Chapter 177 Live End (5k)

"Are you the only one who judges all the projects?" Lei Jun couldn't help but ask.

There was no prior preparation for this live broadcast, let alone rehearsal, even the questions were improvised.

Because Chen Yuanguang was very busy, he could only spare half a day at most to make a response, and he would have to return to Mianyang soon.

A group of experts from China on an important project is already on the way to Mianyang, and there is a lot of work that requires his cooperation.

Chen Yuanguang nodded: "Yes, I will judge the subject based on my own professional ability.

So all I can guarantee is that I will not have any interest-based dealings with the applicants of the project, either before or after the project. "

Lei Jun asked: "Junior brother, your ability in scientific research is absolutely top-notch, I believe that no one in the audience in front of the screen will question this.

But I have the same doubts as them: can you cover so many fields by yourself? "

Chen Yuanguang replied: "So I will only screen within my ability.

I will select some areas, further subdivide these areas into some keywords, and then do a fuzzy search around these keywords in the background.

Screen the searched topics one by one."

Lei Jun said: "In other words, if it is outside the scope, even if it has potential, you won't look at it?"

Chen Yuanguang replied: "That's right, because this special natural fund was established to solve key problems.

I think with my experience in industry and academia, I am able to judge which issues are critical and have sufficient value.

In order to be responsible for the results, at the end of the course, I also need to judge whether there is data falsification or data distortion. It is impossible for me to do this in an area that I am not good at.

If I set up a company and recruit a group of PhDs to work with me to do this, then the uniqueness of this fund will be lost, and the professionalism of these PhDs may not even be as good as that of the judges in the expert pool of the Natural Science Foundation Committee.

And I can't guarantee that when I recruit people to do this, they won't have any selfish motives or exchange of interests.

So I think I should make the decision. I think I have the qualifications and the ability to do so.”

Lei Jun was surprised by the courage shown by Chen Yuanguang, because in terms of class, he believed that he and Chen Yuanguang were of the same class, that is, entrepreneurs.

This identity would be very embarrassing in China, especially in today's China. You need to be extra careful about your reputation. If you are not careful, you will stir up a wave of public opinion and get yourself involved.

No matter how low-key you have been before, it is difficult to avoid it. The founder of Nongfu Spring is a typical case.

In his opinion, Chen Yuanguang's approach was to personally take risks, and if there were any problems in the end, it would be easy for him to be tainted.

"Junior brother is indeed the man who said in an interview that he would bring everyone the next golden age. I can't match his courage."

In fact, public opinion is still very friendly to Chen Yuanguang. It is only because young scholars and masters and doctoral students whose interests are directly involved are few in number but have great voice and attract much attention, which creates the illusion that many people are questioning him.

In a platform like the live broadcast room where everyone can speak, the ordinary group, which makes up an absolute majority of the population, does not care whether this is reasonable or not. They are more concerned about the fact that Chen Yuanguang is broadcasting live itself.

The Weibo barrage is full of craziness.

Lei Jun then asked: "Can you give some examples, such as what kind of topics do you think are valuable?"

Chen Yuanguang said: "Either it has value for industrial production in the real world.

Take the perovskite battery I made as an example. If you just want to improve the data, change the composition of the perovskite, modify the structure, and then try to improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency as much as possible, it is actually just laboratory data. This path will never work in the industry.

I will not approve this kind of topic, but if you are working on something like stability, how to further improve the stability of perovskite batteries, like the recent achievements in the field of perovskite by Academician Zhang of Soochow University.

They found a synergistic combination strategy using methylammonium chloride as a dopant and Lewis base ion-liquid additive 1-bisimidazole chloride as a dopant-additive, which greatly improved the stability of perovskite cells.

The photoelectric conversion efficiency of perovskite cells decays to less than 1000% after 0.01 hours of exposure to the sun.

Topics like this are very promising. For topics like these in materials science, I will focus on their significance to the real industry and whether they are practical.

Of course, this would be a bit too difficult for everyone. As scholars who have never worked in the industry, even if you take over some corporate projects, it is difficult to truly understand what the companies need.

I am not that utilitarian. I only think it is valuable if it can generate economic benefits in the real world. It’s just that this way of judgment is better to measure the final effect.

Another thing is that you can propose a framework method to solve a type of problem, such as what I have done before, training artificial intelligence models to predict the properties of small molecule metals.

For example, Professor Yan. I don’t know Professor Yan, but I use her as an example because she is very famous and was recently elected as an academician. Everyone is relatively familiar with what she has done.

I would not pass the subject she did on polymer protein analysis. It is very difficult, and you can publish an article, but what else can you do besides publishing an article? It does not have much significance in pure science.

If your topic is to find a general solution for the analysis of a class of high-molecular-weight proteins, such as designing new tools to more efficiently analyze high-molecular-weight proteins, I would prefer this type of topic.

I know this is difficult. For example, cryo-electron microscopy is a Nobel Prize-winning achievement.

