After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 305 Even Schools Are Snatching Orders

Zhou Haoran is trying his best to win it over.

He must become a martyr!
In the next two or three decades, China's internet industry will experience explosive growth. It will not only be able to compete with Europe, South Korea and Japan, but also with the United States, the birthplace of the internet!
In some aspects, China's internet industry is even better than that of the United States and more competitive than Silicon Valley giants.

A very important reason is that this occurred in the early days of the internet.

That group of outstanding internet pioneers, through exploration, struggle and hard work, abandoned the patent system of the traditional IT industry and formed a complete internet sharing system of open papers and open-source technology.

In fact, the internet is a huge copycat.

You copy me, I copy you.

Come on, anyone!
If you make a phone, even if a certain part of its appearance is the same as another phone, you may be subject to patent infringement, which could result in fines or even a sales ban.

The internet is different.

As long as the product name is different, the rest of the interface, functions, modules, etc. are exactly the same, and no one will care.

Just get into position and copy!

This almost permissive openness enabled a generation of internet users to create miracles, achieving a "technological explosion" that only exists in science fiction novels, and completely subverting human lifestyles in twenty years.

The origin of this trend can be traced back to the late 90s when a group of internet pioneers in the United States spread the spirit of sharing from academia, which led to the trend of open-source papers and open-source technology.

There are no patent restrictions.

For Chinese internet entrepreneurs, that truly meant boundless opportunities and boundless possibilities, leading to remarkable achievements in just over a decade.

This is the general trend!

Later on, even if your technology is patented, I will still copy it without hesitation! For example, Google Search and Baidu Search have both applied for patents, and later those who make search engines have been stealing their patents, and it is very difficult to investigate them.

Zhou Haoran's major is the Internet.

Even if he doesn't want to give up intellectual property rights, it's useless if he writes papers on the internet.

Once the trend takes off, the old patent protection system disappears. The whole world is stealing technology. Just modify a few lines of code and it becomes new technology. There's no way to protect your rights.

Since that's the case, it's better to give up sooner rather than later!

Become one of the pioneers of the Internet, earn a good reputation, enter the field as an academic, and call on the global Internet industry to move towards the open source world!
To give up the rights to hundreds of papers in one go.

We must strive to become the "first person"!

At that point, it will be more than just an industry influence.

The booming development of China's internet industry can be traced back to his early contributions... His contributions to the country's science and technology industry and his self-sacrifice for national development make him a true national hero.

With this identity.

Even if he becomes a big capitalist, he is still a national capitalist; even if he has many concubines, it is a minor flaw that does not outweigh his merits.

Academic contributions alone are not enough.

We also need to put it into practice.

Zhou Haoran formally applied to the school for the "Campus Card" project, filled out forms and registered at the school, and waited for the initial review. After passing the initial review, further project breakdown and funding assessment will be conducted.

Although the applicant is a freshman.

However, his current status is unusual, and with Dean Cheng's support, it's only a matter of time before the project passes review.

Unexpectedly, something went wrong in this step.

"A defense? After a preliminary review, I still have to do a defense?"

Zhou Haoran found it hard to believe.

"Please have a seat." Dean Cheng called him into his office and gestured for him to sit down. "This matter is a bit complicated."

Zhou Haoran was puzzled. "How complicated could an on-campus project be?"

Dean Cheng said, "Some people disagree."

"Disagree? Who is it?"

Zhou Haoran was a little confused.

Did I offend someone?

It doesn’t make sense!

While at the university, he only interacted with the computer science department. His recent publicly funded trip to the US, which included several university leaders, was also thanks to him.

Dean Cheng said helplessly, "Zhang Xuezhen."

"Who is it?" Zhou Haoran didn't recognize the person. "A relative of Zhang Xueliang?"

Dean Cheng retorted angrily, "He's the vice principal!"

"Oh, no wonder he won't even give you face." Zhou Haoran was still puzzled. "That doesn't make sense. I don't know him, and I haven't offended him."

Dean Cheng said, "You are an undergraduate student, too young, and do not meet the application requirements..."

"What reason is this?"

Zhou Haoran didn't believe such high-sounding arguments. If an ordinary undergraduate student applied for a school research project, they would most likely be rejected for such a reason and wouldn't even have the chance to defend their thesis.

But he sounds different!

He is a member of the school's textbook editorial board.

Furthermore, there's the influence of Dean Cheng, a prominent academician.

Why was I rejected?
The other party must have done it on purpose.

Dean Cheng hesitated for a moment, then said, "It's not that I completely reject you, but I would like to invite you to come and defend your thesis."

"Thesis defense?" Zhou Haoran was traumatized. "My level is too high. I talked a lot during the defense, but the judges couldn't understand me and still didn't pass me. I'm wondering, what does this Vice Principal Zhang do?" Dean Cheng said, "He's a professor in the architecture department."

