In 1978, I was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 286 Promotion! Salary Increase! And a Cutting-Edge New Course for Xie Wei

"The school's work results have exceeded the ministry's expectations. The 100 machining centers are to support the ongoing research into CNC technology... The ministry has a very urgent need for high-precision, multi-axis CNC machine tools..."

Upon meeting, Vice Minister Hu highly praised the school's breakthroughs in CNC systems.

"Don't worry, Minister, we will definitely continue our efforts!"

Du Guowang happily assured the minister.

100 units, 3600 million yuan. Although Harbin Institute of Technology can only get about 800 million yuan in net profit, it means that the research and development of CNC technology will not only not need the university-enterprise office and the university to provide financial support when orders increase, but will also have corresponding funding to support the research of the university-enterprise office and other projects of the university.

"Minister Hu, let's get in the car and go to the school first!"

After exchanging pleasantries, Liu Debao gestured for Vice Minister Hu to get into the car.

"Xie Wei, you'll ride in the same car as us."

Xie Wei, who was personally selected by his superior to pick him up at the station, did nothing more than nod and smile at Vice Minister Hu at the beginning. Xie Wei, who was complaining about his superior wasting his precious time, could only helplessly follow Vice Minister Hu into the middle jeep when he heard this.

"Secretary Liu, Principal Zhang, what are your school's considerations regarding Xie Wei's work arrangements?"

As soon as the car started, Vice Minister Hu got straight to the point.

Zhang Mingqiu and Liu Debao exchanged a glance, both seeing the bitter smile on each other's faces.

"???"

Xie Wei was completely bewildered.

Isn't it good that I'm like this now?
They can get involved in whichever project they want, without holding any official position, yet they can still intervene in and guide various projects of the school-enterprise cooperation office.

They can enjoy rights, but they don't have to bear any responsibility when problems arise.

How good!

Who exactly wants to harm me?
Could it be that some leader in the department dislikes me and wants to get rid of me?

I haven't offended anyone.

"Boss, I'm only a junior in college..."

"Can an experimental class be trained according to the normal university curriculum? Besides, what you're doing now is something an ordinary college student could do?"

Vice Minister Hu reprimanded Xie Wei with a stern face.

Someone really wants to harm me!

"Sir, Comrade Xie Wei did not hold any official position, but he did a lot of work. The achievements the school has made in the relevant business of the school-enterprise office are all thanks to him."

Zhang Mingqiu was also worried that someone in the ministry wanted to harm Xie Wei, so he hurriedly praised Xie Wei for his merits.

"Yes, Comrade Xie Wei may not hold any official position, but he is very conscientious and responsible in his work..."

"Without holding a position, doing certain things becomes illegitimate. Achieving results is fine, but what if problems arise?"

Vice Minister Hu turned and glanced at the two of them.

The two were silent.

Xie Wei became even more convinced that someone wanted to harm him.

Damn it, the things I did didn't cause any problems or serious consequences, right?
"Although Comrade Xie Wei is still in school, he is already a level 10 technician, right?"

Vice Minister Hu asked again.

Sitting next to Vice Minister Hu, Xie Wei turned to look at Zhang Mingqiu and Liu Debao.

Because of his busy schedule with work and studies, Mo Lingyu helped Xie Wei collect the food tickets and meal tickets issued by the school, and Xie Wei would just leave them in his office drawer. Mo Lingyu also helped him get his meals.

salary?

Xie Rou had gone out with Fang Pengju to test rocket launchers for more than a year, and Xie Wei basically had no expenses. In addition, his father Xie Jianguo would send money over from time to time, but Xie Wei never received any!
"Boss, I'm already in school."

Xie Wei entered Harbin Institute of Technology in 78, and he attended university while on a salary.

Xie Rou, from the class of '79 who took the college entrance exam, had her salary converted into a student grant. Those whose family's per capita income exceeded 30 yuan were no longer eligible for the grant. Xie Jianguo was the factory director, and Xie Wei also received a salary. Their combined salaries directly raised the Xie family's per capita income to over 50 yuan…

Therefore, Xie Rou does not exist.

Xie Rou doesn't usually spend money. She follows Fang Pengju's team, and Wang Yuting takes care of her meals and other needs.

Level 10 technician is the highest level of technician below engineer, with a monthly salary of 86.5 yuan. Level 9, which is the engineer level, is the next highest level.

"...Therefore, Xie Wei's abilities far exceed those of an engineer, but his age and work experience..."

Zhang Mingqiu then explained the matter of Xie Wei's salary.

"The ministry has discussed this matter. Since it's a pilot program, there's no need to stick to the old ways. Technician level 10 corresponds to deputy section chief level 18 in administration. With Comrade Xie Wei's work ability and experience, his salary can definitely be raised to 110.5 yuan, which is equivalent to a section chief level 16..."

