this man is not calm

Chapter 540 Joint Efforts
From a technical perspective, when it was first invented, hyperlink analysis technology was more valuable than PageRank. In the early 21st century, it was an epoch-making invention. In other words, Baidu was actually better than Google. We should not underestimate Baidu just because its creator was of Asian descent and its later performance was somewhat disappointing.

It is indeed a scientific research achievement at the "academician" level, and it is quite important.

The real turning point actually occurred ten years after the birth of internet search engines, when the gap between the two widened dramatically. The key reason for this was that the English internet was much larger, with the potential of over 2.5 billion users, generating far more information than the Chinese internet.

Based on the characteristics of PageRank, Google's web crawl volume and data richness have increased exponentially, and the accuracy of search results is quite excellent. Even though it is not as strong in the Chinese search field, it still once overwhelmed Baidu with its size advantage.

Simply put, in the early game, if you can't quickly grow stronger and establish a dominant position by taking advantage of a good initial performance, you will be overtaken by PageRank.

Of course, this is also a contest between two great "heroes," a "battle of the experts" on the same stage, and not the same as some insignificant nobody.

Looking at early IT technologies from the perspective of ten or twenty years from now, they seem rather outdated, according to Jin Shang. But in the eyes of Huang Kunyu, Zhang Youling, and a large number of researchers, they were already remarkable achievements.

"This is just a seed. I hope to build upon it, continuously iterate and upgrade it, and eventually make it one of the unbreakable cornerstones of the IT industry."

At the end of the demonstration, everyone applauded to show their satisfaction, and Jin Shang also thought it was pretty good.

Compared to the current semi-manually-intervened web search model, today's search engines are indeed much more powerful.

The technological advancements in the internet industry are truly astounding. To use a more apt analogy, the efficiency and accuracy of past web searches were like bicycles—usable but not particularly comfortable, and somewhat strenuous. The new search engines are like Formula 1 cars; while they may seem to be competing on the same stage, they are actually not in the same league at all, and the gap will only widen over time.

Professor Huang Kunyu remarked with great emotion:
"It's been over three years since the project was first launched, from its inception to now, and it's really been a nerve-wracking experience. Thankfully, it's all going well..."

The entire research group, including several supervisors and their graduate students, were counting on this achievement to publish papers, enhance their resumes, and graduate smoothly or pass the assessment.

Although there are no longer "tenure-track" or "publish or perish" arrangements, the competition for research-oriented academic positions in universities is still quite intense.

Previously, the laboratory relied mainly on government funding to keep it running. Now, the situation of "too many monks and too little porridge" is becoming increasingly serious, and it has to rely on external support. The project leader's ability to "find money" is directly related to the life or death of the research project.

In the past few years, there weren't many projects that integrated "industry, academia, and research," but as the millennium approached, the situation changed dramatically.

Jin Shang, the owner of Jinxi Culture, has a solid foundation for returning to his alma mater to collaborate. The two parties have been working together for five years, starting with the production of video games and now expanding to browsers, antivirus software, search engines, engineering design aids, and system software. The collaboration has yielded many results, both large and small.

After exchanging pleasantries with several professors for a while, it was getting late, so Professor Zhang Youling told everyone to pack their things and go home as soon as possible.

Later, Jin Shang and Li Xuan chatted for a few more minutes with two old acquaintances in the small office next door.

"It's still the same problem, Xiao Jin. Graduates from our school generally don't lack opportunities, but whether they're assigned jobs or find them themselves, not many are truly perfect. Opportunities to stay and develop in Beijing are especially precious..."

Choosing which city to attend university and how to find employment in the future largely depends on whether one wants to stay and develop in the city where the university is located. Many professional fields are highly regional. Beijing Normal University is characterized by its teacher training programs, and every year a large number of non-teacher training graduates still enter the workforce. Moreover, even if one becomes a teacher, many high-achieving students are unwilling to teach in impoverished rural areas. Even if one changes careers, staying in the capital city to develop one's career certainly offers far more opportunities than going to other places.

