A genius? I just love studying.

Chapter 199 The First Student

After the Lantern Festival, students returned to school one after another.

"Shurima, your emperor has returned!"

Li Zehan excitedly kicked open the dormitory door, only to find the room empty, while Chen Hui's wardrobe and desk were spotless.

With a soft sigh, the joy of the New Year slowly dissipated.

After tidying up briefly, he sat down and began studying his thesis. The moment he returned to school, he focused on his studies. If his father saw this efficiency, he would probably think his son was possessed.

"I must publish a Q1 SCI paper this semester!"

This is the KPI that Li Zehan set for himself. There's nothing he can do about it; he just happened to run into Chen Hui, that prodigy. Chen Hui has taken all the credit and all the show-offs. The market is too volatile right now, and only SCI in Zone 1 can make a splash.

Not long after, the dormitory door opened again, and Yin Hao and Zhang Xia entered one after the other.

"Has the expert chosen their courses yet?"

Yin Hao put down his luggage, took out his computer, and connected to the internet, looking flustered as if a ghost was chasing him.

To graduate, they must earn a certain number of required and elective credits. However, the difficulty of obtaining the same required credits varies drastically depending on the course. Similarly, the probability of passing the same course with different teachers also varies drastically. Therefore, course selection is extremely important.

However, only the campus network can access the course selection system.

"The senior student said that Professor Zhou's functional analysis lectures are very good, and he will highlight the key points for the final exam!"

Zhang Xia also sat down at her seat and turned on her computer. For compulsory courses like functional analysis, the only thing to do is to work on the teacher.

Li Zehan glanced at it but showed no interest.

Course selection begins at 10 a.m., at which time the course selection system is often in a state of collapse, and it takes half a day to select a course. He is too lazy to waste time and will just wait until everyone else has finished selecting their courses before he selects his. In any case, all courses are the same to him, and the course selection time is a whole day.

"Chen...Chen Hui?!"

Suddenly, Yin Hao exclaimed in surprise, and the frantic clicking of the mouse stopped abruptly.

"Fuck!"

Zhang Xia's exclamation followed immediately; clearly, he had also seen the course.

Li Zehan turned around and saw the name of the instructor for the functional analysis course, his expression complicated.

It's not that I'm amazed that Chen Hui has started teaching them, but I'm puzzled by his choice. With his current achievements in mathematics, he could easily teach at Princeton.

Li Zehan also plans to finish this semester, earn all the required credits, and then apply to Princeton for graduate studies. He originally thought he would be able to reunite with his older brother there.

Unexpectedly, the eldest brother ultimately chose to stay in the country.

"As expected of a big shot!"

After a long while, Yin Hao sighed, "Should we choose the expert's course or not?"

Functional analysis is a required course; they will eventually have to choose one.

However, they were unsure about their relationship with Teacher Zhou and their former roommate.

Chen Hui was a completely new teacher to them, which meant that everything was unknown, and they weren't sure if Chen Hui would give them more points for participation.

It's really a dilemma.

"Choose."

Li Zehan spoke first.

Yin Hao and his companion's eyes lit up. "Since the big boss says so, what's there to hesitate about?"

They knew that Li Zehan and Chen Hui were teammates at the IMO, and Li Zehan should know Chen Hui.

"You may have misunderstood."

Li Zehan waved his hand, "What I mean is, it's been delayed for so long, Teacher Zhou's spots have already been filled, you have no choice."

The two men's faces immediately fell, and they looked dejected. In the end, they still chose Chen Hui's functional analysis.

As Li Zehan said, they had no choice.

Although there is another teacher's class, it's better to take a gamble on the new teacher, Chen Hui.

However, to their surprise, when they clicked to confirm, it showed that the spots were full. Chen Hui's class, the new teacher, was filled even before the highly acclaimed Teacher Zhou.

They may have forgotten that Chen Hui, who has made great achievements in recent days, has already become a celebrity among his classmates. When they saw Chen Hui's class, the other students did not hesitate to confirm it.

The next dormitory room,

"That was close, I almost didn't get selected."

Zeng Yiyuan patted his chest, turned his head to look at the gloomy computer screen next to him, and found that this guy had also chosen Chen Hui's class.

It's quite a strange feeling to think that a former competitor has suddenly become a teacher, giving you lessons.

