Chapter 504: Headed to Los Angeles
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lu Zhou had always been cautious toward Xiao Ai.
Even though he had researched its core software, to this day, there were still many things that he didn’t fully understand.
After all, this wasn’t some advanced technology that he invented himself; it was given to him by the system.
He still didn’t know if there were hidden dangers inside of Xiao Ai.
However, Lu Zhou decided it was worth a try.
If Xiao Ai really could be of use, it would undoubtedly be a huge helping hand for him.
However, his information science level was at the bottom of all his disciplines.
But he believed that it was one of the three pillars of modern science. As his research continued to dive deeper into the unknown, the scope of his research would continue to expand. The value of information science would gradually unfold.
A few days after the faculty sports event, Lu Zhou tidied up the collected data from the STAR machine’s last experiment. He also arranged a.s.signments for his researchers and began to prepare for his Los Angeles trip.
Professor Li Changxia was going with him to the International Controllable Nuclear Fusion Conference, since he had to do a report at the conference. Manager Sun Chengwu and Chief Engineer Cao from Baosheng Group were going as well.
The reason why Manager Sun and Engineer Cao were going was simple, it was obviously to develop their international market.
Of course, other than these three, there were also two PhD students that were going with Lu Zhou.
The day before the departure, Lu Zhou went to Jin Ling University to sort out some matters. He also went to the physics department and met Professor Yu Jinsong’s two PhD students.
“You guys are?”
“I’m Fei Jingti.”
“I’m Dian Cili.”
One is called amorphous solid, one is called electromagnetic force. 1
When Lu Zhou heard these two names, he couldn’t help but ask, “Do you guys have a friend called Ning Jutai?” 1
Brother Dian and Brother Fei paused for a second and looked at each other before smiling awkwardly.
“… We don’t have a friend named that, but we do have a friend who is still studying for a master’s.”
Lu Zhou: “What is his name?”
Fei Jingti said awkwardly, “Liu Ti.” 1
Lu Zhou: “…”
…
Lu Zhou didn’t care whether or not Professor Yu had a weird thing for physics sounding names. He still arranged a time and place with Brother Dian and Brother Fei to meet up for departure.
This year’s International Controllable Nuclear Fusion Conference would be held on July 1st. The location was at the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. In order to have more time, they decided to leave two days in advance, departing on June 29th.
On the day of departure, the squad first flew to Shanghai before transferring from Shanghai onto a plane heading toward Los Angeles.
As soon as Engineer Cao got on the plane, he immediately closed his eyes and began to nap.
“I hate flying.” Fei Jingti looked at the ground gradually becoming smaller, and he s.h.i.+vered as he said, “I feel unsafe when I’m this far away from the ground.”
Dian Cili, who was sitting next to him, mockingly said, “Don’t worry, from a statistical point of view, the probability of you falling from the sky is much lower than the probability of you winning the lottery jackpot.”
Fei Jingti argued, “But from a quantum mechanics perspective, you can’t rule out any possibility until the plane is re-observed by a ground radar station.”
“That’s not how quantum mechanics works. You two go take a break, don’t jinx it for us.”
Lu Zhou, who was sitting beside them, couldn’t stand listening for any longer. He couldn’t help but interrupt their argument.
Talking about a plane crash on an airplane wasn’t a good thing.
Just now, he noticed many pa.s.sengers looking at them with dissatisfied expressions.
Since Lu Zhou said this, the two blabbers immediately realized their mistake and shut their mouths.
Suddenly, the white guy sitting next to Lu Zhou asked in a poor Chinese accent, “You guys are going to the academic conference?”
Surprised, Lu Zhou looked at the old man and asked curiously, “How did you know?”
“Because I often attend academic conferences. Plus I know a little bit of Chinese, so I listened to your conversation,” the old man said with a smile. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, I’m just curious… Are you guys physics researchers?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “My colleagues are physics researchers, I’m a mathematician, I only know a bit about physics.”
