics at Beijing Normal University, and served as the department head.

Actively publicize and promote the domestic unification of weights and measures.

Third place, Yan Renguang, 16 years old, from Hainan, with a physics score of 62 points.

In 1918, he graduated from the University of Chicago with a Ph.D. in physics.

He returned to China in 1920 and served as director and professor of the Department of Physics at the Imperial University of Peking.

He conducted research on the motion of gas ions and made precise determinations of the absolute values ​​of the viscosity coefficients of several gases.

He was also good at researching instruments and meters, especially the design and manufacture of various electric meters, and made significant contributions to the development of instruments and meters in my country.

After reading the life stories of these three people, Li Qiwei felt like he had found a treasure.

Although he has not met a genius who can score 90 points in the exam, he is already very satisfied.

Although the difficulty of the physics subject in the entrance examination is relatively low, Li Qiwei estimates that only someone with a solid foundation like Wang Jile can score above 90 points.

Li Yaobang and the other two were still teenagers at the time, so it was already very good to achieve such results.

It seems that they worked hard before the exam, otherwise, considering their age, they would not be able to answer many questions.

Although they may not be highly accomplished physicists in the future, they will be physics educators, which is very consistent with Li Qiwei's current urgent needs.

Therefore, Li Qiwei prepared to personally guide these three people and make them the second batch of members of the Spark Project.

In the subject of chemistry, Wang Jidian scored an astonishing 95 points, which fully met the requirements for special recruitment.

Li Qiwei couldn't help but exclaimed, they are indeed worthy of being a future scientific family, very powerful.

And there was another person in the chemistry subject who caught his attention.

This person's name was Wang Jin. Although he was only 16 years old, he scored 85 points in chemistry. Xu Qitai praised Wang Jin highly in his comments.

At this time, Li Qiwei already knew all the information about Wang Jing.

He couldn't help but sigh that he had underestimated the heroes of the world.

The Ningxi Wang family, to which Wang Jin belongs, is almost a replica of the Suzhou Wang family, to which Wang Jile belongs.

Another extremely powerful scientific family.

Wang Jin himself was a pioneer in the study of Chinese chemistry history and analytical chemistry, and he devoted his life to the study of Chinese chemistry history.

He planned and established the first chemical engineering department in my country.

Chemistry is also an indispensable part of Li Qiwei's plan. With Wang Jin's joining, he can share a lot of his energy.

In addition, Xu Qitai's family also has a deep foundation in the field of chemistry, so chemistry is enough for the time being.

In this entrance examination, apart from these four outstanding candidates, the rest were rather ordinary.

But Li Qiwei did not favor one over the other and ignore others.

History has changed. Perhaps under his guidance, even more brilliant people will emerge among the remaining students.

Maxima often has it, but Bole does not often have it.

There are too many geniuses who have been buried in history. Perhaps they just lacked an opportunity or a guide.

And Li Qiwei was the one who changed their destiny.

After comprehensive evaluation and calculation, a total of 27 people passed the entrance examination.

These 27 people will become the first batch of undergraduate students of Huangpu University of Technology.

Having been accustomed to seeing universities in later generations recruiting thousands of students at a time, Li Qiwei suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.

But in fact, 27 people is already a lot.

You know, even a few years later, after the founding of the Republic of China, the number of students enrolled in the Department of Physics at the Imperial University of Peking did not exceed 50.

It is because of the great figure Li Qiwei that Huangpu University of Technology has become extraordinarily famous and attracted more people to study there.

Decades later, countless students envied those 1904 people in 27.

Because they were Li Qiwei's first class of students in the true sense, all of them had received Li Qiwei's guidance, and some had even debated with him.

What seemed like an ordinary thing at the time would be a great honor in the future, and even carry a certain power of faith.

These 27 people are proud to be the first graduates of Whampoa Polytechnic.

But in private, they would all say: It was just normal at the time.

(End of this chapter)