NCCnovel Chapter 170 Zhang Weimin
Chapter 170 Zhang Weimin
A map of Jiangsu Province hangs in the conference room, with red city boundaries crisscrossing on a light yellow background.
Zhang Weimin sat at one end of a long table, with a middle-aged man wearing glasses sitting on either side of him. A notebook was in front of the man on the left, and a stack of documents was in front of the man on the right.
When the door was pushed open, all three people looked up at the same time.
Ling Yun walked in, followed by Ni Guangnan. Both were wearing white shirts, and Ni Guangnan was carrying a black briefcase.
"Director Zhang," Ling Yun nodded in greeting.
"Sit down." Zhang Weimin pointed to the chair opposite him. "This is Director Wang from the Computer Science Department of Nanjing University, and this is Director Li from the Science and Technology Department of the Provincial Government."
Ling Yun and Ni Guangnan sat down opposite each other. Ni Guangnan placed his briefcase on the table, unfastened the clasp, but did not immediately take anything out.
"Let's get started," Zhang Weimin said. "Your cooperation plan with Nanjing University, the specific details."
Ling Yun took three bound documents out of his bag and pushed them across the table. The papers slid across the smooth surface and came to rest in front of the three people.
Director Wang picked up a copy and opened the title page.
"University-Enterprise Joint Laboratory Construction Plan," he read out the title, "Implementing Units: Department of Computer Science and Technology, Nanjing University, and Spark Technology Co., Ltd."
Director Li turned to the second page, where the budget sheet was located.
"The annual investment is two million." He looked up at Ling Yun. "Is the company bearing the entire cost?"
"We will cover all the costs for the first year," Ling Yun said. "If the results meet expectations, the school can match a portion in the second year, or apply for special funding from the province."
Zhang Weimin didn't look at the documents; he looked at Ling Yun.
"You said yesterday that you already have a laboratory at Shandong University."
"Yes." Ling Yun took out another transparent folder from his bag, which contained several photos. He pushed the folder to the center of the table.
The first photo shows a laboratory with a dozen computers on a table and several students gathered around it.
"This is the Xinghuoshan Large Laboratory, which was established last October," Ling Yun said. "We invested two million yuan, mainly for equipment procurement and project funding."
Director Wang picked up the photo and carefully examined the markings on the computer screen.
"These machines..."
"We assembled them all ourselves," Ling Yun said. "We designed the motherboard, and the system is the Starry Sky System that we developed. Every student in the lab has to start by learning how to assemble the machines."
Ni Guangnan then opened his briefcase. He took out a mouse, with a silver-gray casing and a small red light on the bottom.
"This is the lab's first achievement." He pushed the mouse to the center of the table.
Director Li picked it up and looked at it from the inside out.
"An optical mouse," Ni Guangnan said. "It's completely independently designed, and the optical navigation chip was developed by ourselves. Currently, only Microsoft and Logitech have similar products internationally, but their resolution is 400 dpi, while ours reaches 800 dpi."
Director Wang took the mouse and moved it across the desktop. The cursor glided smoothly across the projection screen on the wall, without any frame skipping.
"How long did it take you?"
"From project initiation to prototype production, it took seven months," Ling Yun said. "The lab had four graduate students and eight undergraduate students involved. The chip design was guided by a professor from Shandong University's microelectronics department, the mechanical structure was designed by engineers from our electronics factory, and the software drivers were written by computer science students."
Zhang Weimin finally picked up the document. He turned to the results page, which listed the laboratory's output in the nine months since its establishment: three patent applications, one SCI paper, and one product prototype.
"Two million invested, and this is the output." He looked up. "Do you think it was worth it?"
"It's worth it," Ling Yun said. "But that's not all. The lab also trained twelve students, all of whom have now been hired by Spark Technology. These twelve people have participated in the entire process, from chip design to driver development. Hiring someone with that kind of experience would cost at least 100,000 yuan a year on the market, and you simply can't find one."
The meeting room was silent for a few seconds.
Director Wang put down the mouse and picked up the cooperation plan again. This time he flipped through it more carefully, spending a long time on the chapter on "training model".
"Your 'project-based training' program," he pointed to a passage of text, "won't it affect students' learning of basic courses when they enter the lab in their second year?"
"Quite the opposite," Ling Yun said. "We require all students entering the lab to be in the top 10% of their class in their major courses. Moreover, many of the lab projects are extensions of the curriculum itself."
He pulled another document out of the folder.
"These are the transcripts of the students in the Shandong University lab. Of the nine students, seven saw their grades in their major courses improve compared to before they joined the lab. This is because the actual projects helped them understand the practical applications of their knowledge, which boosted their motivation to learn."
Director Li took the report card and glanced at the average score data.
"The Star System," Zhang Weimin suddenly spoke up, "You're going to teach the students how to use this system?"
"It's not about using it, it's about learning it," Ling Yun corrected. "The lab will offer two courses: 'Operating System Principles and Starry Sky Kernel Analysis' and 'Open Source Software Development Practice.' Students will need to read the Starry Sky system's source code, understand the design principles of each layer of the architecture, and be able to perform secondary development on top of it."
Director Wang raised his head.
"You're going to release the source code?"
"It's public," Ling Yun said. "Our agreement with Shandong University is that students can access all the source code while in the lab. If they join Spark Technology after graduation, they can continue to have access to it."
Would other organizations be willing to hire someone who only knows the Star System?
"First of all, they didn't just learn to 'only know' the Starry Sky system." Ni Guangnan spoke for the first time, his voice not loud, but everyone in the conference room heard him clearly. "The principles of operating systems are interconnected. Once you thoroughly understand the Starry Sky kernel, learning Windows and Linux will be much faster. Secondly..."
