In order to prepare teaching materials for "Quantum Bits and Computers", Lin Zhixia searched online for relevant courses from top universities around the world.
Many world-class universities such as Stanford, MIT, Princeton, and UC Berkeley often publish class notes, homework, and exam questions on their official websites. These schools offer a variety of courses related to "quantum computing," covering various quantum algorithms, simulations, communications, and programming practices.
Lin Zhixia read quickly through the teaching plans of various universities.
She carefully recalled the books and papers she had read before, and spent more than a month writing lesson plans for "Quantum Bits and Computers", carefully designing weekly homework, and also made a classroom PPT, marking all references.
In March 2016, Lin Zhixia's name was published on the national talent list, and the school also announced the "proposed recruitment list" and officially signed a special employment contract with Lin Zhixia. Lin Zhixia got the "deputy senior title", which is equivalent to an associate professor. However, this special employment contract has a time limit. Within five years, if Lin Zhixia's academic performance is not good, the school has the right to cancel her special treatment.
On the first day the contract took effect, Lin Zhixia logged into the school's official website using her "teacher personal account," submitted a "new course application," uploaded the electronic lesson plan and PPT files of "Quantum Bits and Computers," and waited for the review results of the Academic Affairs Department.
At the same time, the college is actively helping her prepare a research group.
A leader of the college suggested that Lin Zhixia start recruiting students this year because Lin Zhixia is the first author or independent author of more than a dozen SCI zone one articles, has special research funds, and maintains close ties with several top foreign laboratories. Graduate students can benefit from various resources by studying with her.
Lin Zhixia is very willing to recruit master's students.
As for PhD students...
According to Lin Zhixia's special employment contract, she is qualified to recruit doctoral students, but she feels that she lacks experience and still needs to learn, and does not have the extra energy to train doctoral students for the time being.
In late March 2016, Lin Zhixia’s university held a “Master’s degree postgraduate re-examination.”
In February this year, when the preliminary examination results were announced, many students had already contacted their tutors in advance.
Although Lin Zhixia is well-known, her teacher homepage was only updated in March this year, and no students came to her. In the end, the assistant to the department head recommended a student to her - the student was named Zhan Rui, 24 years old, and graduated from a 985 science and engineering university in Beijing.
Zhan Rui is a boy, less than 1.8 meters tall, with a delicate and fair appearance and a relatively introverted personality.
After graduating from college, Zhan Rui worked in Beijing for a year, resigned and returned home to take the postgraduate entrance examination. His score exceeded the preliminary examination line, but he never took the initiative to contact any tutor.
Why?
Because he was born with a stutter.
He turned to the assistant to the dean and stammered, "Interview tomorrow. Hello, teacher..."
Zhan Rui struggled for a long time and finally finished speaking.
Zhan Rui had just arrived in the provincial capital last night, and today he wanted to visit the department head to prepare for tomorrow's interview. The assistant to the department head had called him and seemed to be a little interested in his academic background.
However, at this moment, the assistant said, "Hello, classmate Zhan, right? I remember you. I've seen your resume. You have good academic performance and solid basic skills. Hey, our enrollment quota is full. You can go and ask Professor Lin. Professor Lin Zhixia is a young professor specially appointed by the School of Interdisciplinary Studies. He has published a conference paper on "machine learning". You majored in computer science in undergraduate studies. You have something to talk to Professor Lin about."
Zhan Rui remembered the name "Lin Zhixia".
He always felt that it sounded familiar.
Zhan Rui took out his mobile phone and searched for "Lin Zhixia" on the Internet. The search results shocked him - such a young teacher had such amazing scientific research results.
It happened to be a rainy day.
The sky was gloomy, dark clouds were rolling, slanting raindrops were drifting across the huge campus, and yellow and green leaves were drifting in the cold wind. Zhan Rui sneezed, holding a stack of documents, looking for Lin Zhixia's office, and finally found it in the office building of the "Frontier Interdisciplinary College".
Zhan Rui's short black hair was soaked by the rain, and a strand of hair stuck to his forehead. He wiped the water off with a tissue and hurried to the second floor. He turned around like a headless fly and suddenly heard a man's laughter: "Teacher Lin, I'm here to see you. I'm Teacher Tan."
Zhan Rui walked forward following the sound and happened to meet Tan Qianche.
Tan Qianche was wearing a suit today. He was tall, handsome, and had a good temperament, which attracted a lot of attention. He stood at the door of Lin Zhixia's office, and Zhan Rui walked past him and greeted him politely: "Old, old, old..."
"What do you mean old?" Tan Qianche was amused by him, "We are still very young."
Zhan Rui hurriedly explained: "I, I stutter."
Tan Qianche looked him up and down and easily saw through his identity: "From your appearance, you must be a master's student this year. Do you want to find Teacher Lin? Good vision, you are Teacher Lin's first disciple."
The sound of rain outside the window is getting louder.
The rain was cold and long, flowing over the eaves and into the room.
Lin Zhixia closed the window, picked up a glass of pure water, and greeted them gently: "Please sit down. Would you like some drinks?"
Tan Qianche sat down without any hesitation.
Last September, Tan Qianche got a teaching position in the School of Physics. Now, he is not only Lin Zhixia's senior student, but also Lin Zhixia's colleague in the same school. Hearing that Lin Zhixia was specially hired as a professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Tan Qianche specially picked a day and went to Lin Zhixia's office in person to congratulate her.
However, Lin Zhixia said to Tan Qianche: "What do you want to talk to me about? Next time, please send me an email to make an appointment. If you need to talk to me urgently, I may not be in the office."