Of course, perhaps Chen Hui never considered Yin Piao as an opponent from beginning to end.

Girls' dormitory, Chen Ling'er's room.

Chen Ling'er, like Li Zehan, didn't care what courses she chose, but her other roommates didn't have that same confidence.

"So, is this Chen Hui the same Chen Hui we know?"

Wang Yujie immediately discovered the course on functional analysis.

"There can't be anyone else, right?"

Chen Ling'er came closer. She knew that Chen Hui had not chosen to go to Princeton but stayed at Jiangcheng University, but she really didn't know that Chen Hui was going to teach a course on functional analysis.

"It should be him!"

Another roommate, Long Jia, also confirmed that he had already opened the official website to check the teacher's information.

It was only natural that Chen Huigang would stay at the university as a teacher after graduating with his doctorate.

"Why don't we choose Professor Chen's class?"

The girls' eyes lit up, and they all saw excitement in each other's eyes.

……

"Dear Professor Schultz,
I wholeheartedly agree that materials science is an inevitable trend in the 21st century… The email attachment contains my latest research findings. If they can be successfully verified, perhaps we really can develop a tool for designing material structures.”

While the students were enthusiastically selecting courses, Chen Hui was writing an email to Schultz.

In the appendix, he refined and improved his previous paper, "Geometry of Number Theory: Langlands Realization of Symmetry Physics and a New Paradigm for Topological Matter." He designed a new architecture based on the original theory, transforming the original model into a structure more suitable for computers through modular parameterization and symmetry constraint embedding. Based on the Transformer architecture, it takes chemical formulas and crystal structures as input and outputs topological invariants such as the fractional Chern number Chpm/n and the topological order type Zn. It uses a diffusion model to generate crystal structures that satisfy the target topological properties and generates the space through Langlands condition constraints.

Finally, density functional theory and tight-binding model were used together to calculate the electronic structure of the generated material and verify its topological properties.

The model is mathematically flawless, but Chen Hui still needs to verify it experimentally and translate the mathematical model into computer language. In this area, Schultz is undoubtedly an expert among experts.

Of course, Chen Hui wouldn't be idle either. He would also conduct related experiments simultaneously, collect data through experiments, and continue to improve his model. As long as there is enough data, this model will eventually be able to predict material properties and even design material structures on its own.

Similar to the work of Nobel laureates Demis Hassabis and John Jampor from a few years ago, they constructed a system called Alpha Folding to predict protein structures.

Proteins are polymers formed by 20 different amino acids linked together in a specific sequence. To perform biological functions, proteins usually fold into a specific shape. The stable three-dimensional structure of a protein after folding is completely determined by the amino acid sequence that makes it up.

These folded proteins are like the keys and locks we use to open doors, each with its own function. Some proteins help maintain metabolism, some provide energy, some repair tissues, and some control the body's fluid balance.

Proteins are classified into four levels of structure: primary structure, which is the combination of amino acid sequences; secondary structure, which is the local spatial structure of a segment of the peptide chain in a protein molecule; tertiary structure, which is a specific spatial structure formed by further folding and coiling of multiple segments based on the secondary structure; and quaternary structure, which is the structure formed by protein-protein complexes and is a more complex biological macromolecule.

In the past, predicting the structure of proteins required biological detection. Primary structure is relatively easy to determine, and simple biological experiments such as mass spectrometry can be used. However, when it comes to how secondary and higher structures fold, structural biologists often need to use X-rays, nuclear magnetic resonance, electron microscopy, and cryo-electron microscopy to detect them.

These methods are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and have extremely high labor costs. For example, electrophoresis instruments can only perform measurements indirectly, and the experiments are subject to interference from many factors, which can affect the analysis and understanding of protein structures.

High-resolution cryo-electron microscopes are extremely expensive, costing approximately 1 million Chinese yuan per unit.

The Alpha Folding System has now been iterated to its third generation, evolving from being able to predict only first-order structures to now being able to predict fourth-order structures. Although the Alpha Folding System still has many shortcomings and cannot completely replace life scientists.

However, it is foreseeable that life scientists will be able to shift their focus from predicting protein structure to predicting protein function in the future, which is especially important for exploring the life code of humans and other organisms.

Perhaps they could also build an alpha folding system belonging to materials science to predict material properties and design new materials. Of course, materials have more types of molecules than proteins and their structures are more complex, so their work will undoubtedly be more challenging, but Chen Hui is confident in this.

