My Study Chat Group is Full of Real Big Shots

Chapter 182: Chapter 177: Li Dong, Come On Up

Things on Huaxuan Technology’s end were moving even faster than Li Dong had imagined.

The day after the meeting, Lin Wei split the entire technical team into three specialized groups, responsible for algorithm adaptation, hardware interface debugging, and flow field simulation verification, respectively.

The engineers flew back to the Shanghai headquarters overnight and immediately began setting up the engineering and deployment environment for algorithm version 2.1.

Meanwhile, Sun Ningsheng’s team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Computing Technology opened up their high-performance computing cluster specifically for the preliminary parallelization stress tests.

Even Academician Yao Qizhi over at Shuimu assigned two postdoctoral researchers from the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences to specifically handle the algorithm’s scheduling and optimization on heterogeneous platforms.

Li Dong didn’t need to be involved in every step of the process.

Still, over the past week, he had worked through the nights to compile the complete mathematical framework for the dimensionality reduction algorithm 2.1 into a detailed technical document, which he then submitted.

The document was a hefty forty-seven pages, with every step of the derivations annotated with citations for their corresponding mathematical theorems and lemmas.

Even Liu Ruochuan sighed in amazement after reading it. This wasn’t a technical document; it was practically a textbook.

So now, all Li Dong had to do was explain things to the researchers whenever they encountered problems on a theoretical level.

For instance, just last night, Zhang Mo’s team had run into an issue while performing numerical discretization for spectral decomposition.

When the grid’s Reynolds number exceeded the critical threshold, the orthogonality of the basis functions would experience numerical drift, causing the eliminated terms to recouple.

Li Dong spent about twenty minutes in an online meeting explaining how to introduce an adaptive orthogonalization correction operator to dynamically correct the basis’s orthogonal deviation during each iteration.

For Li Dong, this was a simple matter.

The next phase that would truly require his full participation was the most critical one: system integration and precision validation.

At that stage, the algorithm would no longer be a bunch of code running on a server. It would have to be fully integrated into Huaxuan Technology’s lithography control system, forming a closed loop with the hardware’s sensors and actuators.

During this process, the correspondence between the theoretical upper error bound and the actual engineered measured error would directly determine whether the entire system could be used—and whether anyone would dare to use it.

And at present, only Li Dong himself could provide the rigorous mathematical proof for this upper error bound.

That was why Lin Wei had said during the meeting that the precision validation stage would begin in about a month and a half. Li Dong would have to be on-site for that.

Until then, he was free to attend his classes and do as he pleased.

...

「Ten o’clock in the morning. The second floor of the Yan University Science Building.」

A copy of the *Quantum Field Theory Guide* lay open in front of Li Dong.

Zhou Qifeng was lecturing at the front of the room, and the blackboard was covered with a series of Lagrangian expressions.

”...So you see, once the free Lagrangian density of the scalar field is written in this form, varying it with the Euler-Lagrange Equations naturally yields the Klein-Gordon equation.”

”What’s the key here? The key is that symmetry determines the dynamics. The Lagrangian you choose determines the physics you get.”

Li Dong listened intently.

He had already grasped most of the basic framework of quantum field theory through self-study and some ”extracurricular tutoring” from the experts in his group chat.

But Zhou Qifeng’s lectures had a unique quality: he didn’t just explain what something was, he also liked to explain *why* one should think about it that way.

This was the way of thinking Li Dong needed most right now. ’Because when guys like Heisenberg and Pauli discuss this stuff, I really can’t keep up...’

That was why Li Dong hadn’t skipped this class once since returning from Zhejiang University.

”Alright, that’s all for today.”

Zhou Qifeng closed his lesson plan.

”Next class, we’ll cover path integral quantization and go over Feynman’s whole approach. For those who are interested, you can read Chapter nine of Peskin ahead of time.”

The class dismissal bell rang.

Li Dong was about to go up to say hello to Old Zhou and ask a few questions, but his phone suddenly rang.

And so, under Zhou Qifeng’s reproachful gaze, Li Dong answered the phone and walked out of the classroom.

”Hello?”

”Li Dong? That’s you, isn’t it?”

Hearing that signature catchphrase, Li Dong ventured a guess.

”Professor Zhang?”

”Ah! Yes, it’s me.”

On the other end of the line, the voice of the elderly Professor Zhang Lufang sounded quite cheerful.

”Li Dong, I’m calling today because I wanted to thank you.”

”Thank me?” Li Dong was a little surprised.

The professor chuckled.

”A few days ago, Xiaoyu’s research group ran into a problem with their mathematical modeling. They were stuck for nearly two weeks, and since I wasn’t feeling well enough to supervise them personally, I was about to tell them to put it on hold.”

”But then Xiaoyu told me that you came by to help. You pointed out the relationship between relaxation time and turnover time, and then that student from the School of Mathematics was able to fix the model.”

Li Dong finally understood.

’So it was about Qi Yu’s project.’

