Cultivation Shura Field

Then Xu Zhe looked at the senior and said with a smile: "Okay then."

Shen Lan gave him a bright smile, then lowered her head to eat. She ordered less food and ate quickly, so before the two boys finished eating, she cleared her plate first, then stood up with the empty plate.

"I'm leaving now. See you later. Contact me by phone."

Shen Lan walked towards the plate recycling area.

Xu Zhe looked at the girl's back, thoughtfully.

Lin Keji couldn't help but ask, "Is this your girlfriend?"

Xu Zhe shook his head slightly: "No, she's a good friend, not a girlfriend, at least not yet."

Lin Keji: "Does that mean it will be like this in the future?"

Xu Zhe smiled and said nothing.

Regarding this kind of thing, he would no longer firmly say it was impossible. But to start discussing it now... he was not sure whether the goodwill between the two sides had reached that level.

Shen Lan didn't seem to be resolute, and he couldn't find a clear answer to the questions of 'when' and 'who to start'.

----

Not long after dinner, the school broadcast notified everyone to go to the auditorium.

The auditorium was quite spacious, enough to accommodate hundreds of contestants. Most of them were teenagers aged 15 or 16, and were all interested in computer programming. In this environment where people of the same age and who shared a common language were all very excited.

Even when the leader of the winter camp was speaking on the stage, there were still many people in the audience whispering and chatting.

Xu Zhe sat with his new roommate.

Lin Keji wanted to chat, but Xu Zhe looked down at his phone, obviously not wanting to talk, which made Lin Keji scratch his head. He also took out the same smartphone, but didn't know what to do with it.

He secretly glanced at Xu Zhe's phone screen again. Wow, he was chatting with someone on QQ. Without thinking too much, Lin Keji could guess that this guy must be chatting with that pretty short-haired girl!

On the stage, after the leaders finished their speeches, it was the turn of professional teachers and seniors who had won gold medals before to share some competition experiences, telling these young juniors how to adjust their mentality and how to choose between the college entrance examination and the competition...

Xu Zhe kept his head down looking at his phone almost the entire time, only looking up when he heard something he was interested in. Suddenly, the teacher's speech finally piqued his interest.

"…So you can see that the knowledge in the competition is actually closer to real-life applications than the knowledge tested in the college entrance examination. Here I would also like to share with you the research I am doing, which is an AI visual recognition project. I am currently leading a team at Shanghai Jiaotong University to do this project. If I were to recruit a new person for our team, I would rather choose from everyone here rather than from those ordinary top students in the college entrance examination."

Artificial intelligence? Visual recognition project?

These words made Xu Zhe subconsciously raise his head and look at the teacher on the stage.

The teacher was quite young, probably less than 30 years old, and looked a bit dull. But when it came to professional matters, he was quite talkative. In short, he fit Xu Zhe's stereotype of a technology geek.

Taking another look at the large projection screen on the stage, the speaker's name was marked on it - Zou Tianyan.

Professor Zou began to talk about his project: "To put it simply, what we are doing now is to develop a set of AI algorithms to look at pictures and identify whether they are cars, animals, or faces. There is even a professional international competition called the ImageNet Challenge, where everyone competes to see who can come up with a better algorithm and who has a lower recognition error rate."

Hearing this, Xu Zhe straightened his back.

As a programmer, he knows a lot about the history of this field. In his impression, it was from this challenge that people realized that graphics cards could be used to build neural network models. Since then, Yin Weida's graphics cards have soared, and artificial intelligence has become more and more advanced. Later, there was AlphaGo, which plays Go, and chatGPT, which shocked the world...

This year, at this moment, the entire academic and industrial circles seem to have not yet realized the importance of graphics cards in the field of AI, including Yin Weida manufacturer itself.

Teacher Zou Tianyan on the stage continued: "In order to prepare for this competition, we also plan to invest a lot of money, such as more than a thousand high-performance CPU chips."

Hearing this, Xu Zhe couldn't hold it in any longer.He knew that the teacher in this kind of lecture would most likely leave immediately after the lecture, and there would be no chance for communication after the lecture was over.And if you don't say anything, it's like watching the opportunity to change history slip away before your eyes.

When he first started making games, Xu Zhe had thought about whether he should also make AI. But considering the high cost and his own weak technical ability, he really couldn't do it. But Mr. Zou in front of him could obviously afford the cost and had the corresponding technical ability, but he went in the wrong direction because of the wrong old ideas... This made Xu Zhe feel that he really needed to say a few more words.

Even if I don’t get a share of the prize money from that challenge, and I don’t get the patent for the AI ​​algorithm, but maybe, it can become my own network in the future?

So Xu Zhe raised his right hand high and stood up impatiently.

