Chapter 81
Deng has been having a tough time lately.
The photonic chip project was successfully completed, and everyone in the project team ended their life of seclusion in the laboratory. But what followed was an endless stream of writing papers.
If the other master's and doctoral students knew the words "never-ending" that Deng Yu was internally complaining about, they would probably be so angry that they would all kick him.
Other master's and doctoral students go bald because they have no projects to write papers for, but Deng is going bald because there are just too many papers to write, and it's so complicated that he doesn't know where to start.
A new technology is practically a paper-generating machine, let alone a groundbreaking, innovative, and groundbreaking new technology like photonic chips.
Generally, university research groups operate with both experimentation and publication, writing a paper after each phase of experimentation. To put it more realistically, experiments are conducted primarily to generate publications. Of course, whether a paper is published depends on its value. However, the photonic chip research group's experiments almost never suffer from this issue of lack of value.
However, when developing photonic chips, everyone was focused on moving forward, and no one was willing to waste time writing papers for academic credits. As a result, the task of writing papers has piled up to this day.
For Deng, writing a paper was an incredibly painful experience. Even though every detail of the experiment was clearly etched in his mind, he could only manage to squeeze out two or three hundred words after sitting in front of the computer for ages, grimacing as he typed.
Professor Gao Xiao said that the results this time can be used as their dissertations—master's theses starting at 30,000 words and doctoral theses starting at 50,000 words.
For Deng, 30,000 words was a nightmare! He would collapse on the ground, writhing, screaming, and crawling in the shadows for a while after writing almost every 500 words...
Everyone in the project team was busy writing papers, and he was too embarrassed to ask for help or bother others. So the 30,001-word paper that he finally managed to squeeze out almost gave Professor Gao Xiao a stroke.
"You've only been in China for a year, right? Read this statement yourself, does it make sense?"
"Look me in the eye, touch your conscience, and tell me, were you awake when you wrote this conclusion?"
"This picture! Ah! This picture! I thought I was quite knowledgeable, but I learn so much new things every time I read your papers!"
As Ji Zhixing waited in the office, he listened to Professor Gao Xiao's comments, which were three parts coldness, three parts sarcasm, and four parts despair, and his eyes showed sympathy.
I sympathize with Deng Yi and Professor Gao Xiao. Any professor with a modicum of responsibility would find it difficult to review that paper, which could barely be considered a thesis, with composure. Even the usually humorous and magnanimous Professor Gao Xiao was provoked to the point of being like the Hulk, who had just been transformed by gamma radiation, teetering on the brink of explosion every second.
Ye Shi and others, who were fellow students, were much calmer. After all, Professor Gao Xiao and Deng Yi would torture each other for a long time whenever it came to writing papers, so they were used to it.
Lu Xun once said that good papers are mostly similar, but bad papers are bad in their own unique ways. (Lu Xun: ?)
There are works like Deng Zhi's that are utter nonsense (according to Professor Gao Xiao), and there are works like Ji Zhixing's that hardly need any revisions even for the first draft.
Gao Xiao looked up at the sky and sighed, "Old Yan will definitely outlive me."
Unlike Deng Zhixing, Ye Shi, and others, Ji Zhixing wrote this paper as an ordinary paper, but unexpectedly it became his degree thesis.
It was a clear and bright morning. Ji Zhixing, who was used to waking up early, had just finished washing his face when Zhu Ren called him down from the dormitory building.
"Director?" Ji Zhixing hadn't seen Zhu Ren for a long time, but before he could even say hello, Zhu Ren grabbed him and dragged him to the open space at the corner of the dormitory.
Two young men were nailing a huge UV-printed soft film fabric to the empty wall at the corner.
Ji Zhixing looked closely and realized it was the gate of Guangling University. What was going on?
Before he could even voice his doubts, the two young men had already finished.
Without saying a word, Zhu Ren led Ji Zhixing to the front of the "Guangling University gate," put a doctoral gown and cap on him, and then ran a few meters away to take a few quick photos before letting out a sigh of relief and smiling.
He cheerfully pulled a bright red doctoral graduation certificate and degree certificate from his briefcase, stepped forward, and handed them to Ji Zhixing: "Congratulations on obtaining your doctoral degree, Ji Zhixing!"
ha?
