Chapter 146 - 144: University Research in Progress
The foreign girl outside the door looked to be a few years older than Li Dong.
Li Dong froze for a moment.
He searched his memory and confirmed that he didn’t know her.
"Hello, are you Mr. Li Dong? I am Sarah."
Seeing Li Dong open the door, the blonde beauty immediately introduced herself.
Although Li Dong’s English was decent now, his spoken English was terrible, so he replied simply.
"I’m Li Dong."
"Can I help you?"
Sarah gave a polite smile.
"Mr. Li Dong, hello. My professor would like to speak with you."
Then she quickly added.
"My professor is Professor Arthur Penrose from Princeton University."
’Arthur Penrose?’
Upon hearing the name, Li Dong immediately remembered.
A while ago, this very titan of international analytic number theory had sent a formal letter to Yan University, expressing his desire to fly to Huaxia to meet him.
At the time, Li Dong was busy wrestling with the error bounds of Montgomery’s Conjecture on Association and had Dean Liu Ruochuan politely decline on his behalf.
’I can’t believe this big shot from Princeton flew directly to Shanghai.’
As for how Sarah found him...
At a top-tier international academic conference like the ICCM, accommodations are divided by status.
Regular attendees, young faculty, and auditing students are usually assigned to the standard business rooms in the outer areas.
Meanwhile, organizing committee members, Fields Medal winners, and key scholars giving invited talks are all housed together in the core executive suite area.
Sarah had been in the hotel lobby helping Professor Penrose check in when she turned and spotted a young Eastern face pulling a suitcase toward the exclusive accommodation area for invited speakers.
’So young and giving a talk... who else could it be but that Yan University undergraduate who recently made huge waves in the international Computational Mathematics community?’
So, Sarah had followed him immediately.
Faced with the invitation from this international big shot, Li Dong thought for a moment.
’Although my algorithm paper was certainly impressive, Penrose is a figure at the very pinnacle of the mathematics world. Even if he appreciates talent, to lower himself time and again to come and ’corner’ an undergraduate... isn’t this enthusiasm a bit over the top?’
So, Li Dong decided to be cautious.
He looked at Sarah with an apologetic smile.
"Thank you very much for Professor Penrose’s invitation."
"But I might not have the time right now. I still need to organize my PowerPoint for tomorrow’s talk and double-check some core Mathematical Models. I’m very sorry."
"If there’s time after the conference, I will definitely pay Professor Penrose a visit myself."
Hearing this, Sarah wasn’t angry at all. Instead, she showed a look of understanding.
She had given talks before, too, and though they weren’t on the same scale as the ICCM, she could empathize.
The pressure of a 45-minute invited talk at the ICCM was immense. In that kind of setting, the audience was full of the field’s top experts. Even a slightly imprecise formula derivation could lead to being grilled into a corner during the Q&A session.
"Oh, I see. In that case, I won’t disturb your preparations. I look forward to your wonderful presentation at the conference."
Sarah nodded apologetically and turned to leave the hallway.
Watching Sarah’s retreating back, Li Dong closed the door behind him and couldn’t help but purse his lips.
’Organize my PowerPoint? Organize my ass.’
’Once I, Li Dong, have completely mastered something, I’m not going to forget it. Why would I need to cram at the last minute?’
’Still, Professor Penrose being in such a hurry to find me... it definitely can’t be as simple as just wanting to chat about the algorithm...’
Li Dong mused to himself.
’After the conference, I’ll drag Old Liu along for the visit.’
’With the dean of my own School of Mathematics there, I don’t care what that big shot from Princeton is planning. If the sky falls, Old Liu will be there to hold it up!’
Having made up his mind, Li Dong put the matter out of his thoughts.
He sat down on the sofa, pulled out his phone, and opened the Cyan Dragon Study Group chat.
He wanted to check if there were any other changes he hadn’t noticed after his permissions were upgraded.
The moment he entered the group chat, Li Dong froze.
The gray profile picture, which had been silent ever since coming online, had finally spoken.
[Bernhard Riemann]: @Doing University Research
[Bernhard Riemann]: Thank you.
Li Dong stared at the screen, baffled for a moment.
’Doing University Research? Who the hell is that?’
He subconsciously glanced at the group member list, and the corner of his eye twitched.
He discovered that his ID, [Grinding Practice Tests in Senior Year], had at some point been changed to [Doing University Research]!
’Holy crap! Does this stupid group have to be so smart? It even changes IDs automatically?’
Li Dong complained wildly in his head.
But complaints aside, Li Dong soon realized...
’Thank you?’
What layers of meaning were contained in this expression of thanks from the great mathematician?
Was he thanking him for successfully running his dimensionality reduction algorithm on a computer, bringing his manuscript back to life and shocking the world?
Or was it because... by acting as an external buffer, he had shouldered the terrifying computational overload Riemann experienced before his death, thereby saving his life in that unknown parallel universe?
’Judging from these words, Riemann definitely knows something, just like Gauss.’
’This bunch of math titans... it’s like every one of them has opened their third eye. They know way too much, don’t they?’
’Er... except for Newton.’
...
「The next morning.」
The Shanghai International Conference Center, right next to the Oriental Pearl Tower, is a major landmark in Shanghai.
The International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians officially opened here.
The opening ceremony was held in the grand ballroom on the first floor, and this year’s conference was very large in scale.
The poster session, originally also on the first floor, was moved to the second floor.
Of course, the Poster Session was still an important academic exchange segment of the conference.
For young scholars, doctoral students, and even a few outstanding undergraduates who had not yet firmly established themselves in academia, the poster session was one of the core motivations for attending such a top-tier conference.
They would condense their recent academic achievements and the progress of their research projects onto a single poster, which they would then display in a designated exhibition area.
Because in this venue, any inconspicuous old man walking by could be a tenured professor from some university or the editor-in-chief of a top journal.
If your poster could attract the attention of these big shots, allowing you to stand in front of your display and discuss it with them for a few minutes, that was the most direct channel for upward mobility.
As a result, the poster session area was crowded with a large number of young students around Li Dong’s age, or even slightly older.
Everyone stood in front of their own posters, enthusiastically explaining their research to the experts who stopped to learn more.
Although Li Dong was quite famous now, not many people recognized him on sight.
So, with his hands clasped behind his back like an old man out for a stroll, Li Dong began to wander through the poster session area.
’Hey, this one’s a bit interesting.’
Li Dong stopped in front of a poster.
The poster’s title was: "A Discussion on Numerical Solutions for High-Dimensional Partial Differential Equations Based on Deep Learning."
Li Dong critiqued it in his head as he read.
’The idea is quite novel, forcibly applying deep learning neural networks to traditional numerical computation.’
’But the construction of the loss function is quite solid, and the physical boundary conditions are embedded well.’
’Hey, this one’s not bad either...’
"Optimization of Rational Point Counting on Elliptic Curves over Finite Fields."
’Tsk, arithmetic geometry.’
Li Dong gave the derivation process a cursory glance.
’The use of homological algebra is a bit stiff, but for a student at this level, being able to scale the error of the Hasse-Weil bound this far is already quite good.’
At this moment, Li Dong was completely immersed in the mindset of an old professor reviewing the work of his juniors.
He even nodded from time to time, completely forgetting that he himself was just a freshman who had only started university a few months ago.
In terms of age, he was even younger than the vast majority of people presenting posters here!
Just as Li Dong was engrossed in his reading and about to head to the next section to see if there were any other interesting topics...
He suddenly noticed an acquaintance standing in front of a poster board not far away.