From top student in college to scientific research powerhouse

Chapter 103 He is absolutely a super math genius!

In ordinary universities, it is difficult to keep any research completely confidential.

This is also why military technology-related departments do not directly connect with research units in universities.

Technology can be kept secret, but things certainly cannot.

The new semester has just begun, and the project developed by Zhang Minghao and Sun Wen's team has already become a hot topic among many school leaders and professors—

"That ball is completely invisible!"

"I've heard about it too. It's amazing; you can't even see it right in front of you..."

"This is strictly constrained scattering, right? That's impossible, isn't it?"

"What do you mean it's impossible? How is it impossible? They've already done it; they've already made the product."

"This is true. I went to the Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and saw it myself. I really can't see anything at all. I'm not exaggerating at all..."

If there are many people sharing the news, then there will definitely be many people reading it.

At first, Sun Wen treasured the invisibility sphere and placed it on her desk. Later, she got tired of it and could only put it on the laboratory table, cover it with a glass cover and display it as an exhibit.

Those who come are only allowed to have a glimpse of the lab if they are qualified to enter.

But nothing can be seen.

When looking at the invisible sphere through the glass, even if you can catch a glimpse of its shape, you feel that it's because the glass is obstructing your view.

Even Principal Shi Chengqian came over, and he asked with suspicion, "Is there nothing inside?"

"Is this the Emperor's New Clothes, are you not even going to pretend anymore?"

Tan Yanming smiled and opened the glass cover, letting Shi Chengqian touch it slightly before he believed that the invisible ball really existed.

Shi Chengqian was immediately stunned.

His expression was exactly the same as that of the others who had confirmed the existence of the invisible sphere.

The people in the lab were used to it.

Sun Wen still found it funny. She glanced into the lab again, then turned to Zhang Minghao and asked seriously, "Are we really not going to do this project anymore?"

She finished speaking and said dejectedly, "I can't do it even if I want to. The management has already notified me that they will send someone to review the funds, which will be next week."

"That would be best. Let's finish the project first."

Zhang Minghao laughed and said, "Professor Sun, you don't need to worry. It's not like you can't do research after you finish the project."

"Do we really need to worry about funding for our research?"

"It's because they gave us too little funding, not because of us. Once the project is finished, any further research we do will be none of their business."

"Whichever side is optimistic about our research, let's sit down and talk again!"

We can't afford to be careless this time!

The completion of a project is a good thing; after it's finished, you're free to do any further research.

It's frustrating when a project has already been approved but only half the funding is provided.

This incident taught us a lesson: we can't just start a project because we've discussed funding; we must discuss the specific funding and all the details.

Everything must be agreed upon, and the signed R&D contract must confirm that all funds have been received and can be used freely before officially starting the project.

There is an old Chinese saying that goes, "Suffering a loss is a blessing; you learn a lesson from every loss you suffer."

That way, I won't fall into this trap again.

……

China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), 32nd Research Institute, Qinghuai Provincial R&D Base.

In a laboratory, several people were looking around a table.

There was a stand on the table with a round white plastic ring floating above it.

This sci-fi-like scene left the surrounding people in awe.

"It really is invisible!"

"You can't see it at all in this light. If you didn't know there was a ball on it, I would have thought the plastic ring was floating."

"Jiangzhou University, Zhang Minghao made this?"

"They made an invisible ball last time, and this is an improved version, an upgrade, the second generation."

"You've already reached Max level!"

Everyone's face showed surprise and curiosity.

The China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) specializes in the research and development of military technology. Its 32nd Research Institute specializes in radar detection and anti-radar technologies.

Their team specializes in infrared detection and counter-detection technologies.

After discovering the 'stealth ball' technology, they felt it would be very useful for infrared radar technology, and later submitted a description to their superiors.

This led to the 'Visual Light Sensing Model' project, which received key support from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The 'Visual Light Sensing Model' project is managed and supervised by relevant departments under the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the reporting and acceptance of results are their responsibility.

Chen Jianfeng, the team leader, exclaimed while watching the invisible sphere, "This technology is amazing, so advanced."

"According to the technical data, it is made by combining and matching micron-sized particles of optical materials."

"I didn't know. I really thought it was the most cutting-edge metamaterial compilation technology."

