Algorithm system

Get computing resourcesAbout an hour later, Lin Yuan received an email reply from OCR.

They granted him the right to use two H100 GPUs, and the usage period was doubled to a full ten days.

Lin Yuan even had a feeling that they might have deliberately held back a little.

Because from the operation manual they provided, the layout was extremely standardized and professional, clearly indicating a mature technical team supporting it behind the scenes.

A team’s demeanor and strength can be seen from its technical documentation.

The operation manual document sent with the email was already indistinguishable from the documentation standards of first-tier large companies like Good Group. It even had clear document version update records, and the fonts and colors for different content were distinguished, along with a large number of detailed operational guidance images and text.

’This is even more formal than the layout of my graduation thesis.’

The market price for a single H100 should start at over 200,000. Giving Lin Yuan equipment worth over 400,000 to use for free for ten days wasn’t a big deal for an organization with resources. It was just that Lin Yuan was not yet famous and had empty pockets, so he was temporarily in a bind.

The computing resources of the other party were mounted on a Linux platform, which was also within Lin Yuan’s expectations. Given the continuous bugs of the Windows system and its closed-source, non-open system underlying code, Linux has always been the first choice for business servers for security reasons.

After Lin Yuan installed the certificate sent by the other party on his laptop, he successfully logged into the computing platform using the remote tool they provided.

Judging by the appearance of this login tool, it was most likely also based on SSH or similar remote encrypted login tools.

Next was the training data upload.

To save time, Lin Yuan chose to upload the data in multiple batches. This way, he could upload a portion first, allowing the computing platform to start training. Then, he could continue uploading while training was in progress.

Once he had the tools, what needed to be done was actually very simple: just wait for a round of training to yield results, then verify, fine-tune, train again, and re-verify. This process would repeat. When encountering problems, he would retrieve the current model, feed it back to the computing system, and let the system tackle the stuck node issues.

Then, the perfected model processed by the system would be re-imported back to OCR’s computing platform.

This cycle would also repeat until the first draft of the algorithm was formed and released.

—

That afternoon, Lin Yuan specifically went to congratulate his mentor.

Upon pushing open the office door, he found that Gu Xuan was also there.

”Lin Yuan, no internship today? Why do you have time to come over?” Since it was working hours, Lin Yuan assumed his mentor would definitely be at school, so he hadn’t made an appointment in advance. The main reason was that Lin Yuan wanted to tell his mentor: the ’pretending to be Yu Zecheng’ trick you suggested worked. But it was obviously not appropriate to talk about this on WeChat.

”Uh, I have something to discuss with you.”

”What is it?” Professor Zhang asked casually.

”It’s about the computing power.”

Lin Yuan merely mentioned it briefly, and Professor Zhang immediately understood. ”That, uh, okay. Please have a seat first.”

Lin Yuan then sat down on the sofa nearby.

Out of boredom, he listened to his mentor and Gu Xuan’s conversation.

”I still don’t recommend you consider publishing a paper right now, especially for the topic you’ve chosen; I think it can be further deliberated.”

From Professor Zhang’s cautious and reserved attitude, Lin Yuan clearly felt that his mentor did not approve of one of Gu Xuan’s decisions. But Lin Yuan had just arrived and was not clear about the whole story.

”First-year graduate students should still focus on theoretical studies. If you’re interested, doing some part-time work in your spare time to understand industry trends, I’d be very supportive. I can also recommend you to major internet companies.”

”Professor, I still want to pursue an academic path.”

”Gu Xuan, I certainly support your ambition. But no matter what path you take, you need to proceed step by step. And you shouldn’t resist interning at companies. Many renowned professors at foreign universities are also technical executives at large companies, some even CTOs.

University-enterprise collaboration, academia and application are not contradictory. Especially for students like you, shouldn’t your focus be on your future careers? Then it’s even more important to get in touch with companies early.”