Moreover, Jinxi Culture and its affiliated companies do have teaching positions.

It's not easy to directly interfere with the staffing of the primary and secondary schools we cooperate with or the schools we donate to. However, there is a real shortage of teachers in a large number of training schools. Although there are no permanent positions and the work is quite tiring, it's a lucrative job. What job is easy? And if there were, it wouldn't be our turn, would it?

Moreover, the compensation offered is quite good. For students who have worked hard to get into university from rural areas and whose families are not well-off, the prospect of starting work as soon as possible, earning more money, giving back to their hometowns, improving their living conditions, and supporting their siblings to continue their studies, along with higher wages, is quite attractive.

Whether it's a short-term choice, a part-time job to maintain a permanent position, or even a plan to delve deeper into the education and training industry, or to expand horizontally into other fields, Jinxi Culture is a good option.

"I certainly won't refuse to help these younger generations if I can!"

"We don't need too many, at most forty people. Apart from a very few students who graduated within the last three years, the rest should all be energetic and talented recent graduates. If they aren't outstanding, I'd be embarrassed to even ask!"

"No problem, teacher! This year we plan to recruit more than 130 computer science professionals nationwide, and over 100 teaching positions, nearly 80% of which will be filled through campus recruitment! We can accommodate 30 or 40 people, and the work arrangements can be based in the capital. However, the requirements for practical skills and work experience are quite high here, the pace is fast, and there will be a lot of business trips..."

Huang Kunyu waved his hand and said with certainty:

"What difficulty is this? If you can't even overcome this small problem, how can you stand on your own two feet in society? It's not like you're settling down and can't stay away from home for long. These are young people who have just graduated, and this is the time to strive for their careers. Giving them opportunities to improve and providing them with a relatively smooth channel is already very good. If you ask for too much and don't understand things... you can hand them over to me, and I'll handle it."

"So much the better!"

With this assurance, Kim Sang breathed a slight sigh of relief.

University graduates are desirable, but they are difficult to cultivate and even harder to retain. Without better opportunities, they are willing to temporarily make a living at Jinxi Culture, but if they could climb the social ladder, they certainly wouldn't waste their time at a company only five years old. In 1999, it wasn't a future where master's degrees were commonplace and bachelor's degrees were worthless; an undergraduate was still highly valued, let alone a graduate from a prestigious university.

Jinxi Culture benefits from being located in the capital, making it far more attractive than its counterparts in other regions.

As an outstanding graduate and distinguished alumnus of our school, Jinshang has a lot of exchanges and cooperation with his alma mater, and the interactions are very pleasant. The addition of a few dozen people is not conspicuous in the face of tens of thousands of employees. In the past, the average annual turnover rate was relatively low, around 2%. Now that the scale has expanded, it has risen slightly and has exceeded 5%.

This level of popularity demonstrates that Jinxi Culture still holds considerable appeal for working-class individuals. If it weren't for the high turnover rate of frontline workers such as delivery drivers, truck drivers, and sales promoters, it wouldn't have risen so rapidly.

In the IT and education and training industries, which are in dire need of talent, a turnover of a few dozen people is still quite large, but given the rapidly growing market demand, absorbing them is still not a problem.

Recruiting and cultivating talent during the expansion phase is essential to quickly fill market gaps after the contraction phase and gain a competitive edge over peers.

However, this is something only large, well-funded companies can afford to do, and the cost of counter-cyclical investment is relatively high.

Next, the group discussed future collaborative projects. Upgrading and maintaining the search engine would be costly, antivirus software and browsers would need to be updated, the operating system would need to be patched and improved, and a lot of accumulation would be required for the next generation. The development and application of big data, algorithms and artificial intelligence, which are of great importance, also needed to be put on the agenda.

With the development of electronic information technology, the degree of automation of various devices is getting higher and higher. Taking the electrification of automobiles as an example, the complex vehicle system has almost become a stumbling block to the development of electric control. In comparison, the constraints of motors and batteries are not so obvious.