Another researcher, Xue Fengshan, nodded and said, "It's truly invisible; it's completely undetectable. The only drawback is that it can only be made into a spherical shape."

A stealth technology that can only be effective when made into a spherical shape indicates that it mainly relies on the control of scattering and reflection by particulate optical materials, and then on the control of light refraction to achieve visual invisibility.

In terms of application, the limitations are significant.

"But being able to become invisible is already amazing! Visual invisibility is much more difficult than radar invisibility, let alone relying solely on the control of light rather than absorption."

After Xue Fengshan finished speaking with a sigh, he continued, "I have read their project proposal. The goal is to create an invisibility cloak, which is actually to create a coating material. It should be a research direction towards metamaterials."

"Even if we don't know whether we can achieve the goal, if the final coating material is five or three parts of the quality of this ball, that would be quite remarkable."

Chen Jianfeng nodded, glanced at the table again, walked over to the side to examine it closely, and then looked up and said, "There's something I'm very interested in."

"How did they do it? What kind of research did they conduct?"

“Controlling light through particle composition sounds simple, but why are they the only ones who can do it?”

"Research methods, ideas, and how to conduct the research afterward are all very important!"

He then said to Xue Fengshan, "How about this, let's go to Jiangzhou University and talk to them face-to-face."

“Especially Zhang Minghao, a genius doctoral student, I really want to meet him.”

……

Chen Jianfeng has extremely high mobility.

After deciding to go to Jiangzhou University, he immediately went to the leaders to apply in person, and then selected a few people to go with him.

The relevant leaders contacted Jiangzhou University, but due to the confidentiality issues of the researchers, they only briefly notified the Institute of Optics.

The school will not provide special accommodations.

After Chen Jianfeng, Xue Fengshan, and two others arrived quickly by car, they were greeted only by Tan Yanming, Wang Qingxin, and others.

Zhang Minghao found out later. He went to class and listened very attentively, completely unaware of the message on his phone.

Wang Qingxin searched for the Applied Electromagnetism Laboratory and asked around for quite a while before finally finding the classroom. He was panting as he was called away. As they walked out of the teaching building, he complained, "Why aren't you in the lab? What are you doing here in class?"

"I'm still a first-year PhD student. Is it not normal for me to attend classes?"

Zhang Minghao's words effectively shut down Wang Qingxin.

He simply buried his head and walked forward, saying briefly, "People from higher authorities have come; it must be related to your invisible sphere."

The two headed straight for the Institute of Optics.

After entering the research institute building, we asked around and found the group of people who were visiting the laboratory.

Tan Yanming gave a brief introduction.

Chen Jianfeng immediately shook hands with Zhang Minghao, patted him on the shoulder and laughed, "Zhang Minghao, a genius doctoral student, you're really young. I heard from Academician Tan that you're already a researcher, so you can be called 'Professor Zhang' now."

The others laughed.

Zhang Minghao is only in his early twenties and looks young, so it's normal to call him "classmate," but calling him "professor" feels a bit awkward.

"You're welcome."

Zhang Minghao found it intriguing and laughed, "Team Leader Chen, just call me by my name. I'm not used to being called 'Professor'."

“You’re a researcher now, so you’ll have to get used to it.” Chen Jianfeng said with a smile, then asked Tan Yanming a question before heading straight to the reception room.

The group of people went over.

After entering the reception room, everyone else left on their own, leaving only Zhang Minghao and Sun Wen.

Chen Jianfeng brought up the main topic, "I'm very curious, how exactly did you conduct this research?"

"You mean the experimental and research process?"

"Correct."

Sun Wen began by saying, "Our team is responsible for conducting experiments and measuring the properties of various optical materials."

"For example, for the measurement of micron-sized particles, including the reflection and scattering directions in various directions, the measurement of particle edge characteristics is also very important. The edge is only a line, but because there are corners, the optical properties will have slight differences..."

She talked about the work on detecting micron-sized particles, and added, "Actually, it would be best to be able to do nanometer-sized detection, especially between hundreds of nanometers and tens of thousands of nanometers. More refined data is very valuable for research."

Chen Jianfeng listened and nodded.

The reported results included a large amount of experimental data, all of which were measurements of optical materials.

These are the products created by Sun Wen's team.

He then turned to Zhang Minghao.

Zhang Minghao explained simply, "My job is to do the calculations, refine the research framework based on various detection data, and then make derivations."

