Super God-Level Top Student

Just as the Mathematics Research Institute began its examinations under the supervision of artificial intelligence, another meeting was taking place in the administrative building of the university.

The meeting was chaired by Zuo, the vice-chancellor in charge of research.

Although the secretary and chancellor did not make an appearance, they both had emphasized the importance of this meeting beforehand.

The attendance at the meeting included almost all the heads of the key laboratories within the university. If someone was absent, it was likely due to business trips, and their deputies in attendance were all influential figures within their respective units, which attested to the meeting's high profile.

Even though it was his first time leading a meeting since taking office, and several academicians were in attendance, Zuo Chengzheng did not show any signs of nervousness.

Unlike other vice-chancellors of the university, Zuo Chengzheng was transferred from a high government post. In fact, many of the attendees had met each other in Capital during various meetings and could be considered familiar faces.

"Alright, everyone is here, let's start the meeting. We all know each other, and I'm here to get things done, so I won't waste time with unnecessary talk. Everyone has a document in front of them. Take a look, and then we can discuss," said Zuo Chengzheng succinctly, then picked up his teacup and began sipping tea.

The others, too, had already picked up the prepared materials and started reading.

Soon, the meeting room was filled only with the sounds of sipping tea and turning pages.

Taking advantage of the moment when everyone else focused on the materials, Zuo Chengzheng quietly observed their expressions.

Some were pensive and silent, others' brows lifted with joy halfway through their reading, and of course, there were those who were earnestly poring over the content...

After ten minutes, noticing that most people had closed their documents and begun exchanging opinions, Zuo Chengzheng cleared his throat and said, "Ahem, okay, everyone should be finished now. If you have any comments, we can discuss them collectively. Let's not play games—do we want to take on this project? If so, how? If there are any concerns, you can bring them up now for a group discussion."

No sooner had he finished speaking than someone asked, "Vice-Chancellor Zuo, isn't this large-scale undersea unmanned cluster technology a bit too hasty? If we go ahead with this, does that mean our current project on large-scale underwater unmanned intelligent vehicles will be scrapped?"

Zuo Chengzheng looked up at the person who had asked the question.

It was Luo Benyuan, one of the leaders of the university's maritime engineering team.

Eight years ago, Huaxia's first 50-kilogram class underwater unmanned intelligent vehicle was designed and successfully developed by Luo's team.

This question was anticipated, and Zuo Chengzheng smiled slightly before explaining, "Professor Luo, you don't have to worry about that. The project plan that everyone has just seen is being considered for inclusion as a separate item in the national 863 Program, alongside the deep-sea submersible technology and equipment project.

The sub-projects within the overlapping areas between the deep-sea submersible technology and this new deep-sea cluster project will not merge, but there will be a sharing of technical information. In other words, the research findings from your team might indeed be used in the deep-sea cluster project, but they might also be rejected, depending on the decision of the lead designer of the project."

His explanation was clear: the funding for the team was for the moment safe.

But there were no fools present; they all understood that if their own underwater unmanned intelligent vehicle was not favored by the designers of the deep-sea cluster project, they would still need to design a new set of underwater unmanned vehicles for the cluster project, which would mean the sub-projects would overlap after all.

So, even if this project was not scrapped for the time being, it would still be in competition with the other project. It was highly likely that one would eventually be cut or repurposed. As for the already researched results, they would be entirely transferred to the other project. Read latest stories on My Virtual Library Empire

Research funding was finite; more for one side naturally meant less for the other.

Thus, after listening to Zuo Chengzheng's explanation, Luo Zhengyuan was not relieved but instead continued, "I understand, Vice-Chancellor Zuo. Firstly, I candidly admit that, indeed, there is a sense of advocating for our own project. But at the same time, I think my concerns are very valid.

I don't know who the chief designer of this undersea cluster system is, but this concept is undoubtedly too advanced. Multimodal information perception is also being worked on by Xilin University of Technology. The national key laboratory for airborne information perception and fusion in the Electronic Information School has similar projects.

However, to my knowledge, there are many problems, such as feature fusion, heterogeneous data alignment, inconsistent label noise, interpretability, etc., that are urgently needing solutions in airborne multimodal information perception. If we consider underwater conditions, which are even more extreme, the issues multiply.

Let's just consider the basics: underwater perception, navigation, and information transmission are all much more complicated than airborne ones. Not to mention requiring a power system capable of long standby times or anti-corrosion materials that can withstand prolonged sea water erosion, plus the fact that this is about clustering. So, is listing this project directly under the 863 Program being overly optimistic?"

Having patiently listened to Luo Benyuan's question, Zuo Chengzheng smiled and looked around before saying, "You've all heard Professor Luo's question. Does anyone want to help me respond to him?"

No one spoke up, nor did anyone raise their hand.

It wasn't that nobody wanted to engage in a debate with Luo Benyuan.@@novelbin@@

It was mainly because there was still too little information available at the moment, just a project proposal and the goals that needed to be achieved.

Who would be given the projects, or what qualifications would be needed for the applications, had not been mentioned yet, so naturally, no one wanted to enter into a debate with Luo Benyuan at this point.

Not to mention, Luo Benyuan's points were not without merit.