I'm a scientist, why can't I have faith?

Those two people are staying at this hotel too...

Lan Ce noticed Wang Dong's unnatural expression, and following Wang Dong's gaze, he also noticed the Japanese couple.

"What's wrong? Did you run into someone you know?"

"Not really. I just happened to run into them when I went out today, and I helped them out with some trouble."

"That's quite a coincidence. They must be contestants too. This hotel has been booked by the organizers for the past few days, so they probably won't be accepting any other guests."

"That's a competitor from Japan."

Wei Linfeng finished registering and came over with his room key, handing his ID card and room key to Lan Ce.

"If I'm not mistaken, those two should be Kensuke Sugiyama and Yuzu Natsuki from the University of Tokyo. They are both dark horses in the ACM World Championships in recent years."

Who would have thought he was a hidden master? You would never guess from his appearance.

In Wang Dong's mind, the big shots in ACM should all be men like senior Wei Linfeng who are unkempt.

It's impossible to imagine a skinny, bony boy and a girl as delicate as a porcelain doll.

"Why is that boy so thin? Is he malnourished?"

Wei Linfeng shook his head, indicating that he did not know.

Lan Ce glanced at the room card number and found that it was exactly the same as Wei Linfeng's.

"What's going on? I'm sharing a room with Wei Linfeng?"

"It's because you two arrived so late; all the good rooms were taken long ago."

Su Yuran, who was standing to the side, complained at the right moment.

"By the way, both my junior and I have ocean-view king-size bed rooms."

Lan Ce let out a furious roar of resentment.

"Do you think I want to live in the same room as you? Just put up with it."

Wei Linfeng grabbed Lan Ce and put his arm around him.

"We're going upstairs to put our luggage away first. Good luck tomorrow!"

Wang Dong and Su Yuran waved goodbye to the two.

"I'm going back to rest now, junior. You should get some sleep too~"

Wang Dong nodded and watched Su Yuran leave. He was about to return to his room to rest when his eyes inadvertently met Xia Muyou's.

The other person nodded politely to him, and I understood and returned the gesture.

This doll-like girl always gives people a very dignified feeling.

The competition started promptly at 10:00 a.m. the next day.

First to appear was Academician Song Zhuohua, the main judge of this competition. It is said that the questions for the final round were written by him.

Upon seeing Academician Song Zhuohua in person, Lan Ce and Wei Linfeng were both extremely excited. For them, seeing Academician Song in person was no different from fans meeting their idols.

Before officially revealing the competition questions, let me first introduce the competition format.

Behind Song Zhuohua, a diagram explaining the competition format appeared on the large screen.

"This competition will last for three days, but each participating team will only have 24 hours to answer the questions."

"The question-and-answer area is in the hotel lobby, and the questions will be answered using computers provided in advance by the organizers."

"Whenever a contestant enters the answering area, the team's timer begins to count down until it reaches zero and is forcibly terminated."

"Each contestant has only two chances to enter and exit the answering area during this period. The countdown will stop when no contestant remains in the answering area."

"All players are prohibited from using the internet throughout the entire period, and entry and exit from the entire hotel are also prohibited until the end of the competition."

As they spoke, the staff pushed the machine forward. The students from Daxia University present were all familiar with this thing.

Signal jammers, even the upgraded version for the college entrance exam, once this thing completely covers the hotel, cell phones become nothing more than bricks.

"These are the general rules; specific details are provided in the competition manual sent to each team."

Faced with the novel competition rules, the audience naturally buzzed with discussion; no one had expected things to turn out this way.

Some foreign athletes even protested on the spot, as this completely restricted their personal freedom.

"If you feel restricted, you can withdraw from the competition and leave now. The organizers will reimburse your round-trip airfare."

Academician Song Zhuohua's response was very firm, and the protesting foreign athlete struggled for a while before reluctantly sitting down quietly.

"Now let's officially reveal the questions, and the competition officially begins!"

The large screen switched to another scene, and the questions for the final round were clearly displayed.

[Developing an AI algorithm for accurate early pancreatic cancer screening based on multimodal clinical desensitized data]

[Submission Requirements: A complete, implementable, explainable, and clinically compliant engineering solution]

After seeing the specific questions, the teams below the stage immediately began to discuss, and Wang Dong and his team were no exception.

However, it's not related to the question.

"I didn't expect the final to turn out like this."

Lan Ce commented while flipping through the tournament handbook.

"It's still very much in line with international standards. As far as I know, the major competitions that ended not long ago also had this format."

Wei Linfeng was also flipping through the competition manual; he clearly had more experience in competitions than Lan Ce.

Su Yuran, on the other hand, was observing the situation of the other teams.

"It feels great, like participating in a variety show."

At this moment, Wang Dong had no idea what he should do or how to compete. It seemed different from what he had imagined.

He followed the example of the two senior students, opened the competition manual, and began to read it carefully.

The other teams were all enthusiastically discussing how to design the problem algorithms, and some teams had even entered the answering area to start coding.

The atmosphere in Wang Dong's team was quite different; everyone was silently looking at the tournament handbook.

Wang Dong, who was reading patiently, soon noticed the intentions of the two senior students.

So this was the first trap in the game.

The competition was not as simple as it seemed.

First of all, it is impossible to provide a solution algorithm that meets engineering realities within 24 hours by combining AI. After all, it takes time to design and conceive the algorithm, implement the code, and finally fine-tune it.

Even the speed at which you type can affect the algorithm's overall performance.

This is where the superiority of the competition system becomes apparent: the countdown only begins when someone enters the answering area, and stops once everyone leaves.

Thinking and brainstorming can be discussed in advance outside the answering area to save time.

However, this puts a great strain on the players' ability to perform under pressure, since reality is not always the same as what they imagine, and unexpected situations will always arise.

The fact that each contestant can only enter and exit the answering area twice severely limits the team's overall decision-making.

The first challenge of the competition was not how to design the algorithm, but how to set a strategy to complete the algorithm most efficiently within the rules.

After all, in addition to the quality of the algorithm, the time taken to complete the task is also considered in the final evaluation, and even the team's decision-making performance may be taken into account.

Wei Linfeng was the first to finish reading, and when he saw that others were also reading the contents of the competition manual, he smiled with satisfaction.

My teammates are all pretty good at it!