In order to prepare teaching materials for "Quantum Bits and Computers", Lin Zhixia searched online for relevant courses at top universities around the world.
Stanford, MIT, Princeton, UC Berkeley and many other world-class universities often publish class notes, homework and exam questions on their official websites. These schools offer a variety of courses related to "quantum computing", covering various quantum algorithms, simulations, communications and programming practices.
Lin Zhixia read ten lines at a glance and quickly scanned the teaching plans of various universities.
She carefully recalled the books and papers she had read before, and spent more than a month writing the lesson plan for "Quantum Bits and Computers", carefully designed weekly homework, and made a classroom PPT, marking all references.
In March 2016, Lin Zhixia's name was published on the national talent list, and the school also announced the "list of candidates for recruitment" and officially signed a special employment contract with Lin Zhixia. Lin Zhixia got the "deputy senior professional title", which is equivalent to an associate professor. However, this special employment contract has a time limit. Within five years, if Lin Zhixia's academic performance is not good, the school has the right to cancel her special treatment.
On the first day the contract took effect, Lin Zhixia logged into the school's official website with her "personal teacher account", submitted a "new course application", uploaded the electronic lesson plan and ppt file of "Quantum Bits and Computers", and waited for the review results of the Academic Affairs Department.
At the same time, the college is actively helping her prepare a research team.
A leader of the college suggested that Lin Zhixia start recruiting students this year because Lin Zhixia is the first author or independent author of more than a dozen SCI zone 1 articles, has special scientific research funds, and maintains close ties with several top foreign laboratories. Graduate students studying with her can benefit from various resources.
Lin Zhixia is very willing to recruit master's students.
As for PhD students…
According to Lin Zhixia's special employment contract, she is qualified to recruit doctoral students. However, she feels that she lacks experience and still needs to learn, and does not have the extra energy to train doctoral students for the time being.
In late March 2016, Lin Zhixia’s university held a “Master’s degree re-examination”.
In February this year, when the preliminary examination results were announced, many students contacted their tutors in advance.
Although Lin Zhixia is well-known, her teacher homepage was only updated in March this year, and no students came to her at all. In the end, it was the assistant to the department head who recommended a student to her - the student was named Zhan Rui, 24 years old, and graduated from a 985 science and technology university in Beijing.
Zhan Rui is a boy, less than 1.8 meters tall, with a delicate and fair complexion and a relatively introverted personality.
After graduating from college, Zhan Rui worked in Beijing for a year, resigned and returned home to take the postgraduate entrance examination. His score exceeded the preliminary examination line, but he never took the initiative to contact any tutor.
Why
Because he was born a stutterer.
He turned to the assistant to the dean and said hesitantly, "Interview tomorrow. Hello, teacher..."
Zhan Rui took a long time to finally finish his sentence.
Zhan Rui had just arrived in the provincial capital last night, and today he wanted to visit the department head to prepare for tomorrow's interview. The assistant to the department head had called him and seemed to be a little interested in his academic background.
However, at this moment, the assistant said, "Hello, Mr. Zhan, right? I remember you. I've read your resume. You have good grades and solid basic skills. Alas, our enrollment quota is full. You can go ask Professor Lin. Professor Lin Zhixia is a young professor specially appointed by the Interdisciplinary College. He has published a top conference paper on 'machine learning'. You majored in computer science in your undergraduate studies. You have something to talk to Professor Lin about."
Zhan Rui remembered the name "Lin Zhixia".
He always felt it sounded familiar.
Zhan Rui took out his mobile phone and searched for "Lin Zhixia" on the Internet. The search result shocked him - such a young teacher has such impressive scientific research results.
It happened to be a rainy day.
The sky was gloomy, dark clouds were rolling, slanting raindrops were drifting across the huge campus, and withered yellow and green leaves were scattered all over the ground in the cold wind. Zhan Rui sneezed, holding a stack of documents, looking around for Lin Zhixia's office, and finally found it in the office building of the "Frontier Interdisciplinary College".
Zhan Rui's short black hair was soaked by the rain, and a strand of hair stuck to his forehead. He wiped the water off with a tissue, and hurried to the second floor. He turned around like a headless fly, and suddenly heard a man's laughter: "Teacher Lin, I'm here to see you. I'm Teacher Tan."
Zhan Rui walked forward following the sound and happened to meet Tan Qianche.
Tan Qianche was wearing a suit today. He was tall, handsome, and had a good temperament, which attracted a lot of attention. He was standing at the door of Lin Zhixia's office, and Zhan Rui walked past him and greeted him politely: "Old, old, old..."
"What do you mean old?" Tan Qianche was amused by him, "We are still very young."
Zhan Rui hurriedly explained: "I, I stutter."
Tan Qianche looked him up and down and easily saw through his identity: "From your appearance, you must be a master's student this year. Do you want to find Teacher Lin? Good vision, you are Teacher Lin's first disciple."
The sound of rain outside the window is getting louder.
The rain was cold and long, flowing over the eaves and into the room.
Lin Zhixia closed the window, picked up a glass of purified water, and greeted them gently: "Please sit down. Would you like some drinks?"
Tan Qianche sat down without any hesitation.
Last September, Tan Qianche got a teaching position in the School of Physics. Now, he is not only Lin Zhixia's senior, but also Lin Zhixia's colleague in the same school. Hearing that Lin Zhixia was specially hired as a professor in the Interdisciplinary School, Tan Qianche specially picked a day and came to Lin Zhixia's office in person to congratulate her.
However, Lin Zhixia said to Tan Qianche, "What do you want to talk to me about? Next time, please send me an email to make an appointment. If you need to talk to me urgently, I may not be in the office."
Tan Qianche was just about to talk to Lin Zhixia about the construction of her quantum platform. From Lin Zhixia's tone, it seemed that she was not very welcoming to him. He was too lazy to make things boring, so he made up an excuse and left.
Before leaving, his cell phone rang several times. He answered the call and shouted, "Baby." He then said, "I'm busy today. Let's talk another day."
Lin Zhixia reminded him: "Senior, do you still remember what you said when you were lying in the hospital that year?"
He left a straight back and replied calmly: "It's all over."
Zhan Rui stared at him blankly for a while, and then heard Lin Zhixia say, "Hello, classmate, can I take a look at your resume?"
Zhan Rui came back to his senses and handed over his resume with both hands. He was three years older than Lin Zhixia, but he automatically assumed the role of a junior for no reason. He rubbed his fingers nervously, his hands were slightly damp with sweat, secretly hating himself for daring to come to the associate professor of the Interdisciplinary College without any preparation.
He seemed to be waiting for the verdict of fate.
The whole process actually only takes a few seconds.
Lin Zhixia put down her resume, thought carefully for a while, and then said, "I want to ask you a few questions, is that okay? I have paper and a pen here, you can write words and formulas on the paper."
Zhan Rui nodded and agreed: "Okay, okay."
This is how Zhan Rui’s interview began.