Zou Tianyan on the stage of course noticed him, and asked: "Student, do you have anything to say?"

Xu Zhe took a deep breath and shouted, "We shouldn't use CPUs to do AI, we should use GPUs! What you are doing is neural networks, and what we need is large-scale parallel computing!"

Zou Tianyan was stunned.

In the audience, many students were silent for a few seconds, and then started talking.

"GPU? Isn't that a graphics card?"

"Aren't graphics cards used for playing games? What is he talking about?"

"Haha, this guy is really brave..."

Next to Xu Zhe, Lin Keji asked hurriedly, "It's not the question-and-answer session yet, why are you in such a hurry?"

"If this Professor Zou is really doing AI research, he should be more anxious than me now."

After Xu Zhe finished speaking in a low voice, he saw Teacher Zou on the stage looking at him with interest.

Zou Tianyan said into the microphone: "Send a microphone to that student. I want to hear his thoughts."

----

The character appearing in this chapter comes from the book review section's Dragon Set Building: Zou Tianyan.

(However, this role may have a heavier part, because it involves the college life of the protagonist, so the positioning has exceeded the scope of a small role...)

183. Chapter 183 182 Get out of the way, I'm going to pretend

3.

2023-09-27

In the two and a half years since his rebirth, except for the time he rescued the car at the beginning, this is the most stressful moment for Xu Zhe.

Hundreds of people's eyes were focused on him alone. He had never experienced this feeling before. There was curiosity and inquiry in these eyes, but more of them were teasing, waiting to see the fun.

Xu Zhe was not surprised by this. He knew that in this kind of situation, it was normal to gloat over the misfortune of the troublemaker who suddenly jumped out. However, being rational was rational, and having so many people staring at him at the same time still brought him considerable psychological pressure.

His calves couldn't help but tremble.You have to tighten your muscles very hard so that you can pretend to be calm and not let others notice.

Then he noticed a pair of beautiful eyes a little further away, looking at him with concern.

That's Shen Lan.

Unlike the others, Shen Lan frowned slightly, with a slightly worried look on her face. But her delicate eyes flickered with anticipation. Xu Zhe realized that she was very confident in herself, and she believed that her next performance would definitely not become a joke.

Suddenly, Xu Zhe felt the trembling in his legs stopped.

The staff walked over quickly and handed him the microphone. The moment he took the microphone, he felt a strong sense of confidence, as if the world was waiting for him to speak.

The last time I was so confident was when I first started working on Fruit Cutting. What about this time? Can I really make good use of my advantage of foresight?

Xu Zhe smiled, cleared his throat, and said to the microphone: "Hello, Professor Zou, I am sorry to interrupt your speech. But I have to ask a question. Are you currently using multiple computing nodes to form a deep neural network?"

Zou Tianyan nodded and said into the microphone: "Yes, classmate, do you know anything about neural networks?"

Xu Zhe: "I have learned a little bit about this by myself, but I am ashamed to say that my ability is limited and my understanding may not be deep enough."

Zou Tianyan had a smile on his face, the kind he would give to a child, encouraging and friendly. He said, "It doesn't matter. It's rare to have a certain understanding. It's good to be willing to leave the books and explore more and deeper knowledge on your own. Classmate, are you in the first or second year of high school now?"

Xu Zhe: "I'm in the third grade of junior high school."

A low exclamation sounded in the auditorium. After all, this was a gathering of the provincial first-place winners in the high school group, and standing here as a junior high school student seemed to be enough to show talent.

Xu Zhe continued, "Teacher, I just want to say that the way to build an AI algorithm for image recognition should be to input a large amount of data, a large amount of parallel processing, and let the algorithm spontaneously learn in depth. Or to put it simply, it is to make an AI algorithm with growth potential, feed it with data, and let it learn on its own. Is that okay?"

Zou Tianyan: "To explain it in a popular way, you can say that."

Xu Zhe: "The difference between CPU and GPU is that CPU is the main computing chip used daily in computers. It performs sequential calculations and is suitable for complex and branched tasks. GPU is generally used for playing games, rendering pictures, etc. . What capabilities does it require to render video images? It is fast, large-scale parallel computing. Think about it, which chip is more suitable for your convolutional neural network? "

Zou Tianyan: “But using GPU requires writing an additional processing system.”

Xu Zhe: "Do you know Yin Weida's CUDA? Its graphics cards have long been programmable..."

----

As Xu Zhe was talking into the microphone, Shen Lan stared at him intently.

As the discussion deepened, Teacher Zou on the stage became more and more serious - it was obvious that the teacher found that this third-year junior high school boy had a knowledge reserve far beyond that of an ordinary person. He could not refute many of the viewpoints he talked about, and they made sense when he thought about them carefully. So he put away the condescending mentality of an elder towards a child and started a serious discussion.