But the fund I manage exists to solve problems.

As long as you can achieve phased results, I will give you enough time. I can even provide funding every year, and keep allocating funds to make it a long-term project until you achieve results. Five to ten years is no problem.

If you can automate cryo-electron microscopy with the help of AI and make extensive use of new technologies to automatically remove noise, this would be a milestone achievement.

To sum up, it can either be economically beneficial or it can solve a certain type of problem. Purely theoretical innovation belongs to the latter.”

Lei Jun had heard Professor Yan being used as a negative example, and he realized that something was wrong. After Chen Yuanguang finished speaking, he quickly said, "I believe that Junior Brother did not mean to belittle Professor Yan."

Chen Yuanguang understood and quickly said, "Of course not, Professor Yan is definitely amazing. I'm not trying to make up for it or flatter her. I really think she's amazing and her academic ability is absolutely top-notch.

I have seen many voices online saying that deciphering proteins depends on funding and resources, and that she is the only one in China who has so much funding and resources. I would like to explain that many groups abroad also have this funding and resources. Starting from the same starting line, Professor Yan is the most productive structural biologist.

In addition, with the advent of artificial intelligence, many structural biologists will lose their jobs if artificial intelligence is used to solve macromolecular proteins. Professor Yan returned to China because artificial intelligence could no longer be used on a large scale in structural biology. I also explained to her that the things solved by AI are useless and can only be used as references at best, not even as references.

In structural biology, AI is currently just a toy and is still a long way from replacing humans.

I took Professor Yan as an example, but I think it's a pity for her. Her academic taste is far from matching her academic ability. I think she should work on more valuable issues instead of always using papers as the only criterion for measuring her work.

This is my purely subjective opinion.”

After Chen Yuanguang made amends, things got much better, but Lei Jun felt that he still offended someone. He continued, "Junior brother, you just mentioned that you would target some niche areas. Can you talk about this in detail?"

Chen Yuanguang said: "Of course, this is a function that they will help me add later after I communicate with the Natural Science Foundation Committee.

They need to help me add tags on the project application page in the background. The applicant will add some tags to his project. If you are working on improving the stability of perovskite batteries, you can add perovskite batteries.

I will do the screening, and after screening, I will select the topics that I am satisfied with. I will send you an email with a question and answer section. You need to answer the content in my email. If you have no problem answering, you will be approved. I hope the candidate has sufficient academic ability, and I hope it will be a long-term funding. "

Chen Yuanguang paused for a moment and then continued: "I don't know if you have paid attention to the China Association for Science and Technology. Since 18, the Association has been collecting major scientific issues, engineering and technical problems, and industrial and technical problems. They collect them every year.

The questions collected last year were divided into cutting-edge scientific issues, including how to achieve low-energy artificial intelligence; how to achieve maneuverable flight of aircraft in the upper atmosphere; whether it is possible to search for the existence of magnetic monopoles and axion dark matter using new coincidence measurement methods, etc.

Engineering and technical challenges include how to achieve real-time, real-space imaging of microscopic dynamics at the atomic and electronic intrinsic scales; how to solve the problem of efficient separation of trace impurities in rare earth matrices, and break through the engineering preparation technology and equipment for high-purity rare earth materials.

In short, there are many, among which how to develop independent and controllable SoC chips for high-performance and low-cost industrial upgrading? This is an industrial technology problem, and I have initially solved it through the application of topological semimetals.

Our semiconductor industry is now making high-performance industrial upgrades around topological semimetals. It is completely autonomous and controllable. The only regret is that we have not yet achieved low cost. Once this is achieved, the problem will be completely solved.

Since I can solve it, I believe everyone can solve it too.

The Science and Technology Association has helped me screen out these problems. I will screen out specific topics within the scope of my knowledge, and then select these young scholars, and eventually let them slowly approach the final questions.

For example, one of the engineering and technical problems last year was what kind of long-cycle energy storage method is suitable for the new power system. There are many solutions to this problem. The long-term goal is to make a super battery that will not reduce its capacity no matter how many times it is charged and discharged.

At the same time, it also has sufficient advantages in terms of service life, economic cost, energy storage efficiency, construction scale, and operational safety.

This is of course very difficult. If you succeed in making it, your senior will come to you for cooperation. I believe every new energy vehicle company needs a battery with no capacity decay.

This is a long-term goal, so your topic this time must be relevant. After you have proven yourself, we will slowly move closer to the ultimate goal.

That’s pretty much it.”

After listening to this, Lei Jun laughed and said, "That's right, if anyone can come up with it, feel free to contact me. Xiaomi can give options.

I believe that everyone has a full understanding of the natural fund that my junior is in charge of, so the next step is the question-and-answer session.

Everyone's questions will appear at the end, and I will select some to ask.

Please slow down the barrage, if there are too many barrages I might not be able to see the problem. "

"First question, Junior Brother, this is a very good question. A Weibo user named Fengzhongyipilang said that the standard set by the God of Light is too high. It is entirely up to you to judge the shortage of manpower. The budget of 20 billion is too much. Will there be a situation where it cannot be used up?"

