Siheyuan: I eat melons while doing scientific research

Chapter 1223 I want this software now! (4k)

Everyone knows that computers are easy to use, but using them well is actually a very troublesome thing for most comrades. After all, their main energy and professional ability are not in computer programming.

We can also ask other comrades who understand computers to write calculation programs, but this brings up another problem.

——Comrades who understand computers may not necessarily understand the knowledge in these professional fields. It is rather difficult or the time cost to write a software that conforms to the ideas of comrades in the professional research field is very high.

It's like there's always a dispute between Party A and the programmer.

It is already very difficult for software programmers to understand the ideas of their professional colleagues. This problem exists in both theoretical and applied research, regardless of the cutting-edge or advanced aspects.

And the things you write may not be correct, which is another problem. There may be a lot of errors in the process of converting the algorithm into code. After all, computer scientists are not math, physics, or engineering experts. It is already very difficult to understand it roughly, and then go through the code implementation process again, it is simply too much.

In fact, comrades in the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry and the Department of Applied Engineering are becoming more and more aware of this problem.

"Really? Come on, show us. You guys, go and invite all the comrades who are engaged in mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering research in the institute, so that we can observe Commissioner Gao's masterpiece together!" said the dean of the department happily.

Except for chemistry, this thing is not very useful for many other subjects, but it is useful for chemical engineering. The main reason is that chemistry is considered a liberal arts subject in science at this time, and the research is not so in-depth. For the time being, there are not many times when you really need to deal with mathematics or matrices.

But I can’t care about that anymore, I just eat it with a spoon.

Gao Zhendong asked the department to find a computer, and then he installed a "solid-state hard drive" on it by himself. As the top place for scientific research in the country, there is naturally no shortage of the best C6132.

By the time Gao Zhendong was fully prepared and most people had arrived, the committee members all had their own work. This place was actually more like an administrative agency. There were very few people who actually did research here, and those who did were only here to do temporary work.

With so few people, naturally not many can be called over.

The comrades who came over looked at Gao Zhendong busying himself with curiosity. For them, the "solid-state hard drive" in Gao Zhendong's hand was more interesting to them.

What is this? Let me see.

However, when Gao Zhendong opened JZJS1.0, the four words "matrix calculation" composed of countless "#" signs sliding across the screen before entering the interface still aroused the interest of some comrades.

Matrix calculation, let’s see what the algorithm is?

Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division?

For comrades, as long as they need to use matrices and work with computers, they probably have some ready-made self-compiled functions to implement these matrix calculations.

After all, they are all top researchers, and they have a good grasp of code reuse.

So at the beginning, comrades did not think these words were worthy of too much attention, and some comrades did not know Gao Zhendong, mainly because Gao Zhendong's photos were rarely circulated.

Only a small number of people, such as the chief engineer of the 12th Ministry of Machine Building who was specially invited by Gao Zhendong, and Director Chi of the Computing Institute, were vaguely aware of the seriousness of the problem.

By the way, Director Li of the Operation Institute has been promoted, and the former Chief Engineer Chi was promoted to director, and was also invited by Gao Zhendong.

When Gao Zhendong began to construct matrices in the command line and perform operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, transposition, vector multiplication, and element multiplication, his comrades felt that it was as expected.

What's more, this software has at least been reviewed and checked many times, and the calculation results are all correct without any problems. Many comrades are very familiar with matrices, and they can calculate the calculation results of simple matrices in their heads while Gao Zhendong was operating it, which at least built up some confidence in this software.

However, Director Chi of the Operation Institute began to feel alarmed. Based on his understanding of Gao Zhendong, he knew that Gao Zhendong would definitely not be satisfied with these petty fights.

That's it? It's not even worth it for Commissioner Gao to make such a trip.

As Gao Zhendong continued to demonstrate the inverse and determinant of a matrix, matrix decomposition, and solving a system of linear equations, some comrades began to inhale.

It’s not that they cannot solve these problems, but they cannot solve them so easily and casually, and at first glance they are universal formulas and functions.

"That's interesting. We need to compile special functions for these things. At least we can't do it to the same level as him in terms of generality."

"Universal? We haven't even developed a universal computer representation for matrices, let alone calculations. The definitions of matrices can only be filled in one by one in the function, which is time-consuming, laborious and prone to errors."

"This is great. It can solve linear equations with just a tap. You who work in theory may not be able to use it, but I work in engineering calculations, so this thing is definitely useful."

Comrades' interest began to rise. At least this software was well-written, well-thought-out, and versatile, and it could really play a role.

Gao Zhendong continued to demonstrate. He had already compiled these examples into .m files, which were very quick to open for demonstration. The .m files can be regarded as the source code of the mathematical calculation programs of Octave and MATLAB.

"What else?" Some comrades felt that it had begun to exceed expectations.

"There must be more. There are so many contents in matrix calculation, and this is just the beginning." This person is probably related to mathematics, or often deals with matrices.

When Gao Zhendong began to perform operations such as matrix power, rank, diagonalization, and pseudo-inverse, the comrades became a little excited, as these were already relatively advanced matrix operations.

In particular, after Gao Zhendong finished these demonstrations and performed a least squares curve fitting through pseudo-inverse operation, the comrades were a little excited. After all, not everyone is a mathematician or has a decent grasp of mathematics, and some comrades may not be able to write their own functions for this level of operation.

The least squares curve fitting method is to fit a function through some measured actual point data, and the curve of this function coincides or is as close to these points as possible. In this way, the entire curve can be derived from partial data, such as the working condition curve.