Lin Yuan generally understood some of it; his mentor still adhered to an ’application-first’ strategy. He recalled the complaints his mentor had made during their chat last night; his mentor was clearly very resistant to working in isolation. After all, Einstein was a minority; most people were only suited to be engineers, not scientists.

So, Professor Zhang was also trying to persuade him to do good.

”Professor, as you know, I graduated from Zijin University’s Department of Mathematics, and I have confidence in my mathematical abilities. Please help me secure this project and let me try it.”

Secure a project? Lin Yuan was a bit confused. Gu Xuan also mentioned mathematical ability, which made him even more bewildered.

”Why do you insist on touching that project? I just told you so much, why do you still not understand?”

Lin Yuan realized he must have missed a lot of the previous conversation.

Professor Zhang’s tone was already a bit impatient; he took off his glasses and placed them on the table. The sound of the frames hitting the table was even a bit loud, as if the glasses had been thrown onto the table.

”Gu Xuan, tell me the truth. What is your real purpose in touching this project? As long as you say it openly, it’s not impossible for your professor to consider it for you.”

”Of course, it’s to improve my own academic ability.”

”Are you in such a hurry to publish a paper?”

”I...”

Gu Xuan seemed to have been hit where it hurt, and he was momentarily speechless.

After a moment of stalemate, Gu Xuan finally spoke, ”Professor, I can include Lin Yuan in the author list.”

”What?” Professor Zhang looked at Gu Xuan with a speechless expression.

Not only Professor Zhang, but Lin Yuan himself was also bewildered. ’Why drag me into this? What paper? What’s going on?’

”I can give him second authorship,” Gu Xuan continued.

”What does giving Lin Yuan second authorship of a paper have to do with you wanting to publish a paper?” Professor Zhang retorted, clearly not understanding what Gu Xuan was saying.

But Professor Zhang had, after all, been in the academic circle for decades, and he quickly reacted.

”Hmph, do you think I’m intentionally protecting Lin Yuan? Is this your way of showing goodwill to me?”

”No, no, Professor, that’s not what I meant.” Gu Xuan regretted being too blunt, but he genuinely believed that Lin Yuan and Professor Zhang had some hidden connection, because Lin Yuan’s treatment during the entrance interview was somewhat special. Of course, this was Gu Xuan’s own assumption.

Lin Yuan, on the other hand, was completely bewildered, lamenting that he had come at a truly inopportune time, accidentally stumbling into someone else’s conversation as an NPC.

Should he excuse himself? To avoid awkwardness later.

Just as Lin Yuan was tiptoeing towards the door...

”Lin Yuan, please sit and wait a moment.”

Alright, Lin Yuan had no choice but to obediently sit back on the sofa.

Professor Zhang then turned to Gu Xuan and said, ”Since you’ve already decided, as your professor, I will naturally do my best to help you achieve it. Don’t worry about this project, I will definitely help you secure it. I still have some influence in the department.”

”Okay, thank you, Professor.” Gu Xuan looked very pleased.

”You can go back first. I’ll notify you when there’s news.”

”Okay, then I’ll leave first.”

Before Gu Xuan left, he specifically said goodbye to Lin Yuan, but just as he was about to walk out the door, Professor Zhang’s voice rang out, ”You don’t need to put anyone as second author. Please close the door on your way out.”

Gu Xuan visibly hesitated for a moment, ”Okay.” Then, without changing his expression, he gently closed the door.

But in that brief moment of closing the door, Lin Yuan clearly saw the other party’s clouded expression.

’Ah, my fellow student, who is like a chameleon.’ Lin Yuan didn’t know where Gu Xuan got so much drama from.

However, Professor Zhang didn’t avoid Lin Yuan when talking to Gu Xuan. But when he turned to talk to Lin Yuan, he not only sent Gu Xuan away first but also specifically asked him to close the door. Especially the last part about closing the door, it had a somewhat sarcastic and warning tone.

Lin Yuan, meanwhile, was a bit baffled.