”Professor Zhang, you’re being too kind. I just made an offhand comment. It was mainly because Gu Ming is brilliant himself; he figured it out right away.”

”Oh, don’t be so modest,” the professor interrupted him.

”Xiaoyu told me that if it weren’t for you, that student from the School of Mathematics and her group members would have argued until nightfall.”

The professor’s tone grew even warmer.

”If you have any chemistry questions in the future, you can come to me anytime. Don’t be shy! To learn, one must have the spirit to face challenges head-on, isn’t that right?”

Li Dong smiled.

”Okay, Professor Zhang. In that case, I definitely won’t hold back.”

”Good, good. I’ll let you go, then.”

Zhang Lufang hung up the phone, chuckling.

To be honest, Li Dong did have plans to systematically study chemistry.

It wasn’t just because Mrs. Zhang was a good lecturer.

The most fundamental reason was...

’...those two experts in the group chat argue way too much.’

’Madam Curie and Mendeleev are at each other’s throats in the group every other day, and their arguments can rack up hundreds of messages each time.’

’The worst part is, just when I’m about to forget about it, they’ll start fighting again over some new experimental data.’

’It’s like clockwork.’

’If I don’t take advantage of this opportunity to learn, I’d be failing my duty as the Group Leader of the Cyan Dragon Study Group.’

’But not right now.’

Li Dong did some mental calculations.

The precision validation stage for Huaxuan wouldn’t start for another month and a half, so he did have some time before then.

But during this period, he had something even more important to do.

Teacher Yang.

After their phone call the other day, although Yang Shengguo had said he would ”think about it,” Li Dong could tell he was tempted.

Yang Shengguo couldn’t possibly fail to understand the value of a research topic like generalizing GL₂ to the general case of GL(n).

The problem was that Yang Shengguo had been teaching at Jiangcheng Seventh Middle School for over a decade. While his academic foundation was still there, he had long been disconnected from the front lines of research.

It would take more than just a research topic to get him back into a research mindset.

He needed the right environment.

And the best environment was Yan University.

If he could get Teacher Yang to Beijing, even without a formal position, a title like ”visiting scholar” or ”research collaborator” would be enough.

The library, databases, and computing platforms at Yan University, not to mention the peers at the School of Mathematical Sciences—all these resources would be incredibly important for Yang Shengguo.

Besides...

’...I still have [Inheritance of the Torch (Basic Edition)].’

’It would be a waste not to use it.’

With these thoughts in mind, Li Dong glanced at the time on his phone.

It was already ten-fifty.

At eleven, there was a special guest lecture by Professor Tian Gang, apparently for graduate students...

Li Dong wanted to sit in on it. It would also be the perfect opportunity to talk to Tian Gang about this matter and see if there was a solution.

He quickened his pace and headed toward the School of Mathematics.

Zhou Qifeng, who had expected Li Dong to return after his call, now looked even more reproachful...

...

The walk from the Science Building to the School of Mathematics building took him across half the Yan University campus.

The moment Li Dong stepped into the School of Mathematics building, he could clearly feel a different atmosphere.

Over at Yuanpei College, he was something of a celebrity, but the students there came from all sorts of majors, and very few were dedicated to pure mathematics.

So most people’s attitude toward him was simply, ”Oh, that’s that really smart guy, Li Dong.”

But things were different here at the School of Mathematics.

Every single person here knew better than anyone what it meant to publish a first-author paper in the *Mathematical Annals* and make progress on Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association.

It was an accomplishment that couldn’t be summed up with a simple phrase like ”very impressive.”

It was an achievement worthy of being recorded in the history of Huaxia mathematics.

So when Li Dong walked down the corridors of the School of Mathematics, a few graduate students even instinctively stepped aside to let him pass.

Li Dong felt a little awkward, but honestly...

’...it felt pretty damn good.’

He soon arrived at the lecture hall.

The tiered lecture hall wasn’t large, with seating for about a hundred people, but it was already nearly full.

Although it was intended for graduate students, once word got out, undergraduates from the School of Mathematics and some Yuanpei College students planning to major in math had also shown up.

After all, who would want to miss the chance to sit in on a lecture given by Academician Tian Gang himself?

As Li Dong entered the classroom, a few students in the front rows turned to glance at him.

Some even started whispering among themselves.

”That must be Li Dong.”

”That’s him. The one who said he’s going to win a Fields Medal before he’s thirty.”

”But he doesn’t really look like a genius...”

Hearing that last comment, Li Dong wasn’t sure whether he should be pleased.

’After all, the term ”nerd face” wasn’t exactly a compliment...’

Just then, Tian Gang walked in.

The classroom fell silent in an instant.

Tian Gang placed his notes on the lectern, scanned the students below, and smiled.

”Quite a crowd today.”

Then his eyes landed on Li Dong.

Tian Gang smiled and beckoned to him.

”Li Dong.”

Li Dong’s heart skipped a beat.

’What’s going on?’

Tian Gang smiled kindly.

”Come on up.”