Li Changxia: “…”
Fei Jingti: “…”
Dian Cili: “…”
Since Professor Lu said he only knew a bit about physics…
Then did that mean that they knew nothing about physics?
Manager Sun, who hadn’t said anything, touched his forehead and smiled as he said, “They’re the researchers, I’m just a layman. I know a bit about high school physics, but for anything bachelor’s and above, I’ll leave it to the researchers.”
The old man smiled and said, “That’s all good, I’m a researcher, but I’m also a layman. I know a bit about condensed matter physics, but my research is mainly focused on materials science. What about you guys?”
Professor Li Changxia: “Plasma physics.”
The old man nodded and said, “I’ve heard about it before, it’s a very esoteric field.”
Meeting someone from academia while being on a plane was improbable.
Flying was boring, and it was a bit too early to start fixing their sleep schedule. Therefore, they began to start chatting.
According to the old man, a few days ago, he went to an international materials science conference in Shanghai, and he was now on the way back to America.
Lu Zhou felt like this person looked familiar, so he asked with a smile, “Can I ask what your name is?”
“Moungi G Bawendi.” Professor Bawendi smiled and asked cheerfully, “What about you?”
When Lu Zhou heard this name, he paused for a second.
Bawendi?
This is such a coincidence, how did I b.u.mp into him?
“… Lu Zhou.”
When Bawendi heard Lu Zhou’s name, he was stunned and surprised by it.
“Lu Zhou? You’re that Lu Zhou? This is… This is such a coincidence.”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “What a coincidence, I didn’t expect to b.u.mp into you here.”
Professor Li Changxia: “You guys know each other?”
Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Kind of, but we only communicated through work. This is our first time meeting in person.”
Lu Zhou remembered a long time ago, when he was still doing his bachelor’s degree at Jin Ling University, Professor Bawendi was his thesis reviewer.
Lu Zhou still remembered that the thesis was about computational materials.
Back then, the entire computational materials field was a new discipline that was quite unpopular. But a few years later, this new discipline began to become more and more popular in the international scientific field. It became much easier to fund a thesis reviewer.
During the flight, Professor Bawendi and Lu Zhou talked a lot about materials science.
Especially the carbon nanomaterials field, which they were both familiar with.
During their conversation, Bawendi began to talk about the recent development of carbon nanomaterials research.
“… I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention to the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting. A few months ago, at the conference, Professor Banerjee from the University of California, Santa Barbara, reported their latest research on carbon interconnection technology.”
Lu Zhou: “Carbon interconnection technology?”
“That’s right.” Professor Bawendi smiled and said, “Simply put, they designed a computer chip and replaced the copper in the chip with a carbon-based nanomaterial. I heard IBM is interested in their research. This is a very trendy research direction. I can bet that after you read their thesis, you’ll be interested.”
Using a carbon nanomaterial for computer chips?
This does sound interesting.
Lu Zhou connected this to his recent breakthrough in SG-1 wire synthesis and suddenly looked interested.
“This does sound interesting, if I have the time, I’ll pay attention to it.”
The two talked a lot during the flight.
Because there was someone Lu Zhou could discuss academic problems with, even though the flight was tedious, he didn’t think it was boring.
After a dozen or so hours of flight, the airplane finally landed on the Los Angeles airport runway.
After Professor Bawendi and Lu Zhou walked down the airstair, they shook hands and bid farewell.
“If you have the chance, you can come to visit me at the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology. Goodbye.”
Lu Zhou shook Professor Bawendi’s hands and smiled as he said, “Have a nice trip. If you ever come to Jinling, you can also visit me at Jin Ling University.”
After they parted ways, Lu Zhou found two taxis outside the airport. The squad went straight to the InterContinental Hotel, which was where the meeting would be held.
Lu Zhou walked through the hotel lobby and was about to walk toward the elevator.
Suddenly, he heard a voice come from the side.
“h.e.l.lo, are you Professor Lu?”