Research starts with PhD students

Chapter 141: Isn't this necessary? Signing an agreement? My first lecture as a professor

"Studying winning lottery numbers?"

"Go crazy!"

"Maybe they are just too idle. Sun Xingli is very idle, and Zhang Shuo doesn't seem to be busy recently..."

Luo Yongjun muttered a few words under his breath, then sat on the sofa and watched Zhang Shuo and Sun Xingli discuss together.

He found that their discussion involved very advanced statistics, function theory, and even... differential equations?
How is this involved?

Luo Yongjun felt a little curious. He really couldn't imagine how the analysis of lottery numbers could be connected with differential equations?
Finally, I shook my head and sighed, "You are not doing your job properly!"

Qi Zhixiang also pushed the door open and walked in. After he entered, he glanced at Luo Yongjun, then sat over and asked in a low voice, "What's going on?"

"You won't believe it if I tell you."

Luo Yongjun said seriously, "Study the winning numbers of the Hong Kong Mark Six Lottery."

"..."

Qi Zhixiang and Luo Yongjun had the same reaction. He was silent for a long time and commented, "This is unlikely to be done, right?"

"I remember reading some foreign reports saying that some people used mathematics to analyze the winning numbers, but the reports were distorted and exaggerated. There was indeed mathematical analysis, but it was a comprehensive purchase, and only good luck would win the prize."

"Later, as the story spread, it became a matter of researching a pattern and then winning the prize."

He shook his head, glanced over there, and sighed, "It must have been Sun Xingli's idea!"

Luo Yongjun agrees with this, "Dali always does some crooked things and never learns from them."

The two of them criticized Sun Xingli from head to toe.

Zhang Shuo and Sun Xingli did not continue.

When Zhang Shuo noticed Qi Zhixiang had also entered the office, he turned his head and asked, "Professor Qi, is there something wrong?"

"Two things."

Qi Zhixiang said quickly, "One is the seminar, and the other is the lecture."

He explained.

Qi Zhixiang and Luo Yongjun came here for the seminar on nonlinear partial differential equations.

Nonlinear partial differential equations is a large category of mathematics, but there are actually only a few top professors in the school. Qi Zhixiang is one, Luo Yongjun is one, and others include Su Bingkang, Li Weihua and others.

Qi Zhixiang and Luo Yongjun are the most famous. They have both conducted very important research and have a certain influence internationally, so they are directly responsible for matters related to the seminar.

Luo Yongjun said, "If you have time, you can help receive the team from the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences the day before the seminar. A team of people came from the Institute of Mathematics, including Academician Yan Chongwen."

"Of course, if you don't have time, forget it."

"Also, at the opening of the seminar, could you please give a small report, a work report will do, and the duration should be controlled within 20 minutes."

Zhang Shuo nodded. "That's all fine. I should be able to find the time."

"That's good."

Luo Yongjun breathed a sigh of relief. He attached great importance to the seminar. It was not the first time that the school held a seminar on nonlinear partial differential equations, but this time he was one of the persons in charge and it was also his first time as the person in charge. He still hoped to do a good job.

This seminar is also very different because the number of submitted papers and the number of scholars who applied to participate are very large, even larger than a slightly larger academic conference.

The number of people coming is expected to exceed two hundred, and may reach as high as four hundred.

There are many scholars with senior professional titles and even academicians from the School of Mathematics participating. The university attaches great importance to this and the School of Mathematics has made preparation for the seminar its main task.

After talking about the work of the seminar, Qi Zhixiang talked about another thing.

“Lecture.”

He explained, "Professors in the school have a minimum teaching time. The School of Mathematics considers your situation and recommends that you take time to give a lecture for about 200 people in the large classroom of the School of Science."

“You can think about the content of the lecture yourself, or you can choose a topic.”

“You can also share your research experience at lectures, but this may require preparing a manuscript.”

Zhang Shuo nodded. "I have time recently, so I can arrange it directly for next week. The content of the lecture..."

“Just share your experience.”

He said, "If it's just a lecture, it should be very casual, right? For example, I can go on stage and talk about other things, or talk about some professional things."

"That's no problem."

Qi Zhixiang said, "The people who come to listen to the lectures will at least be master's students or doctoral students. There may be faculty members who will also come to listen."

"Okay then, you guys set a time and I'll go then."

Zhang Shuo said casually that he didn't take the matter seriously, it was just a lecture and he could face it easily without even making any preparations.

He has some experience in giving lectures, so he can just use the content without having to prepare anything special.

If you really have nothing to say, you can also ask and answer questions with the students.

He talked about whatever the students wanted to hear. Qi Zhixiang left, and Luo Yongjun sat on the sofa, waiting for Zhang Shuo and Sun Xingli to come and have dinner together.

Zhang Shuo and Sun Xingli made a research summary and then determined several sets of numbers.

Then the two of them fell into trouble.

The numbers have been analyzed, but how to buy it? Mark Six lottery can only be bought in Hong Kong, and the Mark Six lottery on the Internet are all illegal websites.