Vice Minister Hu's words left Xie Wei stunned.

"A section chief is responsible for some of the work of a deputy division chief, which is not a problem."

Zhang Mingqiu instantly understood what Vice Minister Hu meant.

"Yes, with Comrade Xie Wei's abilities and achievements, earning the salary of a deputy director at the administrative level 13 is not a problem!"

"He's still young."

Xie Wei heard everything they said, but the more he listened, the more confused he became.

I don't understand what they're talking about. Are they just people who are after that little bit of salary?

He didn't understand, but he didn't dare to ask.

I could only suppress my curiosity and wait for the right moment to ask.

Xie Wei endured this until the afternoon when he saw Vice Minister Hu off, finally having the opportunity to question Liu Debao and Zhang Mingqiu.

“It’s not that anyone wants to harm you. You’re in charge of such important work. If you don’t have a position, you’ll easily attract criticism, and the department is even more worried that you’ll be poached by other units… Now that things are the way they are, no one can criticize you for arranging the work of the school-enterprise office. It will also be of great benefit to your future development.”

Liu Debao explained to Xie Wei with a smile.

Like Zhang Mingqiu, he had previously worried that some people couldn't stand seeing Harbin Institute of Technology doing well.

It's now confirmed that the ministry is dissatisfied with the school for not giving Xie Wei a suitable position, mainly because they're afraid he'll be poached by the school.

"I'm not working hard for a promotion or a raise! I just want to contribute to socialist construction and make my own contribution."

Xie Weiyan said this insincerely.

Although the higher the position, the greater the responsibility, which man doesn't want more power in his hands?

However, Xie Wei also knew that with his current status, if his administrative rank was too high, it would be easy for problems to arise, while if his rank was too low, some things would be more troublesome to do.

“It’s not that the ministry or the school doesn’t want to give you a higher position; a 23-year-old section chief is extremely rare nationwide. But you’re being asked to do the work of a deputy section chief…”

Zhang Mingqiu thought Xie Wei felt that the rank of section chief was too low.

He hurriedly offered an explanation.

Xie Wei is only 23 years old!

Giving someone a deputy director position is likely to draw criticism; there won't be any real problems, but there will be a lot of trouble.

"???"

Xie Wei didn't understand.

"The university will establish an Office for Industry-University-Research Cooperation, at the level of a section chief. You will serve as the office director..."

"Wait a minute..." Xie Wei looked at the two of them incredulously. When did they discuss this?

With the establishment of the School-Enterprise Cooperation Office, isn't the creation of the Industry-University-Research Cooperation Office redundant with its responsibilities?
Is it really just to give myself an administrative rank?
It was only then that Xie Wei remembered that after Vice Minister Hu arrived, he had mentioned several times the need for close cooperation between industry, academia, and research institutions. He stressed the importance of further deepening and expanding industry-academia-research cooperation on the existing basis, promoting the transformation of university research results, helping enterprises enhance their market competitiveness, and solving the problem of university research funding, etc.

"What is the problem?"

"I need to study, and I also have research work to do..."

"That's not a problem. You can work and study at the same time! By the way, the school has too many projects and professors have too many research topics, resulting in a shortage of teaching staff. After a meeting, the school decided to select a group of students from your experimental class to serve as teaching assistants. Your situation is a bit special, so you will serve as a lecturer in the newly established Information Science program..."

What the hell?

Are the school leaders not busy enough?

The school-enterprise cooperation office is still a mess, and no one is willing to take it over; suddenly a new industry-university-research cooperation office appears and I am put in charge, but before I can even take office, I am told that I have become a lecturer?

It's still information science!

This is just a bunch of idiots.

“You can’t blame the school for this. Didn’t you provide Professor Yu Guofeng with a paper titled ‘A Plan for the Construction of an Information Science System’? Yu Guofeng thought it was very important; it’s a new discipline…”

Xie Wei didn't know how to answer.

The stone he lifted once again fell on his own foot.

From the moment he entered Harbin Institute of Technology, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a paper-producing machine. In order to speed up various supporting processes, he wrote a lot of papers after submitting "On the Differences and Connections between PLC and CNC" to Du Guowang on the train.

In order to avoid attracting attention, and because Xie Wei did not seek fame, he did not intend to publish a paper.

Once many technologies are published in papers, given the lack of basic research in China, the ultimate beneficiaries are often foreign research institutes and companies with advanced technology, rich experience, and strong financial resources.

Putting aside other things, Microsoft's operating system is the most obvious example—Microsoft is only a few years old now, and it will be 5 years before the release of the Windows operating system.

The Computer Science Department of Harbin Institute of Technology has been developing a Windows operating system for over a year.

We need to wait for Huafeng Electronics' microcomputer to be released!

