From top student in college to scientific research powerhouse

Chapter 47 Tablecloth? We made a ball!
Among physics doctoral students, Liao Shuyan's ability level is at the upper level.

His math skills are quite good, and he also understands some optics and polymer chemistry. He can do routine calculations related to refraction and scattering without any problems.

Liao Shuyan helped Zhang Minghao with the math calculations.

Xu Chao joined soon after.

Xu Chao's skill level is slightly lower, but he can still complete the calculation even with the given specific formulas.

Later, Chen Lanjun also joined.

Four doctoral students in the workshop worked together on the same task, making even complex calculations interesting and greatly improving work efficiency.

The most important aspect of revising the 'spherical stealth solution' design is the calculation.

By nesting conventional materials within a framework, it is necessary to calculate the effects of refraction and scattering. Different combinations of materials will result in different systems, which also involves a greater amount of computation.

The ultimate goal is to develop a suitable solution.

The reason why it is considered a suitable solution is because of limited funding; some expensive materials, such as gold nanoparticles, are simply not within the scope of the design consideration.

The design of the scheme requires a large amount of computation.

Zhang Minghao has a high level of mathematical ability. "Correct Perception" improves the speed and quality of calculations, but the effect is not obvious when it comes to regular calculations.

The routine calculations are simple and easy to understand; you can tell how to do them at a glance, so there's no need for "Correct Perception".

With three people helping, the work efficiency is much higher.

They were busy until 7:30 p.m. that day, and Zhang Minghao treated everyone to dinner, which was the first time the four of them from the workshop had a meal together.

Zhang Minghao and Chen Lanjun are quite familiar with each other.

Liao Shuyan and Xu Chao always stay in the lab, and when they meet, they hardly talk to each other, probably partly because the 'pre-project experiment' was proven wrong some time ago.

The 'pre-project experiments' are related to the content of their graduation theses.

Logically speaking, any errors in the experiment will be discovered sooner or later, but anyone would feel a little awkward when faced with something related to graduation.

This get-together helped resolve our inner conflicts.

Liao Shuyan and Xu Chao discussed their graduation thesis. They knew that Zhang Minghao was highly skilled and might be able to offer some feasible suggestions.

"I think we should focus our efforts on experiments in the stanene direction."

“I talked with Professor Xue and others before, and we analyzed the phenomenon of bismuth telluride by comparing experimental data. Professor Chen should have been doing this research.”

"If Professor Chen makes a discovery, you can use it to conduct experiments to prove it. Isn't that an achievement?"

Liao Shuyan and Xu Chao immediately looked at Chen Lanjun.

Chen Lanjun said energetically, "That's really true. Yesterday, Professor Chen said that by comparing the data, we found that a surface bismuth atom seems to be related to the products of several experiments."

"He was unsure because the experimental products were unstable and the results were only from data analysis."

Zhang Minghao immediately said, "You can ask Teacher Chen and then do the experiment to determine the result."

Liao Shuyan and Xu Chao exchanged a glance, thinking that it seemed they should still seek Professor Chen Shuai's guidance for their experiments.

Professor Zhu and Professor Xue neglected their duties, becoming obsessed with 'new physical phenomena,' while only Professor Chen Shuai diligently persisted in working on projects.

Professor Chen is still the most reliable!

……

The next day, they continued with calculations, and the four of them worked until 5 p.m.

Zhang Minghao entered the last data, reviewed the model from beginning to end, and immediately showed delight.

"finished!"

The other three people gathered around to look.

The screen still displays a bunch of mathematical symbols, various lines with arrows, and a 3D graphic on the left.

They understood.

It is a polyhedral spherical structure composed of three types of light-transmitting particles and one type of light-absorbing particle.

Liao Shuyan asked curiously, "Is that all? Can the Optical Research Institute manufacture it?"

"should be no problem."

Zhang Minghao stared at the screen and said, "It's not a metamaterial. They have specialized equipment for arranging crystal particles at the 0.1 millimeter level or larger."

Xu Chao asked curiously, "How much would it cost to make this?"

“Finding an external manufacturer would probably cost over 500,000 yuan, right?” Zhang Minghao gave a rough estimate, then continued, “Professor Sun Wen’s team used equipment from the Institute of Optics, so it was just at cost price.”

Xu Chao breathed a sigh of relief and pressed on, "How much is it?"

"It's between 150,000 and 300,000, but I'm not sure. I'll have to ask."

Zhang Minghao shook his head.

The other three grimaced as they listened, "This big toy is really expensive!"

"Hundreds of thousands!"

"This money is enough to buy ten drones..."

Liao Shuyan and Xu Chao exchanged a glance, suddenly feeling a sense of anticipation. What would it be like to build such a large toy, worth hundreds of thousands of yuan, which was actually an 'invisible model'?
……

Zhang Minghao couldn't wait to go to the Institute of Optics and handed the design proposal to Sun Wen.

Sun Wen carefully reviewed the plan, adjusted her glasses, and asked, "Are you really going to do it?"

She was a little unsure.

On the one hand, there is a lack of confidence in the original design, and on the other hand, the principles behind the revised design are not understood.

On the other hand, it's very expensive!