The drawbacks of using traditional fuel vehicle control systems are becoming increasingly apparent in electric vehicles and range-extended hybrid vehicles, making them less and less able to meet user needs. Combining countless detectors, sensors, and chip processors to form a complete electronic control mechanism is no easy task.

Why were early so-called new energy sources merely toys for the wealthy?

The high price is a minor issue!

The real pain point is that there is currently no possibility of electric vehicles surpassing gasoline vehicles.

The current state of new energy vehicles, which are mainly "converted from gasoline to electric", does not reflect the advantages of electric vehicles at all. Both inside and outside the industry, electrification is promoted as a dispensable auxiliary for gasoline vehicles or a trendy gimmick. For example, the incongruous 48V mild hybrid system and the exaggerated planetary gear power distribution are touted as if each of them is a gem in industrial history.

But these new gadgets are essentially designed to improve the performance and driving experience of gasoline-powered cars, rather than to achieve complete electrification.

Fundamentally, even though Jinshang made early preparations, improved its power battery system, acquired some high-efficiency motor patents, and even merged with some power manufacturers, launching several good hybrid engines, high-efficiency range extenders, SPCCI controlled compression ignition, rotary test sports cars and dual-fuel engines, and even conducted bench tests on hydrogen fuel cells more than once, it still encountered considerable difficulties in the vehicle electronic control market.

"This is not simply a software issue, Xiao Jin. It is a product of the combination of software and hardware. High technical content is one aspect, but a large number of application examples, data summarization and analysis, and countless senior engineers serving this system platform are all indispensable."

Professor Zhang Youling remarked with great emotion:
"Building cars... is not the same as building mobile phones, learning machines, or game consoles. It will probably take many more years before we see any significant results..."

With hundreds of millions of dollars allocated annually to maintain the project and support the team, and then billions more spent on research and development testing, it's hard to say whether there will be any progress in three to five years.

Jin Shang still remembers when Alibaba was developing big data algorithms in his previous life, it wasted precious time and countless financial resources because of the wrong direction. In the end, it had to make a tough decision, adjust its direction, and start over. Fortunately, it did not make any mistakes later, and because it did not have any strong direct competitors, it successfully caught the big data bandwagon and developed into a truly unparalleled e-commerce hegemon.

This is just in the field of data software. Once it involves hardware materials and other fields, the investment will be boundless.

"Don't worry, I know the two professors are concerned that my investment is too large and might end up with nothing. The university will try its best to arrange capable scholars and professors to lead the team, and the investment will definitely not stop. I'll leave the software research and development to you. As for automotive chips, integrated circuit components, and sensor detectors, I will try my best to integrate a usable system for adaptation. With prototype testing, there is hope for improvement. In fact, the integrated die-casting body process that our company is vigorously promoting is becoming more and more mature. As the yield rate increases and production volume increases, the cost will be reduced..."

Lighter materials, higher strength, better safety, and a more aesthetically pleasing appearance make a significant contribution to lightweighting and greatly enhance the new car's recognizability.

Of course, it's not all good and no bad. When a collision occurs and repairs are needed, it's very troublesome and costly.

Huang Kunyu, who had already been promoted to vice principal, offered a few words of encouragement, and finally said with some emotion:

“Xiao Jin, although I have a lot of faith in our school’s capabilities, your demands… are just too many and too high. We might not be able to handle them on our own. If you’re determined to invest regardless of cost… I know two senior academicians who are authorities in this field and have considerable influence. We can try to upgrade these major projects, packaging them as national-level key scientific research projects. While securing subsidies and resource support, we should also try to eliminate unforeseen factors and mitigate risks…”

"That would be best, of course. I'll also talk to the relevant authorities and see how strong their motivation is to push things forward."

Enterprises, academic research, and policy support promote each other, are self-consistent, and develop in an integrated manner. Once a virtuous cycle is formed, it will become a huge driving force.

Given Professor Huang Kunyu's level, he would certainly have access to highly influential figures in academia. With their endorsement, the chances of Jinxi Culture's strategic development succeeding would be much greater.

(End of this chapter)