The other students hardly understood what the two were talking about. What convolutional neural network, what deep learning, what CUDA, what convolution kernel sliding...

Everyone was listening to the scriptures as if they were reading a mystery. The way they looked at Xu Zhe became more and more awed, as if they were looking at a monster.

After all. Although everyone couldn't hear what they were saying, they could already sense a lot from the change in Mr. Zou's attitude.

And a happier smile appeared on Shen Lan's face.

"I knew he was a true genius..." the girl muttered to herself.

"Hey, what did you say?" The girl next to her heard her talking but didn't hear it clearly, so she asked.

Shen Lan turned her head and glanced at her temporary roommate, took a deep breath, and said, "He is my boyfriend."

The girl's mouth immediately opened into a big O shape, and then she immediately covered her mouth with both hands. After she came to her senses, she asked curiously, "Really? Your boyfriend?"

Shen Lan blushed slightly: "Well, to be honest, it should be a relationship that is more than friends but less than lovers."

The always proud girl was a little puzzled at this moment. She hated to be involved with others, and her motto since childhood was to use her brain to win the respect of everyone. How could she make such a mistake? Why did she use Xu Zhe to gain face for herself?

----

Teacher Zou Tianyan became increasingly silent during his conversation with Xu Zhe. He discovered that this junior high school boy was not just knowledgeable.

Some of Xu Zhe's views may seem simple, but the more he thinks about them, the more they make sense. Then he can't help but doubt himself - why didn't I think of this before?

In the end, when Xu Zhe summed up his views, Zou Tianyan had already secretly made up his mind.

"…So here's what I think. With convolutional neural networks, you only need a few GTX580 graphics cards to achieve better recognition results than a bunch of high-end CPU chips."

Then, Xu Zhe put down the microphone and looked at him calmly.

Zou Tianyan was silent for a while, then suddenly said, "Classmate, after the lecture is over, can you discuss this with me in detail?"

Xu Zhe hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded: "No problem."

Zou Tianyan continued his speech, but everyone could see that the teacher was a little absent-minded.

As he was talking, Mr. Zou couldn't help but look at Xu Zhe. Then he found that the boy was looking down at his phone. But he didn't have any opinion on it.

That's what a genius should be like, not fussy about details and not swayed by boring and inefficient worldly rules.

But what Mr. Zou could never have imagined was that this boy was apologizing because he had to break the appointment and could not go on the night walk later.

----

184. Chapter 184 183 An offer that is hard to refuse

184.

2023-09-28

Xu Zhe came to Zou Tianyan's temporary office.

Although he only taught a few classes here, as a former IOI gold medalist and one of the youngest associate professors at the top Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the winter camp organizers still set up an exclusive office for Zou Tianyan. Of course, this desk originally belonged to a high school English teacher. Standing in front of the desk, Xu Zhe could see the course schedule of this unknown English teacher posted on the corner of the desk.

Zou Tianyan also knew that he looked too young, so he decided to state his identity first.

He asked, "Do you know IOI?"

Xu Zhe nodded: "I know, the International Informatics Competition is where the national team players win glory for the country."

Zou Tianyan nodded and said, "To be honest, you now remind me of myself back then. I was just like you. I participated in the NOIP competition for junior high school in my first and second year of junior high school, and then in the high school group in my third year of junior high school, and won the first place in the province. Then when I was promoted to high school, I joined the provincial team, participated in NOI, and won the national gold medal. Later, in my second and third year of high school, I joined the national team and have been participating in informatics competitions."

Xu Zhe stood in awe: "You are the boss."

Zou Tianyan smiled meaningfully: "But do you know what I'm thinking now? I'm thinking that when I say you're a bit like me back then, I'm flattering myself."

Xu Zhe asked sincerely: "Is it because I'm more handsome?"

Zou Tianyan was immediately choked by his own saliva. He coughed for a long time before he managed to stop.

Then Mr. Zou said helplessly: "You are indeed more handsome than me, but that is not the point! The point is, when I was your age, I didn't have your opinions at all! Has anyone ever told you that you know a lot?"

Xu Zhe: "That's normal. I usually rank first in the grade."

Zou Tianyan waved his hand dismissively: "For people like us who can win gold medals in competitions, being the top student in the entire junior high school is nothing. If you have some ambition, you should compete with the top talents from other countries."

Xu Zhe: "You're putting a lot of pressure on me..."

Zou Tianyan: "I'm not flattering you. To be honest, if you weren't too young, I would recruit you to my team right now and join me in the ImageNet Challenge. What middle school student competition? Is this thing suitable for you?"