Chen Yuanguang said: "Of course, I prefer to have nothing rather than something bad. You can view this as a long-term cooperation. It is better to say that I am selecting people than selecting a project.

I hope to select scholars who can collaborate over the long term and ultimately produce some truly meaningful results, and I will provide them with long-term sponsorship through this fund.

So maybe in the first year I only found 10 people, then in the second year I will still work with these 10 people, and find 10 more people, so it becomes 20 people.

As the number of people gradually increases, we will be able to spend the 20 billion.

Of course, as mentioned before, I will not have any contact with them other than work."

Lei Jun joked, "That's still a big loss. In order to apply for this fund, I have to lose the opportunity to become friends with my junior. If it were me, I would definitely give up."

"Okay, the second question is, if it is cooperation with people, does it mean that it will lack liquidity?"

Chen Yuanguang replied: "No, the pool will flow.

In addition, it is more like raising Gu rather than calling it a pond. The major problems just mentioned are very difficult, and even I cannot solve them completely.

This means that for problem A, I may have selected 10 people to do it this year, and after a year, when they apply next year, the interim results of 5 of them do not satisfy me, then they will not get funding.

I won't measure it by the number of published papers, but there still needs to be something to prove that you can do it, even if it's just some ideas or some supporting materials, that's enough.

Then maybe the last 10 people in Project A will all be eliminated, leaving no one left. Then next year, we will select new people from the pool and give them the information that I thought was valuable.

Simply put, you can think of it as us selecting the right problem solvers for these major problems. You know the wall-facer, right? Problem A is the wall-facer, so we have to select the wall-breaker. The wall-breaker can be replaced. "

Mr. Lei continued to read the comments: "The third question, user 2048122134 asked, there is no thesis as proof of completion, and the application is entirely based on your personal subjective judgment, then isn't this a pure one-sided opinion?"

Chen Yuanguang said: "Yes, this is unavoidable. I can only say that I will not use this to make a profit and will not collude with the applicants, but this is indeed my one-man show.

But I also have to be responsible for the results. If I don’t do a good job, I may be replaced after five years.

You can think of it as an experiment. If I do well, some scholars may be given similar powers in the future.

If I don’t do it well, I might replace someone, or I might just not do it this way.

In the real world, no one can do bad things without bearing the consequences.”

After Chen Yuanguang's live broadcast ended, public opinion was calmed to a certain extent. After all, sincerity is the ultimate skill in this era.

"The God of Light is too crazy. I saw one thing from the beginning to the end: crazy."

"Of course, you would be arrogant too. Didn't you hear the God of Light say, 'I have solved a major problem'? Other scientists can solve those major problems and be as arrogant as the God of Light."

Originally, no one paid attention to the major issues raised by the Science and Technology Association every year. At most, they would appear on hot searches. There were very few people who responded to related questions on Zhihu, and the number of respondents was rarely even in double digits.

With Chen Yuanguang’s live broadcast, major issues suddenly broke out of the circle, and young scholars dug them out to see which ones they could relate to.

"Not just one. The one that Guangshen mentioned is just one of the major problems he solved. For example, the design and evaluation technology of reusable space transportation systems, which is a 20-year engineering and technical problem, has been perfectly solved by the Pioneer rocket. In its last successful launch, it exceeded the Falcon in terms of thrust and carrying capacity."

In addition, Professor Yan, who was mentioned during the live broadcast, was also brought up for heated discussion by a large number of netizens. Many netizens already had many opinions about her, so everyone simply ignored the fact that Chen Yuanguang mentioned that her academic ability was very strong, and focused on her poor academic taste.

"Does this count as social death, Professor Yan? Being dragged out by the God of Light and publicly executed? Being accused of poor academic taste?"

"Professor Yan is pretending to be dead. I can't hold it in either if I were him."

"I was elected as an academician just last year, but I was criticized by the God of Light this year."

Of course, some people think it is inappropriate:
"The God of Light is still too young. He holds great power and commands the country. I always feel that he will be besieged if he loses power in the future."

"How could anyone dare to attack? Room-temperature superconductivity alone is enough for the God of Light to lie on and eat for the rest of his life, not to mention topological semimetals.

If room-temperature superconductivity established the position of the God of Light in the academic world, then the large-scale production of topological semimetals established his position in China, and the semiconductor industry, which had been struggling for a long time, broke through. If this achievement is counterattacked in the future, who would dare to work?
These are not even moral flaws, at best they are just youthful vigor.” Some people disagree.

Lei Jun took the opportunity to post a Weibo after the event, a selfie of him and Chen Yuanguang, with the caption:
"After overtime, I drove the Xiaomi Ultra to send my junior brother home."

In short, the spectators were very satisfied with this live broadcast, and it was quite topical, but the scholars with related interests were not very satisfied.

(End of this chapter)