It is a very commonly used mathematical method in engineering applications.

"This is great! If I had this stuff, I wouldn't have to spend so much time processing the test data, and I could speed up the process so much!" It's not that the comrades don't know how to calculate, it just takes time to do it.

"The fit is very good." Although there is no graph, some experienced comrades have estimated the positional relationship between the curve and the original points through mental calculation.

"Of course, anyone who dares to do this must be quite confident." "Where can we get this software? Our research group can buy it." Software may be one of the few scientific research resources at this time that does not require approval due to insufficient production quantity, so everyone is still confident about purchasing it.

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "There's no need to buy it. Let's just keep watching."

After hearing his words, the comrades realized that, ah, it’s not over yet!
Gao Zhendong continued to execute the interrupted .m file, and an image consisting of a fitting curve and original points began to appear on the computer screen.

“This thing can actually draw pictures automatically!!” Although we know that computers theoretically have this capability, for most comrades, computer programming skills have not reached this level. When this picture appeared on the screen, the comrades present were very excited.

Intuitive images always touch people's hearts more directly than abstract numbers, just like a check for 100 million may not move people, but 100 million in cash may make people move.

"Comrade, is this graphing function universal? Can any data be graphed?" A comrade couldn't help but ask. He didn't know Gao Zhendong.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, it is universal. You can use this function to make most of the graphs you need, whether it is discrete data or a certain function. Of course, some functions and graphs cannot be made, such as Weierstrass function, Dirichlet function, Hilbert curve, Peano curve and so on."

The comrades all laughed. Those who could say these names seemed to have some knowledge of mathematics, even better than some of the comrades here. At least some of those who were engaged in engineering applications might not know these.

When Gao Zhendong began to use this matrix operation software for dynamic system simulation and circuit analysis, his colleagues began to be excited, including those doing theoretical research. They might not be able to use these, but these examples demonstrated the capabilities of this software.

It's not that they don't know how to do these simulations and analyses, but it's definitely not that easy. With just a few or a dozen lines of code, they can complete these tasks, and there are data and images, and the images can even move! This is extremely convenient for their research work.

For some research that requires experiments to be confirmed, on the premise of fully understanding the theory and coming up with an algorithm, a group of objects can be screened out through computers to narrow the scope of the research.

Not only that, but matrix calculation itself is a very useful set of mathematical tools.

When Gao Zhendong began to demonstrate Laplace transform, Fourier transform and z transform on the computer, many comrades almost shed tears, especially those who were engaged in automatic control and communications.

Those who understand will understand the three major changes.

Again, it’s not that I can’t do the math, it’s just that I’m too lazy to do it. It takes too much time and is prone to errors.

"Comrade, can this software be provided to us?" Many comrades asked the same question.

Fortunately, there is no need to fight over the software, otherwise this place might have turned into a fight.

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "I am only responsible for making this thing. As for how to distribute it, that is the responsibility of the competent authority."

There is no need to keep this thing confidential, but it is hard to say at this stage. Gao Zhendong decided not to lose his hair for this matter. What does the distribution have to do with me?

The director of the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry smiled and said, "Yes, yes, yes, we will discuss the use license of this software with the Defense Work Committee."

Several deans of engineering-related departments were not happy: "Nonsense, we have to get involved in this. I'm not good at theory, and you're not good at application. Leave this difficult task to us."

Everyone present laughed, and one comrade said with regret: "It would be great if this software could do calculus..."

The comrades all looked at him with an expression that said “you are so shameless”. He seemed to think that what he said was a bit outrageous. He touched his head and laughed, “Greedy, greedy, hahahaha.”

When the software is started, the words “Matrix Calculation” are clearly visible.

Gao Zhendong looked at him and said, "Yes, I can do it. Not to mention calculus, I can even solve partial differential equations."

There are not many people who do applied research and have not used partial differential equations in depth, and there are not many who do not have a headache about partial differential equations.

"Huh?" Everyone's eyes were once again focused on Gao Zhendong, and everyone was feeling anxious.

Gao Zhendong sat down, opened a .m file, solved a simple partial differential equation with about twenty lines of code, and plotted the solution of the equation on the screen in the form of a three-dimensional surface.

This is really a bomb!

No matter how simple this equation is, it is still a partial differential equation. Judging from the code, there is no doubt that this ability can be reproduced with a small amount of code and functions!

A comrade rushed to Gao Zhendong and grabbed his hand: "I want this software, I need it right away!"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Behind her, comrades echoed one after another, and many of them were eager to try.

The Department of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, the various departments of applied sciences, and the National Defense Working Committee, all of them, go away. I will hold on to this original author!

The director of the Department of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry did not expect this result. He looked at Gao Zhendong with 9% excitement and 1% helplessness.

"Commissioner Gao, didn't you say that this is a matrix calculation software?" I was caught off guard.

His words shocked many comrades who didn’t know Gao Zhendong: “Commissioner??!!”

Gao Zhendong is quite special. Apart from his name, even his resume has not been published within the Academy of Sciences. There are few comrades like him, and many more are hiding in the desert and have no chance of participating in the evaluation for the time being.

Many comrades did not know him, but when the dean of the department called him "committee member", they realized that he was actually a scientific committee member!

How could there be such a young committee member? Comrades felt that in this most scientific place, the most unscientific thing happened.

Some comrades thought that they had just thought that this was a programmer from the Institute of Computing. After all, many people knew Director Chi of the Institute of Computing. Then, looking at Gao Zhendong's young face, they felt that the world seemed a little unreal for a moment.

(End of this chapter)