Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

Chapter 434: I’m Afraid You Don’t Need Supercomputers…

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

In the end, Lu Zhou still spent the money.

The reason wasn’t that he thought Professor Lazerson could make a lot of money. He did it as a favor for a friend.

Not to mention, since he took part in creating the He3 atom probe technology, he hoped that this technology would make an impact on the plasma physics field.

Lu Zhou told his manager at Star Sky Technology, White Sheridan, to sort out the specific financing plan and relevant contracts.

A few million dollars worth of investment wasn’t a big deal for Lu Zhou…

As the numbers of electric or hybrid cars that were on the roads increased, so would the size of Star Sky Technology’s bank account.

It was a wise decision to license the patent to Umicore. Other than the one-time payment that Lu Zhou received, according to White Sheridan’s battery market evaluation, Lu Zhou would also receive at least US$90 million in dividends from Umicore.

So far, he hadn’t thought of how to spend this money…

After an agreement was reached, Professor Lazerson thanked Lu Zhou again before he bade farewell.

“Goodbye, my friend, whether it is the past or present, it has always been a pleasure to work with you. You’ve contributed a lot to the He3 atom probe technology. We are certain this will be a great product. Maybe you don’t care how people think of the atom probe, but I will make sure this product will impact the field.”

Lu Zhou said, “Goodbye… If you go bankrupt someday, feel free to find me. Although I might not be able to make you a PPPL project supervisor again, I can at least provide you a place to do experiments.”

“My friend, are you really going to say goodbye like this?” Professor Lazerson patted Lu Zhou on the shoulder and laughed. He walked two steps backward toward the office door and said, “Rest assured, that day will never come. Then… Take care!”

Like this, Professor Lazerson left.

Before leaving, he told the PPPL research institute not to disband the He3 project team; the project team would continue as usual.

Fern Boucher, Professor Lazerson’s assistant, would be the new person in charge.

Fern had a PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and although he was only thirty years old, he had proven himself to be quite talented in the fields of engineering and plasma physics.

However, since this newly appointed engineer supervisor was currently doing an academic exchange at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany, Lu Zhou would have to wait a while before he could see him.

Speaking of which, a minor disturbance happened because of this.

At first, PPPL director Terrence Brog proposed to let Lu Zhou take on the role of the project supervisor.

Lu Zhou had to admit that it was an attractive proposal.

The PPPL was well known in the field of international plasma physics. If it was any other research institute, Lu Zhou wouldn’t have created the He3 atom probe technology in such a short amount of time.

The reason why Lu Zhou and Professor Lazerson could achieve success was that the PPPL was full of geniuses. If Lu Zhou could become the project supervisor, he would receive a huge amount of opportunities and resources. In fact, it would be much more than he could possibly imagine.

Lu Zhou thought about Professor Brog’s offer for a long time, but in the end, he euphemistically rejected Brog.

Although the PPPL was co-owned by Princeton University, most of its projects were conducted by the United States Department of Energy. Therefore, it wasn’t as “safe” as a private institute like Princeton.

If a foreign scholar became the leader of a government lead research project, it would inevitably lead to some unnecessary misunderstandings.

Regardless of why Professor Brog made the offer, Lu Zhou felt like he should only be a consultant for the project team, not the person in charge. This was to avoid potential political conflicts.

Although Lu Zhou might be overthinking, this was something he always paid great attention to…

…

It had been a week since Professor Lazerson resigned.

John von Neumann Center.

A group of staff members wearing white anti-static clothes were inside the supercomputer control room, working in front of their computers.

When Professor Green saw that Lu Zhou was standing there silently, he said, “I don’t know why, but I feel like you’re not feeling that good?”

Lu Zhou looked a little depressed as he sighed and said, “A week ago, one of my friends went away.”

Professor Green went silent for a while and sighed.

“Sorry.”

Lu Zhou coughed and said, “Don’t be sorry, I didn’t mean ‘went away’, I only meant he resigned.”

Professor Green: “…”

Why the fuck would you tell me that then?

Wasting my emotions…

A staff member wearing a white coat came over and reported the situation to Professor Green.

“The supercomputer is in good condition, we can start the experiment at any time.”

Green looked at Lu Zhou and asked, “Are you ready?”

Lu Zhou took a deep breath and tried to cheer up, “I am ready.”

Green nodded and looked at the staff member.

“… Let’s begin.”

The supercomputer began to operate.

John von Neumann was running on full performance; it was like a furnace that was slowly melting the mathematical model.

The stellarator’s circular orbit was simulated in the virtual world of 0s and 1s, hundreds of billions of plasma microfluids were being calculated.

Professor Green stared at the data on the screen and spoke in a serious tone.

“No offense, but your mathematical model is way too complicated! Even if we succeed, it would be difficult to implement this model into the stellarator’s control computer. The simulation alone is so difficult, don’t even think about inputting other variables into the system. Unless…”

Lu Zhou looked at Green and said, “Unless?”

“Unless it’s a quantum computer that can quickly process discrete logarithm operations.” Professor Green said in a joking manner, “Theoretically, the result you want isn’t something a massively parallel computer can handle. Only quantum computers can effectively process each superimposed component.”

However, quantum computers…

Honestly, they were just a concept.

Even the most advanced quantum computers had a computing power of ancient classical computers.

What exactly are ancient classical computers?

Middle school or high school information technology textbooks might have some pictures for reference. Those pictures would show thousands of vacuum tubes that occupied a room the size of a house.

Yep, that guy was called ENIAC.

The computer science field was still at least half a century away from commercializing quantum computing. As for the quantum computers that blew traditional computers out of the water… that was all science fiction.

Therefore, Professor Green said this in a joking tone.

Lu Zhou didn’t say anything; he only nodded his head and began to think.

“Okay.”