From top student in college to scientific research powerhouse

Chapter 11 How did you do that? That's incredible!
Over the next two days, Zhang Minghao immersed himself in perfecting the content of his thesis.

The paper is titled "Approximate Transformations of Seven Higher-Order Forms," ​​and its main topic is the approximate transformation of third-order forms.

'Approximate' means 'inconsistent' with the original, but the result of the numerical calculation after transformation is linear and extremely close to the result of the original formula.

The paper was submitted to the *Journal of Applied Mathematics*, an English-language academic journal under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, rated as T2 and indexed in the international SCI database.

The reason for submitting the paper to the *Journal of Applied Mathematics* is simple: two words—

someone!

Meng Guoqing knew the editors of the Journal of Applied Mathematics and several peer reviewers. He himself was also an invited reviewer for the Journal of Applied Mathematics.

Zhang Minghao is just a doctoral student, and he hasn't even enrolled yet. If he submits a T2-level paper on his own, the review process will take a very long time.

This is one of the reasons why many doctoral students include their supervisor's name when submitting their dissertations.

Having a reputation will speed up the review process.

After submitting his paper, he sent a message to Meng Guoqing explaining the situation and also called out to Xue Kun.

Both of them were very interested in his thesis.

Xue Kun not only replied "received", but also asked him to come to the Applied Electromagnetic Laboratory in the afternoon, "The project team has a meeting, you can come and attend."

At 1 p.m., he went to the Applied Electromagnetism Laboratory and went to the doctoral student's workroom on the first floor.

Only Chen Lanjun was in the workroom.

On Chen Lanjun's table were takeout containers, and she was fiddling with a Rubik's Cube in her hand.

The Rubik's Cube has been solved.

She showed it to Zhang Minghao and said with a boastful smile, "I finally learned it. I watched several tutorials."

"Do you know?"

"You know a little bit."

Zhang Minghao casually replied that he had also learned how to solve a 3x3 Rubik's Cube by watching videos.

If you haven't studied how to solve a Rubik's Cube, you might think it's very complicated. In reality, the process is very simple; you just need to understand the steps and learn the formulas.

The simplest way is to use two opposite formulas to complete all levels (top-left-bottom-right, left-top-right-bottom), but it requires more steps.

Zhang Minghao also knows the simplest method.

Chen Lanjun scrambled the Rubik's Cube, walked over and handed it to him, smiling, "You try it."

"alright."

Zhang Minghao took it and thought carefully about how to restore it; he hadn't played this game in a long time.

"It seems like you have to spell out a cross first..."

"Then restore the first layer, then the second layer, and finally the top layer..."

Just as I was about to start reconstructing, I suddenly thought of "Correct Perception".

Can you sense it?
He held the Rubik's Cube in his palm and silently began using "Correct Perception," asking, "Left side up? Right side up? Middle layer down?"

"The upper level is to the left? Or to the right?"

"The middle horizontal layer moves to the left..."

After several attempts, I finally got one that worked correctly.

It turned once according to the 'correct' sensor, and then continued to use various other sensors for different directions.

"Correct perception" can judge whether a certain choice is correct, but it cannot sense the correct method.

A Rubik's Cube can be rotated in different directions, but the number of possible rotations is limited. By trying them one by one, you will eventually discover how to rotate it.

Because each step requires many sensing operations, the restoration process is very slow.

From Chen Lanjun's perspective, Zhang Minghao was fiddling with the Rubik's Cube, taking several seconds to "barely" turn it once. She was getting anxious watching him, saying, "You can't solve it like that!"

"I'll teach you!"

She spoke with a hint of eagerness.

No sooner had he finished speaking than Zhang Minghao turned the cube twice more, and as if a miracle had occurred, all six sides of the Rubik's Cube were solved.

Chen Lanjun's mouth gaped open in surprise as she exclaimed, "How did you do that?"

Zhang Minghao smiled, handed over the solved Rubik's Cube, and said, "I studied it for a bit and then solved it."

He added, "Maybe I was just lucky."

Chen Lanjun was speechless. Could she really solve a 3x3 Rubik's Cube by luck?

The odds are even lower than winning the lottery!

She took the Rubik's Cube, scrambled it again, and began to study it carefully.

Is there some trick to it?
impossible!

Solving a Rubik's Cube in just over ten steps seems like the simplest method, but the simplest steps to solve a Rubik's Cube require a large computer to calculate.

For normal restoration, isn't it done using a formula?
……

The project team meeting was scheduled for 2 o'clock.

As the time approached, Zhang Minghao and Chen Lanjun went to the conference room together.

After they sat down, Chen Lanjun was still asking in a low voice, "How did you do that? It's amazing!"