"What?" Zhou Haoran's eyes widened. "An architecture professor meddling in IT projects? Dean, isn't he your rival? Are you trying to steal his spot if you're getting promoted to vice-principal?"

"Don't make wild guesses." Dean Cheng treated this young man like a nephew, speaking to him without any formality. "It has nothing to do with me."

Zhou Haoran asked, "Then what's going on? You're the dean of the School of Computer Science, and an academician. How can a professor from another department manage computer science research projects? Even if he has a lot of power, he wouldn't interfere this much, would he? It's outrageous for administrative officials to interfere in scientific research."

Dean Cheng sighed, "Liu Yuehua supports his opinion."

"Oh, him!"

Zhou Haoran knew this person; he was the executive vice dean of the School of Computer Science and a doctoral supervisor.

Ning Yuanjia was his student.

Zhou Haoran chuckled and said, "Old Dean, it seems this matter is still related to you. Is it because of your power struggle that I've been affected?"

"I'm already this old, what's the point of fighting?" Dean Cheng was used to the kid's unreliable way of speaking. "If it weren't for the school leaders' disagreement, I would have given up this position long ago."

"That's..." Zhou Haoran narrowed his eyes, "If you haven't offended anyone and there's no power struggle, then it must be about interests?"

Dean Cheng fell silent.

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "I was right!"

"By the way, I heard from Qiao Hai that Ning Yuanjia wants to participate in your project?"

Dean Cheng immediately changed the subject.

Zhou Haoran was surprised. "It's related to Ning Yuanjia? No way?"

Dean Cheng said, "Go and have a talk with him!"

Zhou Haoran went to the laboratory.

Someone was asked to find Ning Yuanjia.

Speaking of this matter...

"Is there some misunderstanding between your advisor and me?"

Zhou Haoran felt that he wasn't the kind of scheming and sinister guy.

"It has nothing to do with my advisor."

Ning Yuanjia had a helpless expression on his face.

Zhou Haoran asked, "What happened?"

Ning Yuanjia explained, "It was that vice principal named Zhang Xuezhen. He didn't want to work on this campus card project, so he interfered. My advisor is on good terms with him, so he cooperated and said that you should follow the rules and procedures. He told me about this. He didn't refuse you, but he didn't give you any special privileges to go to the defense."

The two talked privately in a corner of the laboratory, their voices hushed.

Zhou Haoran said in a low voice, "I don't know that Vice Principal Zhang either!"

Ning Yuanjia said, "It's the benefits of the campus card that's driving this."

"Hmm?" Zhou Haoran gave him a deep look. "You know?"

Ning Yuanjia hesitated slightly, but still said directly, "Vice Principal Zhang, his professorship is... well, he doesn't teach. He used to be the director of the logistics department, and that logistics area was under his jurisdiction."

"and then?"

"Last semester, I created a library management system."

"Isn't that a magnetic stripe card?"

Zhou Haoran knew that this was the mainstream technology at present.

Many campuses in China now have "campus cards," which started appearing two years ago.

The library card system at Fudan University, an on-campus project developed by Ning Yuanjia, uses magnetic stripe cards, demonstrating that the technology is already quite mature.

Magnetic stripe cards use a magnetic coating.

This thing has many drawbacks, the most obvious one being its limited information storage.

The less information stored, the fewer functions there are.

Library cards can only be used in the library, and meal cards can only be used in the cafeteria.

The "campus card" that Zhou Haoran is now working on is a contactless IC card, a smart card.

The smart card integrates an RFID chip, providing more powerful processing capabilities and storage space. This means that such a campus card has richer functions and can be used in multiple scenarios such as libraries, bathrooms, supermarkets, canteens, access control, and attendance tracking.

The downsides are that the technology is immature and it's too expensive!
China does not yet have the capacity to produce radio frequency chips and must rely on imports.

In the previous life, the education department launched the "Digital Campus" plan in 2000, promoting the "campus card" project on campuses. One very important reason for this was that domestic chip manufacturing technology had made breakthroughs, allowing for the domestic substitution of radio frequency chips inside smart cards.

The cost of smart cards has been reduced significantly.

This created the prerequisite for widespread adoption.

Ning Yuanjia said, "Yes, the technology of magnetic stripe cards is outdated, but they can be made domestically, and the cost is very low. It seems that some relative of Vice Principal Zhang is running a magnetic stripe card printing factory."

"what?"

Zhou Haoran was slightly surprised.

Now I finally understand what happened.

There's order-grabbing going on at school too!
Ning Yuanjia stated frankly, "The library cards I made before were authorized by that Vice Principal Zhang. Logistics is his territory, after all. Procurement and everything else have to go through him. I heard that just one order for library cards was worth more than 120 million."

"What?" Zhou Haoran was speechless. "How much procurement cost must have been overstated? It must be four or five times higher than the market price, right?"

(End of this chapter)