They're already in university, and the primary school system is only just starting out?

"Oh? That's great!" Qu Chengfeng's eyes lit up immediately. "Perfect timing! President Chang and Professor Gu from the School of Mathematics will be here today. You can talk to them about this later if you have the chance. Although switching from humanities to science might be a bit difficult in terms of procedures, rules are rules, but people are flexible. As long as your level is strong enough, these won't be problems."

Chen Lin nodded in thanks. He thought for a moment and asked, "Teacher Qu, what did you mean by 'violation of the rules' earlier?"

Qu Chengfeng glanced at him and asked with a smile, "What's wrong, Chen? You haven't paid much attention to this mathematical modeling competition before?"

Chen Lin nodded honestly: "No, there really isn't."

"Okay, then I'll explain it to you from the beginning." Qu Chengfeng's tone was very easygoing, as if he were giving a student an interesting elective course. "Until the last two years, the rules for this competition were very strict."

He held up three fingers: "The core requirement is just one thing—within 72 hours of receiving the task, a team must independently complete all the modeling, programming, and paper writing. Note that it is 'independently'."

Qu Chengfeng deliberately emphasized the pronunciation of these two words.

"What does independence mean? It means that during the competition, participating teams are prohibited from communicating in any form, and participants and their instructors are also prohibited from communicating. You can search for information online and download documents, but you are absolutely not allowed to use the Internet to discuss with anyone."

He seemed to have thought of something and gave an example: "A few years ago, something like this happened. A team from a top-tier university (985 Project) had a very high-quality paper and was practically guaranteed a national first prize. However, they were reported for being in a math competition QQ group during the competition. Although those students didn't say a word from beginning to end, because other people in the group were discussing the competition problems, the organizing committee investigated and ultimately disqualified them. Isn't that unfair?"

Hearing this, Chen Lin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and mutter, "This rule only protects honest people from cheating. If someone really wants to cheat, they can just ask secretly. The organizing committee doesn't have the energy to check everyone, right?"

"That's right," Qu Chengfeng nodded. "In reality, the regulations have never been strictly enforced. Especially in some lower-ranked schools, it's common for instructors to help students find materials or even give them some pointers. But it's very rare for them to directly help answer the questions."

He smiled and added, "After all, this competition is jointly organized by the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and the National Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Top schools like Yannan, Huaqing, and Yanbei will hold special meetings to make sure their teachers strictly adhere to the rules and cherish their reputation. As for some less prestigious schools..."

Qu Chengfeng paused meaningfully, "Whether a teacher can outperform a student is another matter entirely..."

"However," Qu Chengfeng changed the subject, his expression becoming subtle, "the situation has changed since last year."

He glanced at Chen Lin, indicating that he could guess.

"What kind of changes will there be?"

Chen Lin's mind was racing.

He mentally reviewed Qu Chengfeng's words and almost instantly grasped the key points—the internet, researching, and completing the task independently…

He tentatively asked, "Is it because of the large AI model?"

In addition to studying Python programming, I also took the opportunity to learn about the latest trends in artificial intelligence development during my summer vacation.

He knew that current artificial intelligence, both domestically and internationally, was far superior to humans, at least in programming, and the same applied to writing academic papers.

Even in mathematical modeling, as far as Chen Lin knows, the top-tier large-scale models from foreign companies, which require payment to use, have research capabilities that have caught up with or even surpassed those of ordinary human PhDs.

And since Qu Chengfeng's regulations didn't include any provisions about AI, it wasn't hard for Chen Lin to guess.

Qu Chengfeng opened his water glass and took a sip. "Talking to smart people is so effortless."

He continued, "That's right, it's because of AI. In last year's competition, the judges found that the students' submitted papers were significantly better than in previous years, whether in terms of format, fluency, or the quality of mathematical modeling and accompanying code! Nobody would believe it if it weren't for large-scale AI."

"Initially, there was some debate within the organizing committee about whether to explicitly ban the use of AI. But later everyone thought that AI assisting humans in learning and working is an irreversible trend, and there is no need to go against the trend of the times."

"So, the organizing committee simply changed their approach." Qu Chengfeng's tone revealed a hint of admiration. "In this year's competition, they significantly increased the difficulty of the questions. For example, the A question that Shen Yan and her team worked on this time, 'Modeling the Relevant Problems of Environmental Pathogen Transmission Dynamics Based on the SEIR-metapopulation Model of Multi-Region Networks,' would not have appeared in an undergraduate-level competition a few years ago."

"But at the same time, the organizing committee also relaxed the regulations."

"First, the team size limit has been increased from three to four. Second, and most importantly, the rule that 'participating teams are not allowed to communicate with others' has been removed."

"However," Qu Chengfeng added, "the new requirement is that if participating teams use AI tools in the problem-solving process, they must indicate this in the corresponding section of the paper. In addition, they must attach a detailed explanatory document at the end of the paper, clearly stating the name and version of the AI ​​used, in which specific stages it was used, and also attaching key interaction records, namely the 'prompt' and the AI's response."

"Similarly, if a participating team adopts the ideas or suggestions of others during the modeling process, and those others are professors or teachers at the school, they must clearly indicate this in the paper to reflect fairness and rigor."

Hearing this, Chen Lin understood.

Because she wasn't a teacher or professor at the school, Shen Yan and her team didn't violate any regulations by directly using the optimization algorithm taught by Chen Lin when they were modeling, given the new regulations.

Needless to say, Shen Yan also added his name to the special acknowledgments at the end of the paper.

Thinking of this, Chen Lin's mood instantly became extremely pleasant.

Since there are no issues with the rules, and I'm here, I can guarantee a smooth pass of the expert interview.

The 6000 yuan bonus that Shen Yan had promised to give him was basically safe and sound!

6000 yuan...

To others, this might just be a decent bonus.

Chen Lin almost subconsciously calculated in his mind.

6000块，在加强版「小小理财师」每月20%的複利增长下，一年之后，就会变成.....6000 *(1.2)^12≈ 53502元。

Three years later...

Over 425 million!