He explained, "Our current research focuses on reducing reflection and controlling scattering. With enough material measurement data, we can design models that reduce visual perception."

"That sounds simple..."

Chen Jianfeng nodded thoughtfully and continued, "Could you tell me about your new type of stealth sphere?"

"I see that the results report only contains technical information, describing how the various particles are combined and what kind of structure they form. But how was this researched and developed?"

He was very interested in this question.

The underlying research methods are more valuable than the design itself. It's like solving a math problem; just looking at the answer and knowing how to solve it is not very meaningful. The key is how you came up with the solution method.

With research and thinking methods, you will be able to come up with solutions to other problems in the future.

"That's simple, just do the calculations."

Zhang Minghao went to the back bookshelf, took a stack of manuscript paper, placed it on the table, and began to explain, "First, we measured a lot of material data and then made combinations based on this data."

"The new stealth spheres are made of four different materials and have different shapes. Our goal is to minimize reflection and control scattering, which requires finding the optimal combination among various data..."

"I analyzed the material data and established a basic framework, using the original design..."

"Take a very simple particle, limited to unidirectional scattering, and we can derive a system of equations from the data, assuming..."

"Since we are unsure which structure is the most suitable, we can find a range and assume that this range contains the optimal solution, and then formulate the equations..."

As Zhang Minghao explained, he also scribbled and drew along with the text.

He quickly used up several pages of manuscript, which were filled with a huge amount of characters, so densely packed that they were dazzling to look at.

Chen Jianfeng, Xue Fengshan, and others initially listened attentively, but after solving the first set of equations, they couldn't keep up with the thought process at all.

They had no idea what Zhang Minghao was talking about, nor did they know the purpose of his words.

Chen Jianfeng is the team leader, and he feels it is essential to maintain the team leader's authority.

Even if he didn't understand, he pretended to. He maintained the same posture, watching intently and nodding frequently during the pauses between sentences.

Xue Fengshan looked up and noticed that Sun Wen was focused on picking at her fingers. He asked curiously, "Professor Sun, do you know anything about this?"

"I don't understand."

Sun Wen's statement was perfectly reasonable.

Xue Fengshan continued, "Aren't you going to listen? You guys are doing research together..."

Sun Wen immediately shook her head, "I won't listen. I don't understand. Zhang Minghao explained it to me before, but I gave up after he started."

"This is too complicated; it's simply beyond human comprehension."

Xue Fengshan was stunned for a moment, then looked at Chen Jianfeng, who was listening attentively to the explanation, and found that Chen Jianfeng's eyes were wandering and his head was swaying from side to side.

He immediately burst out laughing.

Chen Jianfeng turned to look at Xue Fengshan, realizing he'd been seen through. He quickly coughed lightly to cover his embarrassment, just as Zhang Minghao began to speak, "So we know that the most suitable structure is still the heptahedron, and next..."

"Alright, alright."

Chen Jianfeng quickly interrupted, "Professor Zhang, that's enough, that's enough. We've pretty much got it. Let's stop here for this part..."

"Do you understand? Really, no need to explain anymore? There's more to come..."

"I understand, I understand."

Zhang Minghao felt that he hadn't had enough. He used the framework to perform the calculations, and many of the solutions he found during the research process relied on system perception capabilities.

However, because he designed it on his own, he also had a clear understanding of the underlying mathematical logic.

During the explanation to Chen Jianfeng, he felt that his understanding of the logic was clearer and that he had even improved.

Chen Jianfeng and Xue Fengshan are a completely different story.

They didn't understand at all.

The only thing we know is that the design involved a lot of mathematical problems, an astonishing amount of calculation, and a very complex logical structure.

There are many problems to be solved, including why a combination of four particulate materials?
Why is it an irregular three-dimensional heptagon?

And how are the specific refractive index and scattering control calculated?
and many more.

Each problem involves a lot of calculations and logical deductions; the 'three-dimensional heptagon problem' alone is an extremely difficult problem.

Chen Jianfeng's gaze towards Zhang Minghao changed.

Previously, I only knew that the other party was a genius doctoral student who had done a lot of research in the fields of electromagnetism and metamaterials.

Now it's been discovered that, setting aside the field of physics, the other person is definitely a super mathematical genius!
(End of this chapter)