Rebirth 08: Equipment God

Chapter 420 Entropy
There's a saying: Programmers change the world, mathematicians change programmers.

Beyond the applications, games, and operational aspects that serve the general public, many profound fields actually rely on groundbreaking breakthroughs by mathematicians at the fundamental level.

The question "What is the use of learning mathematics?" actually has many answers.

Boolean algebra of "0 and 1" from transistor logic gates.

From matrix multiplication and eigenvalue decomposition in graphics processing.

Then comes the factorization of large numbers in file compression.

Quantitative finance, artificial intelligence, digital currency—behind each of these "reality" concepts that are understandable to the average person, there is always an "abstract" mathematical foundation that is difficult for the average person to comprehend.

Lu Wei's research may still fall short of the perfect "neural network deep learning," and in practice, it requires hardware support. However, it is still a huge step forward in the field and may bring considerable commercial benefits.

Unfortunately, mathematical principles cannot be patented; this is part of the laws of nature, just as you cannot register "1+1=2" to prevent others from using it.

The only way to ensure exclusive results is not to publish them.

For the purely academic community, not publishing is equivalent to "nothing," meaning no fame or profit. But for Lu Wei, she split her research into two parts.

Even when published in a standard version, academic works still possess sufficient advantages and can even shine in the academic world once again.

The enhanced version, they hope, will only be given to Zhai Da, or rather, the Mechanical Research Institute.

This will obviously result in her academic achievements being somewhat lacking, and she may even be overtaken by later generations over time.

But it's a gift, a gift with a distinctly romantic feel.

Zhai Da cannot yet determine the extent of the impact of the lack of this research result.
If it were a piece that could directly challenge the "Fields" level, Zhai Da would never approve of such a thing being fit for a museum.

However, if it's just conventional academic prestige, given his views on the academic community, it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Aside from reputation, pure scholars receive nothing more than tangible rewards, such as funding and personal wealth.

The Institute of Reputation can also provide that, and Lu Wei will receive the reward she deserves.

After all, even if this is a romantic gift from Xiao Mutou, it doesn't mean the recipient won't reciprocate.

Zhai Da picked up Lu Wei. Regardless of how this gift is handled in the future, it is something to be happy about at the moment of receiving it.

A long, passionate kiss, savoring the soft, tender lips.

penetrating.

After a long silence, Zhai Dacai finally parted ways: "This is nice, thank you for your gift~ It's very precious."

"It's not because of you that I have the opportunity to study mathematics in peace."

"By the way, is this model or algorithm? Does it have a name?"

Having finally released her pent-up emotions, Lu Wei's expression gradually returned to its usual cool and aloof demeanor, though a faint trace of a smile remained on her face.

Lu Wei thought for a moment: "Actually, calling it 'deep learning' would be fine too. The boundaries haven't exceeded its framework; it's just an optimization of efficiency. However, that name has already been taken. Let's just call it that."

"Let's explore this further?"

Zhai Da:
"Change it."

"Uh, a deep thirst for knowledge."

"No depth."

"How about the entropy algorithm then?"

"Entropy. What a cool name!"

Little Wood looked a little lost in thought as he stared at the keychain on his desk, which he hadn't placed in its usual spot because he was in a hurry.

The panda-shaped "Panpan" is holding up a gold medal and giving her a big smile.

The light from the desk lamp reflected off the keychain, turning into shimmering spots of light that gently brushed across Lu Wei's face.

It's as if it's saying: Child, I'm so proud of you!

Although it is only one step among many problems, convex and non-convex optimization are of great help to large-scale meteorological models.
She felt that she had taken another step closer to her ideal, to measure... the entropy of the sky and the sea.

But for some reason, while she was lost in thought, "Panpan" gradually drifted further and further away from her.
They were almost out of the room! Lu Wei looked up and asked Zhai Da, who was holding her, "Where are we going?"

Zhai Da grinned: "Didn't I just say that? Didn't you understand?"

"Let's take a bath together~"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The value of this achievement cannot be estimated in the short term; it requires concrete verification.

However, Zhai Da agreed to Lu Wei's proposed splitting of the graduation thesis, since it was just an undergraduate thesis anyway, although theoretically it should be publicly released.