Finally, Sun Xingli thought of a solution. He contacted a classmate from Gangcheng University of Technology and asked him to help buy lottery tickets as soon as possible and then send them by the fastest expedited express.

"I've researched it and found that you can buy three lottery tickets with the same number at a time. It takes at least three days to ship from Hong Kong to here. The expedited delivery fee is also very expensive. Each mailing costs about 40 yuan."

"If we buy it and mail it to you as soon as possible, and it arrives here before the prize is drawn, we can watch the prize drawing program with the lottery ticket..."

"We analyzed eight numbers in total. We only bought one ticket per issue, so it would cost 120 yuan for three issues. Add the mailing fee, and it would be 160 yuan, 160 yuan per week."

"Give me two hundred each time, and the rest will be considered as labor fees. What do you think of my idea?"

Zhang Shuo nodded gently, "Two hundred yuan a week, eight hundred yuan a month, each of us will pay four hundred yuan, let's buy it for a month and see how it goes."

Sun Xingli said excitedly, "Yes, just buy it for one month first, then you give me 400 yuan, and we sign an agreement. Brothers should settle accounts clearly. If we win the first prize, we will split it equally..."

Luo Yongjun sat on the sofa and couldn't help but complain, "It's not that serious, is it? Why sign an agreement? Do you really think you can win the prize?"

"Of course, this is the result of our more than two hours of research!"

"Lao Luo, what do you know! This is not about winning the lottery, this is about math!"

"What if? Just in case!"

Sun Xingli and Zhang Shuo refuted together.

They formally printed out a simple agreement and signed their names on it. There was also a witness' name on the agreement - Luo Yongjun.

……

The classmate Sun Xingli found was very reliable. He sent three express deliveries in more than a week, and the express deliveries arrived in the afternoon of the day when the lottery was drawn.

But the winning numbers are not very reliable.

Sun Xingli specially found the live broadcast link of the lottery draw and dragged Zhang Shuo to watch the draw three times, but in the end, they didn’t win even a small prize.

As the saying goes, 'the first time is the best, the second is weaker, and the third is the worst'. After three draws, Sun Xingli lost all interest.

Zhang Shuo didn't care at all. He and Sun Xingli bought lottery tickets together just to live up to their research. The difficulty of the research task established by the system was only E-level, which meant that there was no innovation at all. It was just like solving a math problem.

No matter how many 'math problems' you do, there is no direct correlation between that and winning the lottery.

So he had nothing to be disappointed about.

On the other side, Hong Kong University of Technology.

Xue Fengge is Sun Xingli’s college classmate. He is a visiting scholar at Gangcheng University of Technology, doing postdoctoral research.

When Xue Fengge heard Sun Xingli's "strange" request, he originally wanted to refuse. After all, it was not worth it for him to run errands for a 20 yuan tip.

But when he heard that the number was researched by Sun Xingli and Zhang Shuo together, and was bought jointly by Sun Xingli and Zhang Shuo, Xue Fengge immediately became interested. Zhang Shuo is too famous. Xue Fengge cannot be said to be a fan of Zhang Shuo, but he also admires him very much.

Since it was Zhang Shuo who wanted to buy the lottery ticket, Xue Fengge agreed directly.

While helping to buy lottery tickets, he also bought one ticket with the same numbers, hoping that Zhang Shuo's math level would help them win the prize together.

After three consecutive episodes, Xue Fengge's idea became, "Forget it!"

"It's been three draws, and I can't even win the smallest prize. My luck is so bad. When it comes to buying lottery tickets, it's meaningless no matter how good your math skills are..."

He continued to perform his job of helping to buy lottery tickets. Anyway, he only helped for a whole month, which was only four times. He bought them on his way home from work.

Today is the prize-giving day again.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, it was delivered to the research institute building quickly and on time.

After opening the express, Zhang Shuo casually put the lottery ticket into the drawer and continued to prepare for the lecture. The school had already carried out publicity, and he was about to go to the auditorium to give a lecture. The theme of the lecture was "Mathematical Research and Application".

He prepared several contents, including sharing some experiences in the research process, exploring some contents of mathematical applications, and some professional things, such as mathematical description of some things in life.

When the time was almost up, Zhang Shuo went to the large classroom on the first floor of the Science School building.

The classroom is already overcrowded.

This was the first time that Zhang Shuo had officially taught a class since he became a professor, and it was also a public lecture.

He is very famous, so naturally a lot of people sign up for his lectures.

In order to limit the number of people, the school has adopted a registration and review method. Only graduate students and above from the School of Mathematics and the School of Physics can register, and places are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Even so, there were more than two hundred people in the classroom.

Many faculty members came to attend the class, including some professors from the School of Mathematics, who came without registering, forcing some people to stand in the back row of the classroom.

Some people simply stood by the back door or even in the corridor, and it was unclear whether they wanted to listen or watch.

(End of this chapter)