America: I came here to study, not to show mercy.

Chapter 127: Laboratory, the Troublesome Partner in the Project

"Sean...Sean..."

It was already early morning of the next day. In the data structure and algorithm class, Lucas glanced at Li Xiaoen with a look of surprise from time to time. Li Xiaoen was staring at the computer and lost in thought. Finally, he made up his mind to lean over and called out to him a few times.

Professor Sedgewick was giving a serious lecture at the podium. There were not many students in the classroom, so he walked down from the podium and looked at the projection on the blackboard with the students. He gestured with the laser pen in his hand, which scared Lucas so much that he quickly sat back down.

When the class was over, he quickly stood up and walked to Li Xiaoen's side. Before he could say anything, Professor Sedgewick called out from the podium.

"Lucas, you didn't pay attention in class. I'll punish you by making you clean the lab for a week."

“What the f**k…”

Lucas cursed subconsciously, looking around at Li Xiaoen and Professor Sedgewick who stood up and calmly put away their computers. He noticed that the professor's eyes narrowed slightly, so he quickly shut his mouth.

Seeing Li Xiaoen looking at him with a puzzled look, Lucas's face turned bitter and he couldn't help but raise his head and howl.

There were no more classes today. Li Xiaoen and Lucas, as well as two classmates, Axel and Rayleigh, who had previously studied Apple's test questions, followed Professor Sedgewick to his laboratory.

On the way, Lucas was surprised to see Li Xiaoen following him all the time: "Xiaoen, have you joined the professor's laboratory?"

You know, under the school's specific arrangements, excluding graduate students, this period of time will be reserved for undergraduate courses in Professor Sedgewick's laboratory. Seeing that Li Xiaoen's pace and direction are the same as theirs, this problem can almost be confirmed.

"You're right, I invited Sean yesterday."

Before Li Xiaoen could speak, Professor Sedgewick turned around and said, looking around at the others, "Shao En is the youngest student I invited. You seniors, please take good care of him."

"Sean knows all the test questions for Apple, so we should ask for his help."

Axel and Rayleigh's faces turned strange when they heard this, and they quickly shook their hands.

"I'm talking about other things in the lab besides researching theoretical knowledge."

Professor Sedgewick glanced at them, causing both of their faces to freeze for a moment.

Is it so direct?

Li Xiaoen opened his eyes wide and swallowed his saliva when he saw Axel and the other man nodded in agreement.

He had heard that some graduate supervisors in China were very exploitative and rude to their students. Did he encounter the same thing in the United States?

I came to a Gothic building and walked in. Inside, there were white walls, cool-toned metal, and transparent glass. The decoration was simple and very modern. The styles inside and outside were obviously very different, but surprisingly, it did not feel abrupt.

Entering a spacious laboratory, Professor Sedgewick clapped his hands and greeted everyone, and more than ten heads immediately raised their heads from the areas separated by partitions.

"This is our new team member, Sean, an international student from China. Although he's only a freshman, his knowledge base is quite good."

Professor Sedgewick explained calmly, and the originally dull eyes in the audience suddenly became lively, and they all looked at Li Xiaoen with incomprehensible surprise.

Professor Sedgewick didn't plan to say anything else. Seeing that the scene had fallen silent, Li Xiaoen took the initiative to step forward and introduce himself.

"You all know that Axel and Rayleigh were studying Apple's exam questions. Sean understood their ideas just by looking at them, and I even figured out the solution later based on his suggestions."

After Li Xiaoen finished speaking, Lucas quickly added a sentence.

Until then, the eyes of the people in the audience who had been listening with little interest suddenly lit up and they nodded their heads repeatedly.

Li Xiaoen saw everything, but didn't care. He looked around at everyone and nodded.

This means that he was considered to have entered through the back door or connections.

Just over a month into the school term, he, a freshman, was pulled into such a high-end research laboratory. If he hadn't gotten the system, he might have had the same doubts in his mind.

Based on the three years of study described on the initial learning card, if he hadn't had the system, he would have only been noticed by Professor Sedgewick during his junior year and invited to join the lab. Perhaps if that were the case, their suspicions wouldn't have been so strong. Seeing the situation calm down, Professor Sedgewick nodded to Lucas and led Li Xiaoen to an empty seat.

"Sean, you're only a freshman. Although your knowledge base is not bad, you still need to read more literature and study more. I'll arrange for you to work on the same research direction as a graduate student. You can discuss your research together when you have time, and try to catch up with the development progress as soon as possible. Is that okay?"

"Yes, I understand."

Li Xiaoen nodded.

He had previously learned that in this laboratory, Professor Sedgewick's main research topics involved retrieval enhancement architecture and hierarchical reinforcement learning for large language models. Each student or several students were divided into a module or branch for separate research, and finally summarized to serve the core topic.

"Which direction?" asked Li Xiaoen.

"Interpersonal collaborative reasoning systems are currently making the best and fastest progress."

Professor Sedgewick nodded. "You can take a look at the results of the current progress and learn about the research topics and progress of other students in the team. Then you will have a good understanding of our core topic."

After saying that, he looked around and his face gradually became gloomy.

"..."

Just as Li Xiaoen was feeling an ominous premonition, Professor Sedgewick turned his head and looked at Lucas.

"Lucas, where's Haskell?"

Lucas suddenly stood up from his seat not far away, holding his phone in both hands and looking down anxiously. He looked up and said, "He said he's asked for leave. I sent you the email this morning."

"When?"

"This... morning..."

Professor Sedgewick opened his mouth and wanted to curse out loud, but he took a deep breath and suppressed the anger in his heart.

Turning back, he reluctantly gestured for Li Xiaoen to sit down: "Take a look at the current progress and results first. They are all in our laboratory's cloud storage system."

"Good professor."

Feeling a little amused and helpless, Li Xiaoen nodded and agreed.

He was mentally prepared for some bumps along the way, but he never imagined that he would be partnering with a weirdo or even a troublemaker.

Li Xiaoen shook his head helplessly and copied the files from the storage system.

He quickly skimmed through the first part based on his four years of undergraduate knowledge, and then slowly read on. His expression gradually became surprised, and he finally understood the professor and Lucas's previous reactions.

Professor Sedgewick can tolerate such a troublemaker, so he must be quite capable. It seems that he has come to understand a little bit now.

After a quick browse, Li Xiaoen came to Professor Sedgewick.

"Professor, where is the current model of the R&D progress system stored? I have an idea I'd like to try."

"Have you finished reading?"

Professor Sedgewick looked up from his computer in surprise. Seeing Li Xiaoen nod in agreement, he was even more shocked. His face turned pale. "In Haskell's place."

"We hold a discussion meeting every two weeks to integrate the research progress and results. The next meeting will be on Tuesday of next week. Currently, the latest research results are in the hands of the students in charge."

As he spoke, seeing that Li Xiaoen looked a little uninterested, Professor Sedgewick suddenly thought of something and suggested again with anticipation.

"If you're interested, you could go find him in Haskell's dorm?"

(End of this chapter)