"It's just a feeling..."

Zhang Minghao honestly explained, "I just felt that turning it like that might restore it to its original state." "Feeling?"

Chen Lanjun twitched the corner of her mouth, completely disbelieving.

Zhang Minghao had no choice; what he said was the truth, otherwise how could he explain it?

Project team meetings are for internal discussions; there is no formal format or specific seating arrangements.

Zhang Minghao and Chen Lanjun arrived early, so they simply sat next to each other.

Before long, people started arriving one after another.

Most of the attendees were associate researchers, along with an associate professor from the mathematics department named Xue Haitao, who was involved in Chen Shuai's computational group work.

Xue Kun and Chen Shuai entered the room together.

After entering, Xue Kun pointed to an empty seat next to him and gave Zhang Minghao a look, meaning, "Do you want to sit next to me?"

Zhang Minghao looked around, but decided to stay in his original spot.

Zhu Bingkun was the last one to arrive.

Liao Shuyan followed behind Zhu Bingkun. After entering the room, he glanced behind him and walked straight over to sit on the other side of Chen Lanjun.

All the attendees have arrived.

Zhang Minghao looked closely and realized that there were only three doctoral students present: himself, Chen Lanjun, and Liao Shuyan. Curious, he asked in a low voice, "Aren't the other doctoral students here?"

"It has nothing to do with us in the first place."

Chen Lanjun laughed and said, "Teacher Chen asked me to come; otherwise, I wouldn't have come."

Liao Shuyan leaned closer and muttered, "They want to discuss the research direction of the project. What can we do?"

"Experiment failed..."

He glanced at Zhang Minghao and didn't want to continue.

Other people's eyes also frequently glanced over.

The preliminary experiment failed.

Half a year's efforts went down the drain. Ultimately, the experiment itself was wrong, but the fact that the experimental conclusion was found to be wrong is undoubtedly Zhang Minghao's fault.

He even conducted a mathematical study on this, which reportedly yielded significant results.

Some people look at me with very complicated expressions.

Zhu Bingkun discussed a few words with Chen Shuai and Xue Kun, then stood up and waved to signal the start of the meeting.

"Everyone did a good job the past few days."

"Through computational analysis, we discovered that the preliminary experimental conclusions were wrong. In any research project, error correction is crucial; otherwise, subsequent studies will continue to be flawed."

He glanced at Zhang Minghao before continuing, "The purpose of today's meeting is to discuss the next steps."

"The project has two main directions: one is stanene, and the other is thermoelectric materials."

"The study of stanene involved researching its properties during the preparation process, but our research failed. In the next month, each group will need to summarize the original data."

"I've discussed it with several other professors, and we've decided to focus our main efforts on fundamental research into thermoelectric materials..."

Although it was called a discussion meeting on research directions, the project team was actually quite small. They could discuss the directional things privately, and the meeting was just to announce the final decision.

Zhu Bingkun announced that he will focus his main efforts on basic research in thermoelectric materials.

After he finished speaking, Xue Kun talked about the basic experiments that would be carried out next. There was a lot to say about the experiments, which were also the key tasks of the project.

Chen Shuai then mentioned the work of compiling the data.

After the three project leaders finished speaking, it was time for the open discussion.

Some people talked about experimental problems with thermoelectric materials; some inquired about specific work arrangements; and others discussed in hushed tones the research prospects of new directions.

Project directional decisions are indeed unrelated to doctoral students.

Doctoral students simply follow their supervisors to do research; although they are said to be participating in projects, they are actually just learners doing odd jobs.

Chen Lanjun and Liao Shuyan both started daydreaming. The former picked up a pen and drew a portrait on paper, but the drawing was barely recognizable as a human.

The latter picked at his nails, pulled out something, and flicked it with his finger, which landed squarely on Xue Haitao's face.

Xue Haitao touched it with his hand and immediately looked across.

Liao Shuyan quickly lowered her head.

Zhang Minghao listened attentively, and when everyone had finished speaking, he suddenly raised his hand.

Zhu Bingkun asked in confusion, "Zhang Minghao, what's wrong?"

Everyone looked over.

Chen Lanjun and Liao Shuyan both turned their heads with doubt.

Zhang Minghao spoke up, "Professor Zhu, I wanted to ask why you stopped researching stanene?"

"The project team has already conducted in-depth research on stanene. Wouldn't it be a waste to stop and switch to thermoelectric materials?"

He added after saying that, "Personally, I believe that the direction of stanene is viable."

Zhu Bingkun shook his head regretfully and sighed as he offered an explanation: "The direction of tinene is very good, but our research has failed."

“Starting from scratch again would be too costly and the chances of making a profit would be too low.”

(End of this chapter)