“This…” Ji Zhixing looked at the certificate in his hand. Although he was confused at first, he realized what was going on after being put on the doctoral gown.
He looked up at Zhu Ren again: "Is this guaranteed to be authentic?"
Zhu Ren breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Ji Zhixing ask this: "It's true! It can be verified on the China Higher Education Student Information System (CHESICC)!" He was a little worried that Ji Zhixing would reject the doctoral degree from Guangling University.
He had previously heard from his old classmates at Yenching University that the university intended to award Ji Zhixing an honorary doctorate and was also discussing the legitimacy of awarding him a standard doctorate based on his experience of studying and conducting research under Gao Xiao.
This is blatant interference from Guangling University, trying to steal their thunder! This is intolerable!
Ji Zhixing had rejected offers from all prestigious foreign universities and had already decided to stay at Guangling University to pursue his master's and doctoral degrees. Old Yan arranged for Ji Zhixing to study at Yenching University, not to formally enroll.
Now that Ji Zhixing's academic career has reached new heights, the glory should naturally belong to Guangling University, not Yenching University.
Moreover, when the photonic chip project was first approved, the leaders of Yanda University even jumped out to find fault with Fan Ji'an, so how could they possibly take advantage of this now?
This is for public purposes.
On a personal level, ten years ago, the leaders of Yenching University advised Yan Anjin to let bygones be bygones for the sake of the university's reputation and to stop arguing with Pan Tu. This forced Yan Anjin to resign in anger and move to Guangling. And Ji Zhixing was someone Yan Anjin had personally mentored!
In short, both publicly and privately, Zhu Ren was unhappy to see Yenching University reap such a glorious reward as the "developer of Huaxin No. 1" for nothing. Therefore, after a meeting, the president, vice president, and several directors unanimously decided to strike first!
Of course, none of these reasons were considered from Ji Zhixing's perspective, so Zhu Ren was actually a little guilty when facing Ji Zhixing, fearing that he would prefer a doctoral degree from Yenching University.
How could this be? Ji Zhixing opened the certificate and looked at it. He wasn't that calculating yet, but he was still a little worried.
"Is this in accordance with regulations?" Ji Zhixing asked.
"Don't worry, it's completely legal and compliant," Zhu Ren explained. "You registered for a direct PhD program from undergraduate to doctoral level, and our university has several regulations that allow doctoral students to graduate early, which you fully meet!"
First, there was the recommendation from his advisor—Yan Anjin had long felt that Ji Zhixing didn't need to waste time at school earning credits.
Secondly, it has achieved national-level scientific research results and published more than two papers as the first author in core journals—the scientific research achievement of photonic chips is extremely impressive.
These are the two most important ones. Of course, there are other minor regulations, but those are not a problem.
Therefore, although the time was a bit rushed, Ji Zhixing obtained this doctoral degree in accordance with the rules and regulations.
Ji Zhixing breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that he had been quite lucky on his academic journey.
After he solved the Navier-Stokes equations, Yu Yuan, the dean of the School of Mathematics at Guangling University, did the same thing once. He received his graduation certificate and degree certificate from the School of Mathematics without attending a single class.
Now, thanks to the successful development of photonic chips, another doctoral degree has fallen from the sky.
After completing his research and development work on the photonic chip, he had a new goal. With the existence of the learning system, he didn't intend to waste three to five years in school just for a diploma. He had initially regretted that his academic qualifications stopped at a bachelor's degree, but now he had fulfilled that wish.
"What are your plans for the future?" Zhu Ren asked.
Almost everyone now believes that Ji Zhixing will continue to focus on the field of photonic chips and upgrade "Huaxin No. 1". However, Zhu Ren believes that he knows Ji Zhixing quite well and knows that he has always been more willing to challenge himself. Otherwise, with his achievements in solving the Navier-Stokes equations and the Fields Medal, he could have lived a life of ease in this field.
"I have some ideas, but they're not fully developed yet," Ji Zhixing replied vaguely, adding that he was still in the planning stage.