Huafeng's microcomputer was researched by Harbin Institute of Technology. In fact, a finished product already existed, but due to poor hardware performance, it would frequently crash when using a multi-tasking Windows operating system.

Xie Wei was not satisfied with the performance and the product was never put on the market.

"This isn't my fault! You said before that information technology is the future and extremely important. I've discussed it with my colleagues in the computer science department and talked to some professors. We all agree that this is a cutting-edge topic, and no one's understanding of it is as profound as yours..."

Yu Guofeng was not surprised at all by Xie Wei's visit.

Originally, they wanted Xie Wei to join their computer science department, but other professors and leaders at the school disagreed.

Unexpectedly, Xie Wei's paper received great attention from the ministry, and even some bigwigs in the Ministry of Electronics Industry were alarmed. Fortunately, the paper was not authored, otherwise it would have been difficult for him to stay at the university.

"You've also emphasized that this is a major that integrates multiple disciplines such as information theory, cybernetics, computer theory, systems theory, and even artificial intelligence theory... The university has decided to explore this area to support the development of related technologies, and has held several meetings in a row. You are the most suitable candidate..."

"There aren't even any textbooks!"

Xie Wei's lips twitched; he somewhat regretted giving Yu Guofeng this paper in the first place.

The purpose of giving Yu Guofeng the thesis was to help him avoid detours in his computer science research; essentially, it was to have Yu Guofeng do these things to support other disciplines.

As a result, it became my own business again.

"Most courses at the school don't have relevant textbooks; the professors write their own..."

"I'm not a professor!"

Xie Wei rolled his eyes and interrupted Yu Guofeng.

“You’re a lecturer, so the relevant professors, associate professors, and lecturers will all cooperate with you… Besides, you haven’t decided on a major yet, so this cutting-edge field can be your direction…”

Yu Guofeng's words were somewhat irresponsible.

"This isn't the major I want to pursue!"

Xie Wei emphasized this.

"Well, Xie Wei, this semester has been going on for quite some time now. Since you've emphasized how important information technology is in all technological fields and how closely it's related to computers, let's start with the experimental class... The school has decided that Huafeng Factory will produce a batch of microcomputers for the school so that students can become familiar with computer operation. The requirements for the experimental class are higher; they need to learn basic programming, design, and research on the use of computers..."

Yu Guofeng's words left Xie Wei speechless.

He constantly instilled in the school leaders the importance of computers in the future. At the same time, the school-enterprise cooperation office continuously allocated funds to computer and chip projects. In addition, the computer science department expanded its enrollment scale in the past two years and undertook more and more research projects.

The development of multitasking Windows operating systems, computer-aided design and industrial drawing software, and other technologies have enabled the entire computer science department to develop very rapidly.

Even so, the computer science department is still short-staffed.

Entrusting such a cutting-edge research topic to Xie Wei not only reflects the school's high regard for him, but also indicates that the school is short of personnel!

"Okay, let me try."

"It's not a trial, it's your responsibility. You said it yourself, this is also related to national defense... Anyway, you need to prepare the textbooks before the start of next semester, and you also need to submit them to the ministry for review..."

"Shouldn't it be the Ministry of Education?"

Yu Guofeng did not answer Xie Wei's question, but directly said that he was very busy and that Xie Wei should not take up his time.

"Wait a minute, it seems like they all know I'm a lecturer? Why didn't anyone tell me before?"

It was quite some time after leaving Yu Guofeng's office that Xie Wei realized the problem.

That's how I became a lecturer!
He's still a junior in college.

"Sigh, I haven't even learned much yet, and the school insists on making me study telecommunications engineering..."

When Xie Wei returned to his office, he saw Mo Lingyu looking worried and asked her what problem she had encountered again.

Mo Lingyu answered in this way.

“You started out in radio, and now you’ve been working on the program-controlled exchange project for so long, so it’s a good match for your major.”

"What kind of matching is this! I don't know what the school is thinking. Teaching assistants are supposed to be there to support teaching, but the students in our class who are still in school are all in the role of teaching assistants, yet they have to teach classes independently... Aren't they afraid of misleading students!"

Mo Lingyu complained.

"..."

Xie Wei was speechless for a moment.

You can't exactly say, "I'm different from everyone else, I'm a lecturer," can you?

"Class monitor, you're a lecturer, what courses are you responsible for?"

How did even Mo Lingyu find out?

"Didn't you know? It was announced before the end of last semester. All the other students were taking courses in their own research areas, and everyone was curious about what major you would be teaching..."

Is there?

Where were the results for last semester's final exams posted?
Why don’t you know it yourself?

"Information Science".

"It really is a newly offered course. When will you start teaching? I've told the students in my class, and they all want to hear you teach... The learning methods you shared before have benefited the entire school greatly!"

Mo Lingyu didn't ask what information science was a foundational course for her major.

Anyway, the school didn't have this major before.

(End of this chapter)