If the release generates a strong response and there is a real possibility that Xiao Mutou could gain a place in the halls of mathematics, a supplementary section can be added later, consisting of a purely academic paper. This is a common practice in academia.

If you publish it first and then add more later, it will be considered the same academic achievement.

Regardless of the approach taken, the "Mechanical Core Research Institute" will be the first organization or company to initiate and validate this achievement.

Zhai Da took some time to meet with Cheng Mo and discuss the situation. Although everyone had been struggling with exams lately, things would improve after the exam week ended.
A mathematics branch under a "research institute" could be established, or it could be called a "mathematics research center".

This was used to verify the application of the "entropy algorithm" in big data processing.

In reality, this "entropy algorithm" still requires a lot of effort to perfect. Lu Wei has only completed the most important mathematical principles, but there are still many steps to be taken.

For example, transforming real-world problems into importable mathematical problems, breaking down the traversal process into parallel tasks, and building suitable algorithm engines.

Only when an algorithm has the complete ability to "input a real-world problem" and "output a solution" can it be transformed into a "model".

And most importantly: hardware support.

Big data computing has been applied for a long time, and the most common applications are data processing in "search engines" and "social platforms," ​​but the efficiency is very low in the current era.

For example, today's top big data technologies come from IBM and require supercomputing to drive them.
Because it relies on CPU performance and the algorithm is inefficient, it's just a matter of brute force.

Currently, GPUs have almost not yet entered the fields of big data or artificial intelligence. The key moment came in 2016 when AlphaGo defeated Ke Jie, causing a global sensation. Only then did the market begin to fully embrace GPUs to replace CPUs in handling big data problems.

Before that, high-performance GPUs were only for gamers and video professionals, but since then, GPUs have become so expensive that they've been forced to buy them, and people are often ripped off by buying second-hand mining cards, which is jokingly referred to as "redeeming people from brothels."

With the subsequent emergence of blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and natural language processing models, GPUs rode several trends, elevating them to god-like status and replacing CPUs as the new king of the global chip industry.

Well, the current GPUs are actually quite weak. Zhai Da knows that GPUs are the future, but the future hasn't arrived yet.

During his conversation with Cheng Mo, Zhai Da proposed the possibility of using GPUs as the cornerstone of big data computing in the future. He noted that the GPUs currently on the market are not actually very powerful, but with proper hardware tuning, they could serve as a long-term research direction.

Cheng Mo always took Zhai Da's opinion seriously and kept it in mind.

Following this, the Mathematics Research Center will become the first purely research branch of the "Mechanical Core Research Institute," completely detached from commercial operations and focusing solely on research itself. This is significantly different from the "Hongtu Project Group" and the "Silicon Carbide Project Group."

Perhaps in the future, there will be "Physics Research Center", "Chemistry Research Center", and so on.

Lu Wei also took the opportunity to become the "Chief & Sole Mathematician" of the research institute, and for the first time, her personal identity was organically combined with the core mechanical research institute, making her a formal employee.

There was also a salary of 30 yuan per year, which was at the lower end of the range among the many employees in the research institute, but it would be easy to get a promotion in the future.

After all, the research institute is wholly owned and controlled by Zhai Da.

Little Wood had no objection to this, nor was he happy about it.

After Utopia disbanded, she had a small savings of 50 yuan, plus the full scholarship from the school and the various one-time bonuses from the "Sensitivity Conjecture" project. After studying for so long, her savings had actually increased.

However, she never really cared about these things. After being trained by Zhai Da, she just didn't "dislike" money as much as before, but she couldn't say she liked it either.

Aside from grocery shopping, she's basically a little Pixiu (a mythical creature in Chinese mythology associated with wealth and prosperity). If a piece of clothing costs over 300 yuan, she'd rather buy the fabric and make it herself.

Perhaps for a mathematical genius, a stable mindset and environment are essential for them to fully dedicate themselves and unleash their full potential.

Just as Lu Wei herself said.

Zhai Da did not help her with any research.

But it was because of Zhai Da that she had the opportunity to study anything.

(End of this chapter)