Chapter 980: Building a Company with Dreams

Looking at Professor Harold who seemed to be suddenly excited, Matthew was a little confused for a while.

In fact, the latter could vaguely feel that his boss's mentality was a little wrong in the past few days.

But as a student, it was not easy to ask directly what happened.

Including a few minutes ago, when he first entered the office, the other party still looked absent-minded.

As a result, less than 30 seconds after he turned around and left the office, Harold completely cleared the haze on his face.

"But professor..."

Matthew said with a difficult expression:

"This display board... is what you asked me to sort out from an academic report before?"

Harold raised his head and quickly recalled.

It seemed to be true.

After the report meeting at the end of last year fell through, he found Matthew and asked him to condense the report he had written into a display board to prepare for the subsequent energy and power industry conference.

But he didn't expect that due to the obstruction at the school level, even the latter thing was blown...

The teacher and the student stared at each other for half a second, and the scene was a little awkward for a while.

"Ahem--"

Harold coughed twice to cover up his embarrassment, and then put on an attitude of "everything is in my calculation":

"After all, the report was written half a year ago, and the content is a bit outdated."

"Before, considering that the space for the display board is limited, it is not easy to add anything to it, but this time the report time is 25-30 minutes, so we can put some of our recent new discoveries in it."

This time, Matthew also understood a little:

"So... is there a higher-level academic conference that invited our research group?"

He also instantly became energetic--

After all, just now, Harold specifically emphasized that the effect of reporting on the stage is the best.

Faced with this question, Harold was slightly stunned.

At this time, he did not realize the source of this "special invitation" and the corresponding value.

So he was a little worried that he could not take his students with him.

So, he turned his head and glanced at the computer screen.

Because it was not a formal invitation letter, it just asked about his wishes, so various details were not specified.

Fortunately, the official website of the Conference on Numerical Algorithms and Computational Science was attached.

Harold quickly clicked in.

"Well... it doesn't clearly say whether I can bring other people with me..."

He touched his slightly bald head while looking at the conference rules listed on the webpage:

"I'll ask the organizer when I reply, if possible..."

Harold wanted to say that if possible, I'll bring you along.

But halfway through his words, he suddenly saw another part of the content below -

Numerical Computing Competition.

Obviously, this conference is not just a conference.

There is even foreplay.

At this time, Harold vaguely remembered that he seemed to have seen news related to it a few months ago.

But he only had three masters and doctors under him, one of whom was a pure rookie in the first year of graduate school, and the competition time conflicted with the conference he was going to attend at the time, so he didn't take it seriously.

Looking back now, he almost picked up sesame seeds and lost watermelons.

"Matthew."

Harold waved to the side, signaling the other party to come closer:

"I think... you can sign up for this competition."

Matthew got close to the monitor and looked up and down:

"But it says that one group needs three people?"

"Does our research group have to go..."

Harold actually had an idea about this a long time ago:

"It only says that the contestants must represent the same school. You can bring Garcia and then find another friend."

Lucas Garcia, Matthew's junior, is currently struggling with whether he should continue to study for a doctorate or work directly after graduating from a master's degree.

From Harold's point of view, he naturally hopes that the other party can stay and continue his studies.

But as a mentor, he always has to let the other party see some thoughts of staying.

Now Harold's limited resources are piled on Matthew, so that the latter can barely avoid delaying graduation.

And the new project is even more distant.

In this case, later people are afraid to study for a doctorate, at least not in his place.

That is why Harold is eager to make a comeback.

"But it says that each institution can only have one representative team to participate in the finals... That means we need to compete with other opponents in the school first..."

The setbacks in the past two years since he started his doctoral studies have made Matthew habitually unconfident.

However, Harold sees this very clearly:

"Don't worry, Matthew."

He put on a confident look:

"The website says that the main scope of this year's competition is computational fluid dynamics."

"I dare not say about the situation in other schools in this regard, but in our school, no one will be better than our research group..."

This is definitely not Harold's nonsense.

Unlike most professors who started as lecturers, he spent the first twenty years of his career in a semi-commercial research institute.

It can even be said that if he had not been excluded due to differences in research directions, he would not have chosen to enter university at all.

This background caused Harold to lack strong connections in the academic circle, and it has also become one of the main shackles that have restricted his further development over the years.

But at the same time, it also allowed him to accumulate a lot of specific project experience.

As Harold's first disciple, Matthew naturally benefited a lot from it.

It was just that due to the lack of a control group and the fact that the research group had too few projects in recent years, the latter himself did not know.

However, not knowing is not knowing.