He took out several job postings from his briefcase.
"These are the recruitment requirements for IBM China Research Institute this year, this is Microsoft Research Asia, and this is Intel's." He spread out the recruitment brochures. "They all clearly state: those with experience in open-source system development will be given priority. The Starry Sky system is an open-source system, and what students participate in in the lab is open-source development."
Director Li picked up the recruitment brochure and indeed saw those words.
Zhang Weimin put down the documents and leaned back in his chair.
"Tell me your complete ideas," he said, "the whole chain from the lab to employment."
Ling Yun took out a diagram from her bag and laid it in the center of the table. It was a flowchart, starting from "sophomore year selection" and ending with "employment after graduation," with seven nodes in between.
"In the first year, outstanding students are selected to enter the laboratory, receive basic training, and participate in small projects."
His finger moved across the image.
"In the second year, students will specialize based on their interests: hardware, systems, and applications. The hardware group will work on chip design projects, the systems group on kernel development projects, and the applications group on software porting projects."
"In the third year, we will be actively involved in enterprise-level projects. We plan to develop some modules of the Starry Sky system as a long-term project for the lab. For example, file system optimization and driver framework improvement."
"In the fourth year, the graduation project must be based on a laboratory project. Outstanding students can directly enter Spark Technology, or we can recommend them to our partner companies."
Director Wang stared at the picture.
"You want top students," he said, "but Nanyang Technological University's computer science department graduates more than 300 students every year, and it's impossible for them all to go into the lab."
"Our first phase of recruitment plans to enroll twenty people," Ling Yun said. "Five in hardware, eight in systems, and seven in applications. We can afford the training costs for these twenty people. If it goes well, we'll expand the scale."
"Student subsidies?"
"Eight hundred per month. Project bonuses are separate," Ling Yun said. "The student who participated in the chip design project received a bonus of five thousand last month because he solved a signal interference problem."
Director Li wrote the number down in his notebook.
Zhang Weimin stared at the flowchart for about a minute. Then he looked up.
What kind of support can the Ministry of Education provide?
"Three aspects," Ling Yun said, already prepared. "First, the lab credits will be recognized. Students can earn credits for participating in lab projects, which can be used to offset some of their elective course credits."
Director Wang nodded: "This is something we can discuss."
"Secondly, in provincial education informatization projects, priority will be given to purchasing technological achievements developed in laboratories. For example, if an optical mouse passes the acceptance test, it can be promoted in primary and secondary schools throughout the province."
Director Li glanced at Zhang Weimin, but the department head made no comment.
"Third," Ling Yun paused, "employment policy support. For students graduating from the lab who stay in Jiangsu to work, we hope to offer some preferential treatment in terms of residency, housing subsidies, and research start-up funding."
The meeting room fell silent again.
The cicadas chirped louder and louder from the sycamore trees outside the window.
Zhang Weimin stood up and walked to the window. He had his back to the conference room, looking out at the campus. After about two minutes, he turned around.
"Pilot programs are possible," he said, "but a few lines need to be clearly drawn."
Lingyun picked up the pen.
"First, the laboratory belongs to Nanjing University, not to Spark Technology's R&D department. The university should have full management control."
"agree."
"Second, the ownership of intellectual property rights must be clearly defined. Intellectual property rights with a school background belong to the school, intellectual property rights with a corporate background belong to the corporate, and intellectual property rights for jointly developed intellectual property rights are distributed according to the proportion of contribution."
"We have already drafted a draft agreement." Ni Guangnan took another document out of his briefcase.
"Third, students have freedom of employment. You can give them priority in hiring, but you cannot restrict them from going to other companies."
"That's natural."
Zhang Weimin walked back to his seat and sat down.
"Director Wang," he looked to his left, "what are Nanjing University's requirements?"
Director Wang adjusted his glasses.
"We need a detailed course syllabus, as well as a faculty arrangement for the laboratory. School teachers can provide part-time guidance, but companies must send resident engineers."
"Sure," Ling Yun said. "We plan to send three people to be stationed in Nanjing. One will focus on hardware, one on systems, and one on project coordination."
"What about the laboratory space?"
"The school provides the venue, and we are responsible for the decoration and equipment," Ling Yun said. "The decoration plan is already completed, and this is the rendering."
He then took out several more drawings. The laboratory had a modern style, with glass partitions, movable workstations, and whiteboards and monitors on the walls.
Director Wang looked at the blueprints, then at Zhang Weimin.
"I think it's worth a try," he said.
Zhang Weimin nodded. He looked at Director Li: "The Science and Technology Department should follow up and coordinate with relevant departments. I need to see the detailed implementation plan next month."
"Yes, Director."
The meeting is now adjourned.
As Ling Yun and Ni Guangnan were packing up the documents, Zhang Weimin walked to the door of the conference room and then stopped.
"Lingyun," he turned around, "when you met with the leader yesterday, you said that you would achieve full self-sufficiency in the entire industry chain within ten years."
"Yes."
"Let's start with the mouse," Zhang Weimin said. "Let's take it one step at a time."
He pushed open the door and left.
Director Wang and Section Chief Li also stood up one after the other. Director Wang walked up to Ling Yun and extended his hand.
"It's a pleasure working with you," he said.
"It's a pleasure working with you."
When shaking hands, Director Wang gripped the hand very tightly.
After everyone had left, Ni Guangnan sat down again. He slowly put the optical mouse back into his briefcase.
"We've successfully completed the first step," he said.
"Ninety-nine steps to go." Ling Yun looked out the window.