After sending the email, Chen Hui left his office again and headed towards the School of Physics.

When he needed to conduct experiments related to materials science, Professor Xiao Meng was the first person he thought of. After collaborating with him last semester, he realized that although the professor was not well-known, his work style and foundation were quite solid, making him an excellent collaborator.

Before he even left the School of Mathematics, Chen Hui ran into Wang Qiming, who was walking briskly.

Wang Qiming hadn't expected to run into Chen Hui. After a moment of surprise, his eyes lit up, and he stopped Chen Hui, asking, "Little Chen, do you want any students?"

Aren't you worried about being late for class?

"Your own students are still more useful than other people's students."

Wang Qiming, who had been looking worried, suddenly relaxed. "And students can also help you with some simple, repetitive tasks. A hero needs three helpers. This is no longer an era of individual heroism in mathematical research. You should build your own team."

"For example, your teacher Yuan Xinyi's proof of the Langlands Program also involved the efforts of many students; it was the result of a team effort!"

Wang Qiming patiently persuaded Chen Hui, who knew he was right, but the other party's motives alone made Chen Hui instinctively want to refuse.

"Okay, actually a graduate student recruited by a professor came to report for duty, but the professor resigned for personal reasons."

Wang Qiming was a smart man. Seeing Chen Hui's expression, he immediately changed his tune, "Well, he recruited an international student from a prestigious Western university. His quality is quite good."

Chen Hui understood and was somewhat tempted.

He's currently juggling three fronts, and his time is becoming increasingly limited. Perhaps recruiting a student would be a good option.

Having considered his upcoming plans, he already had arrangements made for this student.

Of course, this is on the premise that the student's qualities can pass my assessment.

"Yes, but he needs to pass my test first."

Chen Hui hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"No problem, we'll schedule the interview this afternoon."

Wang Qiming was overjoyed and quickly walked away, as if afraid that Chen Hui would change his mind.

Chen Hui continued walking towards the School of Physics, arrived at the third floor of the experimental building, and walked easily to the familiar laboratory, knocking on the door.

"Brother Hui, what brings you here?"

Yang Chi opened the door again. Although this 24-year-old graduate student still looked like he was in his thirties or forties, his face showed more spirit and vigor, and it was clear that he had been doing very well recently.

"Don't call me Brother Hui, you should call me Professor Chen."

Upon seeing Chen Hui, Deng Ting also came over and jokingly said with a smile that the course selection yesterday had already spread throughout Jiangcheng University. A seventeen-year-old teacher teaching a course is quite a topic of conversation.

So when these students checked the school's official website, they discovered that the seventeen-year-old university teacher was already a professor. As a result, the news quickly spread throughout Jiangcheng University, and even attracted the attention of many media outlets.

However, there are not many people who question it. There's no way around it; other conjectures would be easier to accept, but the Millennium Problem has too much of a reputation both domestically and internationally.

"Hello, Senior Brother Yang and Senior Sister Deng."

Chen Hui greeted the two with a smile, "Is Teacher Xiao here?"

"In the office next door."

Although Yang Chi and Deng Ting were joking around, hearing Chen Hui address them as "senior brother" and "senior sister" made them feel as sweet as honey.

"I'm going to talk to Professor Xiao about something. I'll come back to see my senior brothers and sisters later."

Chen Hui went to the office next door.

"Oh, what brings you here?"

Xiao Meng immediately smiled when he saw Chen Hui, showing that the entire laboratory shared the same atmosphere.

"I'd like to collaborate with Professor Xiao on a project. I wonder if Professor Xiao would be interested?"

"I agree!"

"?"

Chen Hui was both amused and exasperated. "I haven't even said what kind of project it is yet."

"Scientific research is sometimes like doing business. We don't care whether the topic is out of the ordinary or not; we value you as a person!"

Xiao Meng said with a smile, "If you cooperate with reliable people, even if things don't work out in the end, you won't end up with nothing. Otherwise, no matter how reliable the project is, it will only end up as a mess."

"Then, it's a pleasure to work with you!"

Chen Hui reached out his hand.

"So, can you tell me now what exactly this project is?"

Xiao Meng broke down in a second, asking with some excitement.

(End of this chapter)