But looking at the determined expression on his mentor's face, Matthew hesitated for a few seconds and nodded.

"Then you go to contact people and form a team."

Harold slapped his thigh excitedly:

"I have sorted out some typical CFD projects I have done in the past, especially the CFD projects done with TORCH Multiphysics after 1998. You should study more during this period..."

"Although it is said that the participating teams do not have instructors, it does not say that reference materials cannot be provided..."

"..."

...

Naturally, Professor Harold was not the only one who noticed this numerical calculation competition.

In fact, many people acted much faster than him.

In fact, if Harold had not been so upset by the inhumane schools and peers, he would not have ignored the relevant news.

Torch Group began to promote the Numerical Algorithms and Computational Science Conference as early as the end of 2001.

Although this competition, as an "appetizer", cannot be said to be the top priority, it also occupies a very important share.

The first, second and third prizes plus various individual awards totaling $500,000 in prize money and the opportunity to get close to the bigwigs in the field of numerical computing.

Even industry giants such as Dassault, Airbus, Pratt & Whitney, Siemens, and General Electric will send high-level representatives to attend the conference.

If a contestant performs well in the competition, or is lucky enough to be directly noticed by a large company, it is basically equivalent to taking 10 years less detours.

For the professors and researchers attending the conference, these companies are also first-class super sponsors.

As for the travel expenses and accommodation expenses that need to be borne by themselves, they are simply not worth mentioning in comparison.

Some participants were worried about the venue of the conference.

After all, in many propaganda, China is a chaotic, backward place comparable to black Africa.

Of course, most people are still relatively rational.

Although they have no way of knowing the real situation in China, they are inevitably affected by some biased propaganda.

But logically speaking, a place that can give birth to a high-tech enterprise like Torch Group is unlikely to be chaotic, regardless of whether it is poor or not.

Therefore, for a while, air tickets to China at the end of March suddenly became very popular...

At the same time.

In addition to schools and research institutions, there is another group of people who are also keeping a close eye on this conference.

San Francisco, Stanford University.

In Professor Anthony Jameson's private reception room.

"These days, I have carefully studied the competition sponsored by Torch Group."

Jameson held a cup of strong coffee and leaned against a window sill:

"There is no mention of restrictions on computing tools and methods in the competition requirements. Perhaps... we can consider using this opportunity to expand the influence of COMSOL to the business world."

On the sofa not far from him, Klaus Hertz sat.

Head of COMSOL's American branch.

It is called the American branch, but it is actually responsible for contacting Professor Jameson's research group.

"You mean, find a few teams with a greater chance of winning the prize, sponsor them... or use other methods to let them use our computing tools to participate in the competition?"

Hertz was able to sit in this position, so he was naturally not a fool. He understood Jameson's meaning almost instantly.

"That's right."

Jameson nodded:

"Although I have relied on my personal connections to get some companies to include COMSOL in their software supplier lists over the years, as far as I know, even after the release of the latest version 2.5, the actual usage rate of our software is not very optimistic."

"Many commercial users are betting on both sides and buy the right to use all decent software on the market, but they still mainly use Torch Group's software in actual operations, even in the CFD field where we actually have an advantage..."

"From the user's perspective, they will definitely tend to seek stability and will not use projects for trial and error, so it is meaningless for us to just stay on verbal publicity. We need an opportunity to prove to them that there are better options than TORCH Multiphysics on the market!"

In fact, this is a very common phenomenon in the software field-

Faced with opponents who have already occupied the mainstream market share, latecomers will find it difficult to overcome the long-term usage habits even if they don't care about performance.

Even if they occupy a part of the market through off-site means, users often say one thing on the surface and another behind the scenes.

For example, Huaxia encountered the same problem in the process of promoting domestic operating systems.

At first, I installed dual systems on my computer.

Later, when it was no longer allowed, I just used my own computer for work.

Later, the external interfaces of office hardware were disabled, which was barely enough to control it.

However, things have changed, and now it is the Europeans' turn to have a headache.

After hearing this, Heltz nodded in agreement, but his expression was still a little hesitant:

"But that is someone else's home court after all..."

Jameson shrugged helplessly:

"There is no way. With the current situation of the entire industry, except for the Torch Group, it is difficult for others...including us to have enough appeal."

"But you don't have to worry too much."

At this point, he paused for a moment and drank the coffee in the cup:

"I am a special guest of this conference and have the right to supervise the entire competition process."

"Although playing at home will definitely have certain advantages, after all, it is in front of peers all over the world, and I don't think they dare to play too much..."