bookmarkrole Chapter 216 Joint Researchers
Chapter 216 Joint Researchers
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, administration building.
Recently, Dean Whitman has been riding high on success, looking radiant and full of energy, even walking with a brisk pace.
It's important to understand that this was an academic giant who held the dual roles of professor and dean...
For thirty years, he spun like a top between turbulent administrative struggles and profound academic research!
Logically speaking, he should have reached an age where he feels deeply exhausted and walks with difficulty.
However, at this moment, his steps toward the conference room were lighter than at any time in the past thirty years, as if he wanted to do a tap dance in the corridor.
"Clatter".
Whitman put down the still-steaming cup of black coffee in his hand, his sharp gaze sweeping over the professors around the round table before finally settling on the meeting documents.
That wasn't just any ordinary academic application; it was an official document bearing the official seal of the highest administrative authority of the Boston city government.
It's surreal to even think about.
I had only casually assigned that kid a small classroom project at first.
Who would have thought that the young man, without even blinking, would use just one algorithm to overturn Boston, a massive city with hundreds of years of history!
Today's top-level professor meeting, which brings together almost all the influential academic giants at MIT, has only one core topic: Su Hao.
It's important to understand that in MIT's illustrious history of over 160 years, even those geniuses who went on to win the Nobel Prize...
There has never been a precedent of an undergraduate student being directly "appointed" by a powerful local government as an official project researcher!
This is a complete miracle that shattered all the unspoken rules of academia!
"Ahem, Your Excellency Dean. I know this kid's achievements are astonishing."
An elderly professor, who had long controlled the allocation of departmental resources, frowned and cautiously offered his suggestion.
But rules are rules after all.
Why not just let him participate as an assistant researcher?
After all, he was just an undergraduate student and didn't even have the legal qualifications to bear responsibility for a major accident.
There's absolutely no need for us to make the school's administrative procedures so sensational and controversial.
The voice just fell.
"Bang!!!"
A loud bang suddenly erupted in the conference room!
All the professors felt their hearts skip a beat.
Dean Whitman's face turned ashen. He slammed his Montblanc pen on the conference table with such force that the nib flew off!
"Everyone! Please get this straight! Do you think this is just distributing leftover materials from the lab?!"
Whitman looked around as if she were an idiot.
"Is Mayor Patrick blind?!"
He was drawn to the phenomenal algorithm developed by Su Hao himself, which is why he rushed to submit a cooperation proposal to MIT!
And what do you guys do? Just because he doesn't have that worthless piece of paper—his degree—we only make him a lowly assistant, someone who serves tea and water?!
Whitman placed her hands on the table, looking down at the old professor.
"If we actually do that, it would be tantamount to announcing to the media across the United States and the world:"
The official body of MIT, a century-old prestigious university, is exploiting loopholes in its rules to steal the intellectual property of its own students!
"Do you guys think the school has too good a reputation?!"
The conference room fell into a deathly silence.
Several professors who had just been agreeing silently shifted their gaze to the ceiling.
Whitman withdrew her gaze, her tone softening slightly, but every word remained firm and resounding:
"I am well aware of the concerns and restrictions that you all have in mind."
So now, I'll take on the role of the villain, and I'll personally lend my name as the chief researcher.
I'll handle all the legal disputes and administrative troubles Su Hao faces. I'll take the blame, no matter what! But!
The old dean paused for a moment, then dropped the real bombshell of the day:
"I want to officially register Su Hao as a joint researcher for this project!"
Furthermore, let's hand over the lead research responsibility for this project to him! What do you all think?
"Pfft—cough cough cough! What is that?"
Several professors who were drinking water sprayed it out and coughed violently, clutching their chests.
"Making an undergraduate student who hasn't even graduated yet... a joint researcher?!"
"My God, this is an unprecedented violation of the rules!"
Those old fogies on the academic ethics committee would definitely have a stroke on the spot; they would absolutely refuse to approve it!
The professors couldn't hold back any longer, and the discussion erupted like a bustling marketplace.
They were all too aware of the terrifying academic privileges that the term "joint researcher" represented.
That's not just an empty title; it signifies immense authority and enviable resources and benefits.
Once you obtain this status, it not only means that you can get a generous salary that would make ordinary professors envious, but also special research funding;
Even more frightening is that the school must provide him with a private office.
Open up the computing power quota of the nation's top supercomputers;
Moreover, they can force their way into the queue to reserve those high-precision instruments in the entire department that cost millions of US dollars!
He even had the right to legitimately hire academic assistants and have doctoral students do his odd jobs!
This kind of treatment is usually something that even a postdoctoral researcher who has worked hard until he's bald would have to rack his brains and do everything he could to even get a glimpse of, such a supreme position!
But none of these are the most crucial reasons that made the professors breathless, their eyes red, and their hearts pounding.
The most fatal core lies in:
If Su Hao becomes a joint researcher, it means he will have the legal qualifications to share in the original equity of the project directly allocated by the Technology Licensing Office (TLO).
This is the lifeblood of real money!
"Quiet!"
Looking at the professors below in disarray, Whitman raised his hands again and coldly pressed them down, signaling everyone to shut up.
"Everyone talks about upholding academic rules, but deep down they're all scared off by that ridiculous empiricism!"
Drop your bureaucratic airs, gentlemen! We are MIT!
Let's not use a flippant "no precedent" to cruelly stifle the brilliance of a genius scholar who is changing the world!
What is the highest value that MIT has upheld since its founding?
It is the brilliant mind within the human brain, capable of penetrating the laws of the universe!
This kind of mind, capable of illuminating the world, should never, ever be defined by a laughable age or a thin diploma!
These words were so powerful and resounding that they sent chills down the spines of everyone present.