Awakening Elementary School System in University

Applause and cheers had been echoing through the hall for nearly a minute.

Director Feng Yunhai glanced at his watch. The time had already crept past three in the afternoon, long past the scheduled end of Professor Figali’s presentation. In fact, even the closing ceremony should have started a while ago.

He didn’t hesitate any longer. Striding quickly to the podium, he spoke into the still-live microphone, his voice both loud and apologetic. "Everyone! Everyone! Please, quiet down for a moment!"

"I know you’re all very excited right now—I am too! This is truly a rare, historic moment that we will all remember!"

Feng Yunhai’s voice, amplified by the speakers, clearly cut through the din. At his words, the wave of noise from the crowd gradually subsided, but the flushed, excited faces still betrayed everyone’s inner turmoil.

"However," Feng Yunhai said, a wry, helpless smile on his face, "the conference schedule must go on. I ask for your cooperation."

His words did indeed further quiet the commotion in the audience.

Feng Yunhai then changed his tone. "But before the closing ceremony officially begins, I think it’s necessary that we first invite Professor Qiu Chengtong to say a few words about the computational proof Chen Lin just presented!"

In the front row, Vice Minister Xie and Academician Liang Tianshi exchanged a glance, and both saw a hint of approval in the other’s eyes.

Feng Yunhai’s sense of timing was truly masterful.

For a breakthrough as earth-shattering as the one Chen Lin had just made, its significance and difficulty were still hard to grasp for the average person, or even for students with some foundational knowledge.

Having an absolute authority in the field immediately endorse the achievement would not only help the audience grasp its importance more intuitively, but it would also serve as excellent positive guidance for the subsequent media coverage.

The words had barely left his lips when a quick-thinking volunteer was already handing a microphone to Professor Qiu Chengtong in the front row.

The titan of the Chinese mathematics world was currently flushed with excitement, unable to conceal the heartfelt joy and exhilaration on his face.

He took the microphone, rose slowly to his feet, and began to speak, his voice full of vigor. "I don’t need to say much more about Chen Lin’s abilities."

The field in which he achieved his breakthrough today has, since the rise of large model technology, become one of the most populated research areas in all of applied mathematics.

"For a problem to persist as a bottleneck puzzling the entire industry under these circumstances shows just how high the research difficulty was!"

At this point, Professor Qiu Chengtong’s demeanor suddenly shifted. A meaningful smile appeared on his face. "However, when it comes to providing the most accurate evaluation of Chen Lin’s achievement today, I’m actually not the most suitable person."

He explained, "Although the core of Chen Lin’s research process today was Differential Geometry, the mathematical thinking, tools, and methods involved went far beyond that single field."

"I did a quick count, and it covers at least several other important areas, including convex analysis, Riemann geometry, and optimization theory. Therefore, I believe there are two people online who are more suitable to offer an evaluation than I am."

With that, Professor Qiu Chengtong handed the microphone back to the volunteer.

He didn’t even need to say anything more. Before he had even finished speaking, the on-site staff, understanding his intent, had already switched the large screen to the online conference interface.

The first person to appear on screen was none other than Professor Faltings, with his heavy German accent.

"Congratulations, Mr. Chen Lin!"

The old professor didn’t hold back his praise the moment he began to speak, his smile as radiant as a child’s. "You have produced a truly, truly remarkable result!"

He paused, a mischievous glint in his piercing blue eyes, and continued, "Moreover, not only did you solve a great problem today, but you have also very generously left numerous excellent research topics for the many scholars in our academic community."

As soon as he said this, it wasn’t just the confused members of the audience who were taken aback; even Chen Lin, who had just returned to his seat beside Shen Yan, was momentarily stunned.

’What does he mean?’

Chen Lin was a little bewildered.

By his own estimation, today’s proof had essentially taken his previous line of research to its absolute limit.

To achieve any further breakthroughs, he would have to do as he himself said at the end: start from scratch and explore a completely new algorithmic structure, one superior to existing neural networks.

’Why was Professor Faltings saying that I’d left behind many research topics?’

Professor Faltings had apparently anticipated everyone’s confusion. Without keeping them in suspense, he immediately explained with a smile, "In his computational proof just now, Mr. Chen Lin omitted a great many steps due to time constraints."

"As I see it, I can find at least three such places."

"And for any one of those three places, if someone were to completely fill in the omitted steps, it would be enough to publish a very valuable paper."

"HAHAHAHAHA—!"

The entire audience fell silent for a moment, then erupted into a wave of laughter and applause even more fervent than before!

It was only then that everyone realized Professor Faltings was using an extremely humorous method to reaffirm, from another angle, the astonishing value of Chen Lin’s computational achievement!