Zhu Ren didn't press further, but instead held his hand earnestly and said, "If you're interested in a teaching position, a professorship at Guangling University is always waiting for you!"
Ji Zhixing watched Zhu Ren leave, thought for a moment, and after returning to his dormitory, revised the acknowledgments section of his thesis to better meet the requirements of a degree thesis.
The photonic chip project team submitted all their papers to "Chinese Science," a move that drew criticism from many foreigners.
The unveiling of "Huaxin No. 1" has caused a sensation worldwide, with academics, politicians, and business leaders from both China and abroad closely following every development. However, the photonic chip project team clearly does not intend to hold a public academic conference on this matter. Therefore, in order to understand "Huaxin No. 1" in detail, besides the previous press conference, the most effective way is naturally through academic papers.
However, all of these papers were written in Chinese. The natural language barrier created reading obstacles for people from all foreign-speaking countries, leading to public protests against this academic hegemony.
Of course, the term "academic hegemony" was quickly met with fierce criticism from Chinese master's and doctoral students. In China, which scholar aspiring to publish in SCI journals hasn't been tormented by English?
For scholars from non-English speaking countries, one of the most common reasons for rejection of their SCI journal submissions is "low English proficiency." For a long time, Western countries have been using their academic advantages to exert linguistic hegemony over scholars from non-English speaking countries, and have taken it for granted without a second thought.
Now that China has made a breakthrough in the field of photonic chips, it should set the industry standards and expression standards!
Seeing that the protests were ineffective, most researchers, in order to keep up with the rapid pace of chip upgrades, rushed to work on translations. Meanwhile, politicians continued their endless rhetoric, with some even making outrageous claims that China's so-called "Huaxin No. 1" was just a product of deception, like "Beichen No. 1," citing as evidence that both only dared to publish papers in Chinese journals.
Gao Xiao, who had been too lazy to respond, finally spoke up: Believe it or not!
Deng kindly helped translate: Who cares!
Politicians are still being stubborn, but capital is honest.
In the stock market, ASML's stock price has continued to decline, nearly collapsing, and the price of its EUV lithography machines has fallen accordingly. The original price of a NA 0.33 aperture EUV lithography machine was as high as 1 billion, and the High NA EUV, expected to have a prototype next year, was also as high as 2.8 billion, but now it is being discounted like never before.
In the past, many leading chip manufacturers would frequently experience various accidents—fires, explosions—leading to damaged production lines, reduced capacity, and forced price surges. Now, these manufacturers seem to have finally realized the importance of production safety. However, in the international market, the prices of all chips, including cutting-edge ones, are plummeting—"Huaxin No. 1" has already gone into production, with a total investment of 128 billion yuan!
The political, economic, and technological impacts of "Huaxin No. 1" continue, and the biggest impact on Ji Zhixing is that he has become extremely wealthy!
After the success of "Huaxin No. 1", Gao Xiao discussed the issue of technology transfer with Ji Zhixing.
Both of them were people who "fed the new and tired of the old," and they weren't very interested in upgrading the photonic chip. So they decided to transfer this technological achievement, which was related to the lifeline of science and technology, to the country. As a result, everyone in the photonic chip project team achieved financial freedom.
However, while everyone was celebrating at the victory banquet, Ji Zhixing was still pondering whether the money would be enough to support his next phase of plans.
As the celebration banquet drew to a close, Ji Zhixing bid farewell to Professor Gao Xiao.
Gao Xiao looked at Ji Zhixing with deep emotion. Ten years ago, Fan Ji'an had tricked Yan Anjin into resigning in anger; ten years later, his chip empire, built up over many years, crumbled because of Yan Anjin's prized student. Truly, what goes around comes around!
Speaking of his students, Gao Xiao couldn't help but glance at Deng Yi, who was still dancing wildly on stage. Most of the members of the photonic chip project team graduated successfully and seamlessly transitioned into their new positions at the newly established National Photonic Chip Research Center.
However, Deng declined the offer, firstly because he felt he couldn't stand the constraints of a state-owned institution, and secondly because he wanted to continue his studies under Professor Gao Xiao.
Gao Xiao pointed at Deng Yi and said to Ji Zhixing, "Take him away. I want to live a few more years."
A note from the author:
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