She stated bluntly, "The research institute can definitely build it, it should only take two days, but the equipment costs money to start, and the material costs are not low either."

"I roughly estimate that it will cost at least 200,000, and the operational costs will also be considerable."

Zhang Minghao asked, "Is there enough funding left?"

“It’s basically enough, but we might use it all up…” Sun Wen said, sounding a little distressed.

With a budget of over 200,000 yuan, how many routine experiments could be conducted!
Making something can use up all your money in one go.

"Then do it!"

Zhang Minghao spoke frankly, saying nonchalantly, "If the funding is gone, it's gone. I still need to rely on this to attract sponsorships." Sun Wen reluctantly agreed.

She didn't think the new design would produce a very effective stealth device.

The issue of 'sponsorship' goes without saying.

But she was just a "worker" under a budget, and could only do what her employer wanted. After all, whoever pays the money has the final say.

As Zhang Minghao finished speaking and was about to leave, he suddenly stopped, turned around and instructed, "Professor Sun, don't spread the design plan. I still need to apply for a patent for it."

Sun Wen was taken aback. "We need to apply for a patent?"

"We'll know once it's built."

Zhang Minghao didn't offer much explanation. He gave the design to Sun Wen and then just waited for the invisible material to be manufactured.

Sun Wen didn't quite understand the new design, but she had no problem building things according to the plan.

She contacted Deng Jiashan, a senior engineer at the institute.

Deng Jiashan is an expert in the grinding and manufacturing of high-precision optical materials and can help manufacture standardized optical material particles.

In addition, she also sought out equipment expert Wang Haitao to help adjust equipment parameters to complete other tasks.

Sun Wen and her team worked in the lab for two days and finally succeeded in manufacturing the material.

The finished product is made of a material similar to polyvinyl chloride, which is the same as a transparent tablecloth used on dining tables. It is just brighter, meaning that the front is more transparent, but the back is made of light-absorbing material, so it is opaque.

When the entire 'tablecloth' was finished, everyone sighed in disappointment.

"More than two hundred thousand?"

"If you take it home and spread it on the table, it really works; it feels like you're spreading money on it..."

Sun Wen also sighed in disappointment.

She had some expectations, but the result was even worse than their original design.

“Puff~~~”

Wang Haitao couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Sun Wen looked over in annoyance.

Wang Haitao immediately said, "I'll turn off the equipment, turn off the equipment..." and quickly got to work.

The news that Sun Wen had created an opaque tablecloth from an invisible material spread throughout the entire research institute in a short time.

In the director's office.

Tan Yanming pressed his forehead hard, both laughing and crying, "This matter... is really..."

He was at a loss for words.

Across from me is Wang Qingxin, the head of the Department of Physics and a researcher at the Institute of Optics.

Wang Qingxin sighed, "Sun Wen is such a stubborn person!"

"When we suggested she develop stealth materials, we meant radar stealth, not visual stealth, but she insisted on researching some kind of invisibility cloak technology."

He shook his head as he spoke.

A while ago, Sun Wen carried out experiments with great boldness, which made the other groups envious.

The problem is that she was using the school's personal funds supporting Zhang Minghao. 500,000 yuan may seem like a lot, but it's not much when invested in experiments.

Now they're trying to make invisible materials, but all that investment has resulted in just a tablecloth?
"Five hundred thousand, that's pretty much all gone, isn't it?" Tan Yanming said with a smirk.

"I estimate there aren't many left."

"Good that the money's all gone. Now that it's all gone, the farce is over. That's the reputation we've got..."

Tan Yanming continued to press his forehead.

He was genuinely worried.

Everyone at the school knows that Zhang Minghao has 500,000 yuan in personal funds.

For a laboratory, 500,000 yuan in funding is not a lot, but for an individual, it is a lot.

Generally, applying for a medium-sized project only yields a few million in funding, but it's important to know that there's a team working on it, and the funding period is several years.

Spending 500,000 yuan a month is truly the height of extravagance.

If this gets out, won't others say that the Institute of Optics 'scammed' the doctoral students' funding?

Does it feel wrong to do this?
Zhang Minghao's insistence is one thing.

It's normal for a young person to have a strong passion for scientific research after just discovering a new physical phenomenon.

Sun Wen?

That was a problem child... no, a problem woman!

"Hey~~~"

Tan Yanming and Wang Qingxin could only sigh together.

At the same time, Sun Wen was on the phone with Zhang Minghao, her tone filled with extremely complicated emotions, "Have you seen the photos I sent you?"

"Utter failure! Utterly utter failure!"

"They said it looked like a tablecloth, a tablecloth... more than 200,000 yuan went down the drain..."

Her voice even trembled with sobs at the end.

"I saw it."

Zhang Minghao paused for a moment, then asked with a look of confusion, "Professor Sun Wen, do you know what we're building?"

"Stealth device?"

"Full name?"

"A spherical stealth device?"

"That's right!"

Zhang Minghao said, full of confusion, "We designed a spherical stealth device. Even if we've made the materials, we still need to build a sphere first to see if it will be effective, right?"

"Never mind, I'll go take a look!"

(End of this chapter)