Tan Qianche was just about to talk to Lin Zhixia about her quantum platform construction, but from Lin Zhixia's tone, it seemed that she was not very welcoming to him. He was too lazy to make himself bored, so he made up an excuse and left.
Before leaving, his cell phone rang several times. He answered the phone and called out, "Baby." He then said, "I'm busy today. Let's do it another day."
Lin Zhixia reminded him: "Senior, do you still remember what you said when you were lying in the hospital that year?"
He left a straight back and replied calmly, "It's all in the past."
Zhan Rui stared at him blankly for a while, and then heard Lin Zhixia say, "Hello, classmate, can I take a look at your resume?"
Zhan Rui came to his senses and handed over his resume. He was three years older than Lin Zhixia, but he automatically assumed the role of a junior for no reason. He rubbed his fingers nervously, his hands were slightly damp with sweat, secretly hating himself for daring to come to the associate professor of the Interdisciplinary College without any preparation.
He seemed to be waiting for the verdict of fate.
The whole process actually only takes a few seconds.
Lin Zhixia put down her resume, thought about it carefully, and then said, "I want to ask you a few questions, is that okay? I have paper and a pen here, you can write words and formulas on the paper."
Zhan Rui nodded and replied, "Okay, okay."
Zhan Rui's interview started like this. Lin Zhixia asked a total of seven questions, and the difficulty of the questions kept increasing.
At first, Zhan Rui was at ease, but then he fell into a state of thinking. He was scribbling on a piece of paper, and the steaming cup of tea in front of him was gradually getting colder. The sunlight was getting dimmer, and dark clouds covered the sky. The chandelier in the office was shining brighter. He continued to solve the problem calmly, and finally wrote down an answer after a flash of inspiration in his mind.
Lin Zhixia was surprised and encouraged him earnestly: "You have strong logical thinking ability and a good grasp of knowledge points."
Zhan Rui rubbed his hands shyly and smiled.
Lin Zhixia asked him again: "How is your English? During the master's degree, you will have to read a lot of English papers..."
Zhan Rui said honestly: "I got 640 points in the Level 6 exam."
Lin Zhixia opened the drawer of her desk and took out an English paper on artificial intelligence. This paper described the algorithm framework of the "Go robot AlphaGo". Zhan Rui had never read this article, but he understood the basic principles of "Monte Carlo tree search" and "deep reinforcement learning" - these two algorithms are the pillars of AlphaGo.
Zhan Rui spent half an hour reading the paper, feeling very unsure, so he drew an algorithm flow chart on a piece of scratch paper.
Lin Zhixia looked at his flowchart and commented, "It's OK. It's very good."
Zhan Rui stood up and wanted to say something to Lin Zhixia, but his mind was blank and he couldn't find a topic to talk about. He just bowed to her stupidly. She chuckled and Zhan Rui blushed instantly.
Lin Zhixia said calmly, "You don't have to be so polite. I hope we can communicate on an equal footing. Your academic foundation is quite good, and the college interview should be no problem. Don't be nervous, just perform normally tomorrow."
Zhan Rui, carrying a black backpack, took a step back.
He planned to say goodbye to Lin Zhixia and return to his residence early to prepare for the postgraduate reexamination tomorrow. So he said, "Today, today, today..."
Zhan Rui wanted to say: Thank you Teacher Lin for today.
However, Lin Zhixia misunderstood what Zhan Rui meant.
Lin Zhixia thought that Zhan Rui wanted to discuss the funding issue but was too embarrassed to speak up.
Lin Zhixia summarized it generously: "Our school provides scholarships to all majors of master's students, 8,000 yuan per person per year, to cover book expenses, travel expenses, and medical expenses. The state will give master's students a monthly subsidy of 600 yuan. I will also pay you a salary, don't worry... Don't worry about the thesis, I have many projects and topics. The tutor and the student are selected by each other. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I refresh my mailbox every day."
When Zhan Rui left the office, his steps were still light and graceful.
The rain outside stopped, and the rain slid down the eaves and hit his head with a "bang". He wiped his face, took out his cell phone, and called his undergraduate classmate Lin Zeqiu.
Lin Zeqiu was Zhan Rui's undergraduate roommate and one of his few friends.
Lin Zeqiu asked him, "Have you found the dean of the Computer Engineering Department?"
Zhan Rui's mood was as bright as the sky after a rainy day. He told Lin Zeqiu that he had changed his tutor, who was very young, had high academic achievements, was easy to get along with, and did not mind his poor speaking skills. He was very cultured and respectful of students.
After hearing these words, Lin Zeqiu felt an ominous premonition in his heart.
A terrible thought flashed through his mind: Will my undergraduate roommate become my sister's student?
Thinking of his sister, Lin Zeqiu felt complicated.
His sister Lin Zhixia hasn't been home for several days.
In the past month, Lin Zhixia received resettlement allowances and various subsidies. She finally saved enough for the down payment and often took time to look for houses near the university town - this gave Jiang Yubai an opportunity.
Every evening, Jiang Yubai would take Lin Zhixia back to his home. He always prepared a sumptuous dinner and told Lin Zhixia, "It won't be too late to leave after dinner."
Lin Zhixia felt that what he said made sense.
However, after dinner, Jiang Yubai would often plan some fun activities. They would play in the outdoor swimming pool, look at the night view of the city and the starry sky, or sit together in the study, with chairs next to each other, working quietly without disturbing each other... Lin Zhixia had to admit that she liked being with Jiang Yubai very much, and even a little bit reluctant to leave.
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